A Brief Guide to Christmas Shopping for the Homebrewer

It’s getting to be that time of year again.  Tis the season for giant blow-up Santas, awkward family encounters, and grown adults pulling each other’s hair to get a deal on a TV.  Since Black Friday is a week from today (and Cyber Monday follows it), we decided to put out a list of a few homebrew-related gift ideas.  Whether you’re a brewer and don’t know what you want, or your favorite brewer has sent you this link a few times, hopefully we can assist in making this Christmas a very happy one indeed.  Also, just in case you haven’t been bulking up or doing wind sprints in preparation for Melee Shopping Day, we’ve embedded links to some of this stuff to allow you to do your shopping safely and with a beer in hand.

Homebrew Recipe: Red Ryder Christmas Ale

Red Ryder Christmas Ale

I got this crazy urge last year to brew a beer that tasted like Christmas. I was bringing kegs to my in-laws for Christmas vacation and I wanted something that was seasonally appropriate. This was my first attempt in what I expect to be an ongoing Christmas ale tradition. Many breweries make a Christmas time spiced winter warmer of some sort and they change up the spices a little each year. I envisioned this as being something similar.

Beer Tasting: Allagash Black

Allagash Black

7.5% ABV

Recently one of my local haunts hosted an Allagash tap takeover weekend.  I had limited experience with Allagash's beer, but knowing their reputation I had determined that I couldn't miss it.  Sure enough, the beer was phenomenal and led me on a hunt to basically buy any Allagash that I'd not had before.  I found this little guy, which played ever so nicely into the Belgian kick that I've been on recently.  

Hacksaw Hop Harvest Failure

I know I promised a post on the 2nd half of the Hacksaw Hop Harvest. However... due to my 2 week trip to Japan (future post on that coming) and a week of vacation in Palm Springs California - my hops reached peak picking! Unfortunately I wasn't there to pick them when they were ready and they proceeded to die on me.

Growler Fills: An Inner Turmoil

Draft beer is awesome. Draft beer to go is also awesome. Draft beer to go at the same price as draft beer to stay? Not so awesome. On the one hand, I love the enthusiasm for local and craft beer that comes along with the “growler movement”.  It has even allowed breweries with smaller setups to succeed and gain traction with a lower initial investment and little to no outside distribution. On the other hand, when you look at the ounce to ounce price comparison of beer at the grocery store and beer in a growler, you can’t help but scratch your head a bit.

Homebrew Recipe: Black Gold Imperial Stout

Black Gold Imperial Stout

Brewing Premise: I seem to get involved in lots of trades and swaps involving the exchange of beer for other goods and services. I've even traded homebrew for help replacing brake pads in the past –  but this particular beer was crafted to trade for some old homebrew equipment! A co-worker of mine used to be into homebrewing and has since had multiple children and taken up other hobbies. He still loves craft beer and a good homebrew so I asked him what he’d like in exchange for all his old equipment. He wanted an imperial stout that wasn't over the top on the alcohol. As a new All-Grain Brewer I couldn't wait to figure this one out. I only had a 5 gallon mash tun at the time so the recipe is tweaked a little to help me get the ABV up since my tun wasn't large enough to hold all the required grains.

Beer Tasting: Ommegang Valar Morghulis

Ommegang Valar Morghulis Dubbel

8% ABV

We often will put descriptors in front of the word "nerd" to delineate between a certain field and a complete lifestyle. One prime example, which fits well with this blog, is the "beer nerd". We've covered this fairly extensively, but what happens when you start combining specific types of nerd-dom? I'll tell you what happened to me. I've known about Ommegang's Game of Thrones themed beer series for a while now, but I've never had the pleasure of tasting any. So when I saw this one on the shelf, it was a collision of worlds and an utter no-brainer--it was coming home with me.