What do you buy a beer lover for Christmas, other than beer?
1. The late Michael Jackson’s new book, the Eyewitness Guide to Beer — probably an update of his 1998 Dorling Kindersley book Ultimate Beer, but looks interesting anyway.
2. Some glassware. You can pick up branded Fuller’s glasses for around £4 in most of their pubs. Many supermarkets are selling gift sets with branded glasses from Shepherd Neame Spitfire, Old Speckled Hen and other well-known brands. Or, you can go posh — here’s a selection online. I like the look of these but could also do with one of these to drink imperial stout from.
3. A homebrewing kit. There are some basic, gimmicky automatic brewing machines, which look like fun. Or, you can buy a decent beginners kit from these people and pay less for it. But don’t forget to get a decent book to go with it.
4. More homebrewing stuff. If your loved one is already brewing, why not help them take it to the next level with some fancy kit like a
5. There are all kinds of “pub at home” kits and accessories, from the cheap and cheerful to the ludicrously elaborate and expensive. If you don’t fancy having any of that in the house, what about the shed…?
6. Some rare and, erm, beautiful breweriana from Ebay might go down well. Not sure I’d want a load of old bottle tops for Christmas myself, but who knows what evil lurks in the minds of men.
7. What about the ludicrously named World’s Best Bottle Opener? Or even a nice traditional one. You can never have too many. Like umbrellas, they have a habit of disappearing. Just don’t buy a Homer Simpson novelty bottle opener. Believe me, the novelty of hearing “mmmmm, beer” wears off after, ooh, two bottles or so.
8. What about some food to accompany beer, or a combination of the two? O’Hanlon’s port stout and stilton; almost anything Belgian with some chocolate; or some pork scratchings…
9. CAMRA membership!
10. 
Good gifts are increasingly popular. If there’s too much junk in your house anyway, and you don’t want to encourage your loved ones to get fat and drunk, why not buy a brewery in Tanzania on their behalf?
11. And finally, if you are going to buy beer — and, let’s face it, it’s probably your best bet — choose them with a theme such as strong stouts, Christmas beers, German beers, or whatever, and package them nicely.
8 replies on “Christmas gifts for beer lovers”
Alternatively you could take advantage of BrewDog’s personalised beer service over at brandedbeer.com. They’re offering a £5 discount on a case of 12 to readers of my own blog – see here for details: Brew Dog for Christmas – Special Offer
The Eyewitness guide to beer is pretty good , I bought it yesterday. It is different to his past books in that in this one he is the editor and he has let beer writers around the world cover thier own regions.
Kieran — that sounds like quite a good format. In fact, it would be nice to have a regular magazine along those lines that isn’t quite so tied into the the industry as that Beers of the World effort.
Stonch — fair point but, er, spam…?
Not in the least – I’m just point out a way to get £5 off a good beer gift from a good brewer, entirely relevant to your article. I’m not on commission, if that’s what you’re thinking.
If there’s one thing I dislike more than spam, it’s unfair accusations of spam…you could have just deleted the comment if you felt so put out.
I didn’t feel put out! Just mucking about. As you say, if I was really bothered, I’d have deleted it. Don’t make me start using so-called “smileys”…
No, don’t use smileys! When someone puts a “;-)” at the end of a comment it’s a sure sign it WAS meant to wind the other person up, but they’re trying to disqualify you from having any come back! Underhand tactics indeed. A bit like when some prefaces an incredibly insulting comments with “I’m not being funny, but…” or “No offence, but”
😉
🙂
🙁
:o)
I think the on set of your northern winter is making you all tetchy, all these grumpy little exchanges going down on the UK blogs and forums, chill out, have a beer.