Holiday spirits aren’t restricted to wine or Champagne. A good beer can be just as special, but finding the right one to give as a gift can be challenging.
While there’s nothing wrong with buying a six-pack of your recipient’s favorite, if you really want to make an impact, get them something they can’t (or wouldn’t) get themselves. (One good place to start is Tavour.) Or, alternatively, give them something that can make their beers more interesting and entertaining.
Need a few suggestions to get you started? Here are a few of our favorite beers, along with some beer-adjacent gift ideas for people whose beer fridge is already a bit full.
Samuel Adams Utopias
One of the most sought-after beers in the craft beer world, this barrel-aged mix of flavors weighs in at a whopping 28% ABV and goes on sale only once every two years. This year’s batch is going to be a bit different than its predecessors. The beer is always made from a variety of barrel aged, cask-conditioned beers. Some have been aging for nearly 30 years. Some for 15, and some for a year or so. This year’s Utopias, though, was finished on 2,000 pounds of cherries, bringing a slight sweetness and tartness to the beer.
It’s pricey ($240 per bottle), but it’s a special occasion beer that will last a long time, as you drink it just one ounce at a time.
Weldwerks Double Barrel Medianoche
Weldwerks’ Medianoche is one of the most celebrated stouts on the market these days. Add barrel aging to that, and the praise gets even louder. This new variant, though, is in a league of its own. Aged for a total of 23 months in barrels, the rye stout base starts in five-year MGP high-rye bourbon barrels for 15 months, then finishes in freshly emptied French cognac casks for another eight. The result is an explosion of flavors, ranging from chocolate to cinnamon to salted caramel. It’s a beer they’ll remember fondly long, long after they’ve finished it. And if you’re lucky, they’ll share it with you.
Bunny With a Chainsaw
Admit it. That beer name made you pause, didn’t it? Paperback Brewing Co., which opened earlier this year, easily has some of the most attention-grabbing names in the industry, including Nude Peach, Satan Wears Pajamas, and Road Rage! on the 405. Fortunately, the beers are just as creative and exciting.
Honestly, any of the IPAs from this hop-focused brewer is worth a try. Brewmaster David “Zambo” Szamborski is a six-time Great American Beer Festival medalist and former head brewer at 21st Amendment. Paperback was scheduled to open last year, but days before its grand opening, the pandemic shut the country down. It was finally able to welcome people this year and has quickly been making a name for itself. If you can get a mix of this brewer’s beers for your East Coast friends, you’ll earn style points for being ahead of the curve.
Firestone Walker 2021 Parabola
Typically, this annual Russian stout is aged solely in bourbon barrels, and that’s been plenty. This year, though, Firestone Walker took things up a few notches, splitting the beer in thirds and aging it in bourbon, rye whiskey, and wheated whiskey barrels, adding a much deeper layer of complexity. You’ll get the usual chocolate and espresso notes, but you’ll also taste the rye along with a hint of black pepper. It’s terrific this year, but if you’re buying for a beer lover with patience, urge them to stick this into storage for a few years, when it will be something even more spectacular.
If your recipient is a super fan of Firestone Walker’s beers, consider getting them a membership in the Brewmaster’s Collective, where they’ll receive a shipment of five rare, barrel aged, and collaboration beers every other month, along with other benefits. The cost for that premium gift is $575.
Goose Island Bourbon County Reserve Blanton’s Stout
The 2021 lineup of Bourbon County stouts is easily the best the brewer has ever put out, with eight total varietals. But the Reserve Blanton’s is in a class unto itself. The base stout was barreled in Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon barrels for 18 months, resulting in a silky, smooth beer that’s incredibly complex. You’ll taste the bourbon but won’t get heat. And you’ll pick up chocolate, cherry, vanilla, and tobacco, among other flavors. At $33, it’s more than you’re used to paying for a single bottle—and it will go quickly when it goes on sale on Black Friday—but it’s worth the search.
Beermkr
There are a lot of home brewing kits that simplify the process, but do so at the expense of the beer’s quality. Beermkr, at $579, is a breakthrough device that not only makes beer making painless, it also generates some terrific tasting beverages. It’s friendly to newbie brewers and experienced veterans who want to dabble in small-batch experiments. And you can either buy packages with everything you need for a variety of styles (from stout to IPA to hefeweizen to seasonal offerings) or get ingredients from your local brew store and follow your own recipe.
It’s not a quiet machine, so you’ll want to find a hidden (and preferably soundproof) part of the house for it, but if you can look past that, you’ll quickly become bit by the brewing bug.
Craft Beer Flight Beverage Sampler Set
Half the fun of going to a craft brewery is sampling all the different beers that they’ve made. But when you’re at home with friends, everyone generally has their own can, bottle or glass. These sets of four tasters let you re-create the taproom experience and let everyone try a variety of options. They’re especially handy if you brew your own beers and want to do offer a sampling. At $59, they’re a bit pricey, but they come with a convenient carrying stand that makes it easy to serve the tasters, and a chalk pencil to let you label each beer.
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