Holiday gift ideas for the beer lover in your life
From beer stoppers to brewery swag: On the Coast's beer columnist Rebecca Whyman weighs in
'Tis the holiday season, whatever you celebrate, If you're thinking about giving the gift of beer, we've got you covered.
As she does every year at this time, On the Coast's beer columnist Rebecca Whyman is sharing ideas for those with beer lovers on their holiday season shopping list.
Here are some of her suggestions:
A trusty bottle stopper
"A bottle stopper, that can be used on any bottle, not just beer, to keep the carbonation in until you can finish it off. I did an experiment with one I had been given and it kept a half bomber bottle of beer carbonated for a month.
I don't suggest leaving beer, or any carbonated beverage, open that long. It was just an experiment to see how long I could push the beer saver. I got mine at Townsite Brewing but you have to go to the brewery to get yours."
Brewery Swag
"Check out your local breweries. Most of them have swag for sale. Some of them even have gift packs available. Steel & Oak has a gift pack that includes a gift card, pilsner glasses, a tuque and a beer for $75 at the tasting room in New Westminster.
33 Acres in Vancouver has customizable gift packs you can get at the brewery or order online at 33acresbrewing.com
Or you could visit your local private or government liquor store for a gift pack. Innis & Gunn has a $15.99 gift pack available at government liquor stores. It contains four different beers and a branded bottle opener.
For wearable beer-related art, A. Brown Designs has hop pendants, hop robot key-chains. Find her on Facebook at A.BrownDesigns."
Beer-related event tickets
"Early bird tickets for Vancouver Craft Beer Week's tasting festival, set for June 3, 4 and 5, 2016, go on sale as of today.Check out their website for more information and to purchase tickets: www.vancouvercraftbeerweek.com.
East Van Panto and Bomber beer: You can buy 20 per cent off tickets for the East Van Panto Hansel & Gretel, and enjoy the beer during the show. Visit Bomber's Facebook page to get the promo code to use for tickets. The show began its run on December 4th, so get on this one fast!!
And of course there are always brewery tours you can take people on. Vancouver Brewery Tours offers gift certificates and gift packs."
Online picks
"Zenthreads on Etsy has plenty of beer-related goodness: Hop-bine graphics on many items like baby onesies, scarves, tees, hoodies, tea towels and growler bags. In fact, if you do a search for "beer" on Etsy.com, you get pages and pages of handcrafted items from growlers to beer cap maps to artwork to clothing.
Thebrewheads.com has lots of beer-related clothing and accessories. I'm particularly taken with their all-wood Wayfarer sunglasses. Made from bamboo, the eyes are black, the arms natural with hopcones etched on them. $20 US.
Available on Amazon right now is a three-piece bottle-opener cutlery set. The stainless steel implements each have a bottle opener on the end. Stylish and functional! $35US."