I have been reading a lot about beer and home brew for my year of beer. I have been reading books, blogs and magazines and trying to absorb everything I can. Home brew and enjoying craft beer is one of those wonderful hobbies that has a large and passionate community behind it with many experts and enthusiasts willing to share everything that they know. It’s really a wonderful community and it has produced some really great books. I believe that any one of the books below would make a great gift for any home brewer or beer enthusiast.
Please take note that I did not include the Complete Joy of Homebrewing in this list but that is only because I singled that book out as an earlier gift idea. It’s the classic “starter” book for any home brewer and I felt it deserved special attention.
Tasting Beer
Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher
This is the book I am reading right now and it’s really great. I don’t think you can be a great home brewer without having an educated palette and a good understanding of what it is you are tasting when you try a beer. Randy Mosher is a legend in the home brew community and very active in the Home Brewers Association. This book goes into detail on the history of beer, what goes into beer, different styles of beer, different flavors, how to detect those flavors and what those flavors mean. This book is available at Amazon.
Brewing Classic Styles
Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer
I have been listening to the Brewing Network quite a bit lately, they have some great podcasts and some really impressive people involved with their network. Jamil and John are two of the people involved in the Brewing Network and their knowledge is overwhelming. Jamil is in a few of the shows and has one of his own about brewing clone beers. Brewing Classic Styles is described as a recipe book but it’s more that that, it includes tips and info on each style that the recipe is associated with. It’s a great resource and is available at a discounted price on Amazon.
Brew Like a Monk
Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus
Belgian beers, particularly Trappist style beer, is one of the most popular styles of beer among craft beer enthusiasts. This book goes into great detail on the history and style of Belgian beers. I haven’t purchased this book for myself yet so i can’t give you a detailed overview of it but it’s been recommended to me by a bunch of different people in the hobby. You can check it out at Amazon
Brewing up a Business
Brewing up a Business by Sam Calagione
Sam Calagione is the man behind Dogfish Head Brewery, one of the largest craft brewers in the country. He started out as a home brewer and created a growing and successful micro brewery that puts out a consistently great product. This book is the story of how he did it and what he went through. Check it out on Amazon
Please Note: This article is part of our Holiday series highlighting the top 12 gift ideas for beer enthusiasts and homebrewers. Read the original post to get the full list of beer gift ideas.
This is the longest I have gone since I launched this blog without posting! Believe me, I am still drinking, learning and enjoying every beer I can get my hands on but this month might just kill me. I am part owners in an Ecommerce business and we are selling an insane amount of product, we are up considerably from last year and couldn’t be happier but we are pushing ourselves and our employees to the max and I just haven’t had time to post.
Anyway, just wanted to remind everyone that I am still here and still involved in this awesome craft beer community. Just going to be posting a little less frequently this month.
Okay, I know gift certificates can be kind of boring but home brewing is one of those hobbies that can be tough to buy for. If you know what the person wants or you have a good feel for the type of beer they like to brew, you can get more specific. However, if you aren’t involved in the hobby and don’t know a lot about it, then a gift certificate may be a great alternative.
If the person you are buying the gift certificate for has a favorite local home brew store, than I would suggest going there first to see if they offer gift certificates. If they are like me and don’t have a store that is local to them, there are a lot of great online alternatives. Here are a few popular online stores that are well-stocked and offer gift certificates:
Please Note: This article is part of our Holiday series highlighting the top 12 gift ideas for beer enthusiasts and homebrewers. Read the original post to get the full list of beer gift ideas.
I got this beer in my second shipment from the Gourmet Microbrew Beer of the Month club. It was one of two Otter Creek beers, they sent me three Stovepipe Porters and three Pale Ales. They were the first beers I drank when I got my shipment except for the 2 I set aside to do my reviews. It was very hard to not drink the last one and wait until I had time to do this review.
Otter Creek Brewing Company has been making small batch craft beer since 1991. They are a family owned and operated company and are based in Middlebury Vermont.
The beer pours a very dark brown and in the light has some caramel coloring. I didn’t get a lot of head but what I got was a nice creamy tan color.
It has a really dark malty aroma with hints of chocolate. The aroma is not overpowering but it is nice and strong. It’s a very enjoyable smell.
The beer has a strong sweet malt flavor with chocolate undertones and a slightly bitter hop taste in the finish. It’s a very drinkable beer, it goes down easy with a nice mouthfeel.
This is another beer that my wife picked up for me when she was out in Pittsburgh. She got me several different beers from this brewery to try and I can’t wait to dive into them.
Founders Brewery is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan and has a great reputation for making quality ales and lagers.
The Founders Porter was black when I poured it and and had a decent head. The head stuck around for a good bit and there was some nice lacing. The head was a light brown color which looks great against the black beer.
It has a strong malt aroma with a nice chocolate and coffee smell. It’s a sweet aroma and quite pleasant.
It tastes rich but it is very smooth. It has a nice mouthfeel but it is on the thick side and comes across as syrupy. It’s actually the sort of mouthfeel you would expect from a good porter and adds to the experience in a positive way. The sweetness in the beer tastes a little bit like molasses. It develops a rather nice dryness after a second or two.
It goes down easily but I am not sure I would classify it as a session beer. I could certainly drink 3 or 4 of them without trouble but I really like porters. I am looking forward to trying the rest of the beers my wife got me from Founders Brewery.
My wife travels for work and I am a pretty lucky husband. She likes beer but not as much as I do. Despite that, she fully supports my Year of Beer and loves to help me in my quest. Whenever she travels she looks for places she can stop and buy beer for me and she usually scores. Last week she was out in Pittsburgh PA and on her way home she stopped at Brews Brothers. One of the beers she picked up for me was this Stone Vertical Epic 090909. She knew I wanted to try it and the only place I could find it was selling it by the case only and I didn’t want to drop $100+ on a beer I never tried.
Stone Brewing Company’s epic series is pretty interesting. Before I started this year of beer and really dove into craft beer I had never heard of Stone Brewing Company. For those that don’t know, they are one of the largest craft breweries in the country and produce some really fantastic beer. In February of 2002, they brewed and sold their first beer in their Vertical Epic series. It was released on 02/02/02. The next year, they released the second beer in the series on 03/03/03 and so on. It’s a really neat way to release an annual limited edition beer.
The beer pours a very dark brown with a light brown head. It had a pretty nice head that stuck around for awhile. The aroma is pleasant, it’s not super strong like you would expect with a beer like this but it’s not weak either. I am getting hints of chocolate, citrus, and raisin when I smell this beer.
The taste of the beer is very complex, I am getting all kinds of flavors and I can’t identify all of them. I can taste chocolate, spices, some citrus and even some banana. I can’t pick up what spices I am tasting but they are certainly there. The after taste is bitter but nice and sticks around for quite awhile.
The beer has a great mouthfeel, it’s a little thick but for the complexity of this beer it’s perfect.
