Mike Loves Beer

It’s that time of year again.  The cold weather is really rolling in (even here in South Florida where it’s 49 degrees at I write this).  The days are feeling shorter.  The shopping malls and plaza are packed with loony tunes trying to get the best deals possible on gizmos and gadgets.  And probably the biggest result of the season, people are drinking.

Whether they are doing it to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones or they are doing it to deal with loved ones we all are pretty much filling up glasses with adult beverages a little more in December.  And if you are a beer geek like me then there is plenty of great craft beer stocked up.

But tis the season to give right?  And what do you get for that special beer geek in your life.  Well considering everyone is different and some might have weird taste in certain things I could not even begin to hit down gift ideas for everyone.  But I can give you some starting pointers of some great presents to put under the tree this year.

Probably the single most important thing you need to enjoy great craft beer (after the beer itself of course) is glassware.  And not just any glassware but the right glassware.  And if you have a Total Wine and More near you they have started bringing in some nice glassware including glasses from Stone, Dogfish Head, Samuel Adams and Hofbrau.  But if you don’t have one of these super stores near by then I have found something just right.

Kegworks is offering the Classic Beer Glass Connoisseur Collection.  It is set of four different glasses including an imperial nonic pint glass, a Belgian style tulip, a tall wheat glass and pilsner glass.  The set also comes with a little journal to where they can record their thoughts about 33 different beers.  Theses are really the main glassware types that you need for being a beer geek.  Sure you can break down and get a bunch of other snifters and goblets but the tulip serves that purpose just fine.  With this set your friend can enjoy any number of fine brews in their proper glassware accompaniment.  For more details and to order check out the product on Kegwork’s website.

So you go some glasses but now you have to fill those up with some good suds for your beer geek.  What do you get them?  Well lucky for you Samuel Adams released something just in time for the holidays that every beer nerd will want.

Infinium is a collaboration brew that Boston Beer did with Weihenstephan out of Germany.  The idea was to create a brand new beer style but only use the four base ingredients for making beer; water, malted barley, hops, yeast.  And with the use of a champagne style of yeast Infinium was created.  This is a great once in a life time type of beer that your beer geek will love.  It should also be fairly easy to find at any local beer store that has good craft beer.  And at a retail price of between $18-$20 it won’t break your bank like Utopias.

Well maybe your beer geek in your life is a little more advanced in their love of great beer.  Maybe they even want to start brewing their own beer.  Well it’s pretty easy and cheap to get all the equipment you will need to start home brewing.

Over at Northern Brewer they have a number of different starter kits but I recommend the Better Basic Starter Kit as it gives you everything you need with an actual carboy as opposed to just 2 buckets from the base kit.  The only other things you will need is kettle, burner and the ingredients.  A stove top and kettle work just fine and NB has a number of recipe kits available on the site as well.  Just pick what you want to make and they will box together all the ingredients and mail them your way.

Speaking of mailing I bet you are thinking that’s a lot of equipment to send and it’s going to cost an arm and a leg to ship.  Well with Northern Brewer they have  a flat $7.99 shipping cost.  Yup you can get nearly anything from them (minus giant metal fermenters and such) shipped to your doorstep for just $7.99.

So there you have it.  Some great ideas for some gifts to get your loved one if they love themselves some good craft beers.  Happy holidays!

Name – Essence of Skank
Country – United States
Type – Cider

Appearance – Pours a purplish red color.  There was a small pink head but it was gone very quickly.

Smell – Cherries hit the nose first, probably blackcurrant as that is what is said was used but I’ve never had blackcurrant before.  Slight yeasty funk and you can smell the booze as well.

Taste – More cherry like taste that mixes with the funk from the nose and the alcohol.  It has a bit of a dry, crisp finish to it like a cider really should.

This monster of a cider is a home brew by my friends Vanessa and Brent.  I say it is a monster because it comes in around 7% ABV and this was after they cut it down from where it was at.  It definitely takes ciders to a new level.  It has the nice fruit flavor and the dryness that you expect but then a nice kick in the rear with the alcohol.  I know they didn’t intend for it to be so high but good job making something different guys.  Be sure to also check out Vanessa’s blog Potables + Edibles for awesome articles on food and drink (beer included).

Overall Grade – B

Last week I finally cracked open a bottle of my first home brew.  I kind of got myself convince that it was not going to turn out very well but I was pleasantly surprised.  The nose was very nice.  Nice citrus hops with a hint of pineapple to it.  The taste had a nice citrus hop and pineapple taste up front followed by some pine notes at the end.  It didn’t really have much malt backing to it but I’m told that’s difficult to get with extract brews.  There is a good bit of sediment in the bottom of the bottles and that is because of my lack of filtering it after the boil.  This is something I will do from now on.  But overall I was happy with it.  But does my opinion really count?  I went to masses (well sort of).

I had friends and family give some a try including a number of people at the Coffee District last night.  Almost everyone agreed that the nose is very nice.  Most even liked the hoppy flavors and little bit of bitterness that it gave.  Again they mentioned the lack of malt backing but hey it was my first go around.  So I was happy that some people enjoyed it and didn’t just spit it out.  Also glad there was no infection that I was afraid of.

A lot of people asked me if I was going to name it just for fun.  Before I tried it I said no because it had low hope on it but now that I know it turned out decent I decided why not.  So I give you the naming of my first home brew along with mock up label design

The name Lil’ Bitta comes from my reaction that it is a little bitter.  I then thought of the character Lil’ Brittle from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the name was created.  I decided to just take it another step forward and create a mock up label design just for fun.  Lil’ Bitta is from the streets and is bringing his hoppy goodness to the masses (again sort of).

But it was a great experience from beginning to end with this brew.  I am totally addicted and am planning my second brew day this Saturday when I will be brewing up a Black IPA.  I’ll be sure to write something (or as Lil’ Bitta would say, sumpin) up early next week.