Homebrew Gift Guide
Gift ideas for your favorite fermenters to let them know you want more booze from them
3…. 2.… 1….
IT’S NOW THE HOLIDAY SEASON!!!!
Get the hell out of here Thanksgiving!
Alexa, play Christmas music!
Now playing:
To be honest, I’m actually a complete Scrooge and just convinced half of my family no purchased gifts because I hate this holiday. But at the same time, affiliate links are the only way I get any money out of this hobby, so let me pander to you and give the opinions of one homebrewer who has been doing this for too long that hates gear for gear sake, and tell you what is actually worth it.
Stocking stuffers (under $20)
This is my favorite category because they’re small, easy, and if anyone is gift adverse they have an easier time convincing themselves it - and they - aren’t a burden.
Beer or mead
Yes, it’s really that simple. Find a few bottles of something local, something odd, a special release, anything. Even the worst beer that someone gave me (spicy pickle sour) was at least worth a good laugh.
Find out what kind of drinks they prefer and buy them some. Don’t overthink it!
Some Books!
There are a ton of books out there on how to brew, and I know you’re not the brewer because this is a list for the people buying gifts for the brewer in your life. Thankfully for you, I compiled a list of what I think are the best books in the hobby.
A yeast plushy
This little guy is a yeast plushy from GIANTmicrobes and I love him. They also have other microbes, but the only other one that is relevant to brewing is lactobacillus if they like sour beer.
Bottle sanitizer
Of all of my pieces of gear, the Monster Cleaner and Sanitizer is the one that gets the most comments. Fill the basin with sanitizer and with a couple of pumps the inside of the bottles or carboys are sanitized. It’s so easy!
Some nice glasses
This is my favorite glass, the B Cup - Funk. It’s shapely, it’s the right size, but most importantly it’s plastic! So when (not if, when) I knock it over while cleaning or brewing, I only loose the liquid and not a glass as well.
Keg wrench
The KOMOS® Draft Multi Tool is perfectly designed to have your most common sized wrenches and hook sizes for your kegerator. I love mine!
The only problem I have is that the small wrench is a bit too big for my air and liquid couplers because it was designed for Duotight fittings, but for less than $10 it’s still a steal.
Bigger gifts ($50 and less)
Pull someone in the Secret Santa and want something a bit bigger? It’s okay, I’ve got you.
Local homebrew shop gift card
Support your local brick and mortar homebrew shop. These stores are struggling with the buy outs from the bigger guys and then having them close for consolidation. Notable example this past year was Northern Brewer (who is also Midwest Supplies and Austin Homebrew Supplies) who only 1 year after closing all their storefronts just moved from their operation down to South Carolina.
Meanwhile, your local shop is selling the same equipment with more personalized service, able to help you through problems, and connect you with local homebrew clubs and hosts their own events to help you boost your craft. Yes, they sell everything 5-10% more expensive than if you just bought it online, but the people and connections are worth it.
Also, noticing a pattern here? I make light of only making money through affiliate links and the first item in each category is “buy local.” Anyways, back to shilling.
Homebrew club membership fees
Those homebrew clubs I mentioned earlier, I’m a huge proponent of them. And I should be as the VP of my local one.
Every club operates a little different, but this past year the guest speakers we had to talk shop and give tips were Jim Cibak (head brewer at Revolution Brewing), the historian at Old World Wisconsin’s Brewing Experience Rob Novak to teach about historic brewing practices, the Mazer Cup (international mead competition) 2023 Best in Show winner Jason Rohloff give a talk on how to make your own mead, and many others. You will learn so much and get an inside track to homebrew judges that will happily sample and give quick notes on all of your concoctions (or not so happy if you bring in a durian mead like I did that one time).
Bonus points because they’ll stop bothering you with all their techno mumbo jumbo and can talk nerd with other nerds!
Unsure where to find them? This link is where you can do a search for local clubs.
American Homebrewers Association Membership
Being a member of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) has a bunch of benefits. First there is their massive catalog of award winning recipes from National Homebrew Con, their print magazine Zymurgy that is extremely informative and inspiring, the digital back catalog of their Zymurgy magazine, and local discounts at some Brewers Association breweries as well as some homebrew shops.
Some not so obvious benefits are supporting their lobbying effort. This is the team that worked on getting homebrewing legal in all 50 states! Because despite Jimmy Carter legalizing it at the national level, it still took over 20 years for every state to recognize it.
They also have a free book with membership until Dec 31st, this way you also have something for your giftee to open!
Specialty Honey
For the mead maker out there, nothing sounds like more fun than a new batch with a specialty honey. I suggest a minimum of 3 pounds of honey, but 5 pounds is better so you can make a sweet mead. The more popular honey varietals are orange blossom, clover, and wild flower, but if you can find other fruits (raspberry, blueberry, cranberry, coffee blossom) or meadowfoam (tastes like marshmallows) they will be extremely happy.
Kegland OxBar PET Kegs
I love these little plastic kegs. They’re light weight, about half the price of similarly sized steel ones, and because they’re see through you know how much you have left in them without playing the lift and guess game. Just keep them out of the light for fear of skunking.
Yakama Valley HOPBOX
The HOPBOX is an amazing collection of hops and swag from one of the best suppliers of these little, flavorful flowers: Yakama Valley. Be careful though, these boxes are packed to the gills and I canceled my year subscription halfway into it because I couldn’t keep up. So unless you know they’re a massive brewer, stick to just one box.
MoreBeer! Flash Brewing Kit
I just made the session pale ale Flash Brewing kit from MoreBeer! and it was a good time. During the entire process it felt a little wrong because it was too easy and made me nervous. But lo and behold, 2 weeks later and from the keg and it was pretty good; much better than the 10 minute brew day should have been.
Even if your person has a full, 20 gallon, three tier, all grain system, the novelty of this little beer is well worth it.
One good gift ($50-150ish)
Now we’re looking at the really big gifts, the ones that will turn heads.
A beginners kit
Has a your person not started to brew yet but keeps talking about it? Push them over the edge with a beginners kit! The Summer Harvest Fruit Wine kit for wine, mead and cider, or the Home Brewing Kit for beer. Both are good values and have everything you need for your first batch.
Tilt Hydrometer
I love my Tilt hydrometers. They don’t have a perfect read, but they are convienent and so fun to use! Sanitize them, drop them in your fermenter, and then you can track your fermentation via their app or if you’re like me and have a spare Raspbery Pi you can have that take automatically take readings every 5 minutes.
Mini kegs
I have this TMCRAFT Mini Keg and it’s great! 1 gallon, good connectors, weighted dip tube, great seal. My only qualm with it is that they use twist cartages which aren’t refillable.
If you want something a little more universal and still smaller format, these Torpedo Kegs are all ball lock and can hook into all the other kegging equipment they already have, or get them started on their kegging journey.
Money is no object
You want to really drop some cash on a great gift, well here you go!
PS: Can we also be friends?
A kegerator
Kegging is life changing. No more individual bottles, no more variable carbonation between glasses, just great stuff on hand when you want it. And if you are going to get your special someone a kegerator, Kegco is one of the better brands. I would also suggest a dual tap because while going from 0 to 1 tap is a big deal, going from 1 to 2 is really easy as a brewer, but tough and expensive when you need to redo half of your kegerator.
For a slightly cheaper option that’s more DIY, a fridge conversion kit to turn your garage fridge into a kegerator. Also be on the lookout for second hand systems.
All-in-one electric system
A warning before we start. If your special someone is perfectly happy with their current system, DON’T GET THIS!!! However, if they are in the market for an upgrade, this all-in-one system from Spike is the one I am eyeing up. 20 gallon so I can make 7 gallons of a really big beer, 240V so it takes no time to get my wort boiling, and as long as you’re spending money a pump to batch sparge and boost your efficiency.
If that’s a little too steep, I’ve used an Anvil Foundry before and liked it. But I’m planning to never do this upgrade again.
Did I miss anything? If so…