Christmas Beer Gift Guide 2013

Brewery swag and glassware are always a good gift in my book.

 

can't go wrong with actual beer

 

I think a collection of the popular, fairly easy-to-find Belgian beers would make a classy gift. Maybe some Belgian chocolates to with the beer too. Awesome!

 

Do these things maintain standard cellar temperature? I was looking all over the website and wasn't able to find any info on this. If not, is the temperature of the beers inside dictated by the temperature of the room the beers are in? I hope this makes sense.

 

Aesthetically nice, but how do they compare to standard wine boxes? Seems like a lot of money for basically the same thing.

 

This:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151735577390846&set=pcb.10151735579330846&type=1&theater

 

It depends on who is doing the purchasing. I wouldn't want to put someone that doesn't know their way around all of the craft beer to hunt something down for me. So, gift cards to liquor stores would be good, but at the end of the day, that is just money. Some breweries put together decent Christmas sets, so maybe one of those (like St. Bernadus). Possibly a review journal, if they do that. I was thinking of getting my dad an Allagash cribbage board, more for the cribbage board than for it being Allagash. Also, not many places offer sweet cribbage boards, let alone breweries.

 

Tulip glasses if you don't have any. I'm asking for a monster mill or crankandstein mill for Christmas... yeah, buddy.

 

Pretty much all I've asked for for Christmas so far is beers. Bruery stuff, Cantillon anything, a trip to Hill Farmstead…

 

Trip to a family member's favorite brewery

 

My gf went around to liquor stores in texas asking for west-let-vern. Adorable.
It is doable to have non-beer people buy good beer as a gift for you, but you have to give them some giant clues or straight up names, possibly with correct spelling and pronunciation noted.
Researching a store's inventory beforehand can be helpful.

 

Flights are cool if one does not have them, perhaps personalized as well. If they are a homebrewer, any ingredients/kits are nice too.

 

By "researching a store's inventory" do you mean calling them or going there in person? Because very few sites here in MD use beermenus or keep an online inventory on their site (if you mean either of these). That is pretty funny by the way.

 

I dropped a subtle hint this year and told my mom to get me a stocking that was big enough to hold a bottle of Lou Pepe.

 

I meant online if they have it.
If they don't, I guess I'd suggest going in person if you want to put in that time.
I wouldn't suggest calling and asking if they have rare beer A through Z, that would drive an employee mad.

I think a lot of BAs shop often enough that they'll know the general stock of a store (minus new releases), and there's nothing wrong with asking for a 6er/bomber of your favorite shelf turd (specify and explain fresh to non beer geeks for hoppy beers). I gave my brother a normal Unibroue box set last year (we do smaller gifts), and he had never had Unibroue. He really liked it and it made him more interested in beer, huge success.