Throughout December I posted The Beer Drinker’s Holiday Gift Guide Parts 1 & 2, focusing on books, novelty items, and big ticket presents. With Christmas mere days away Part 3 is going to focus on those last minute gifts that you grab on the way to a Christmas Party, your family’s house, or as you step out to ‘run an errand’ Christmas Eve. So ladies and gents, when you’re pressed for time and all out of ideas the best present for a beer drinker what do you buy? Beer of course! But, the question remains, what beer?
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A couple of weeks ago I posted The Beer Drinker’s Holiday Gift Guide Part 1, breaking down the best books to buy the hop-head in your life. With Christmas fast approaching, I figured it best to post part two in order to avoid this becoming a Valentines Day gift guide. In this part, I break down a couple of big ticket items as well as a couple of cheaper, yet still well thought-out gifts.
Organization Membership: Often beer lovers wish to explore their passion, yet they lack a group of like minded-people to share experiences with. With that in mind, I feel one of the best gifts you can give to a beer lover is a membership to a local beer club, group, or organization. Locally, we have CAMRA Vancouver; abroad there are many other organizations such as the Craft Brewers Association, and CAMRA UK.
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Every year people around the world struggle to find gifts for friends and family come the holiday season. In the past, my trick was to figure out their hobby and then research useful items that pertain to that passion. However, this is a dangerous way to go as you could end up buying them something completely useless despite its relation to their hobby. I know I have my share of gifts I grinned and thanked someone for, then thought to myself ‘what the heck am I going to do with this?’ With that in mind, I have set out to provide the loved ones of us craft beer fans a holiday gift guide. Each item was researched with care, taking the input of many craft beer fans to help make this as universal as possible. Without any further delay, the beer drinker’s holiday gift guide 2009 part 1:
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Finding a Utility Glass
Over the years, debate has raged on regarding what type of glass beer is best served in. Many beer lovers will tell you that every beer style has its own corresponding glass that it should only be drank out of. Although this is often the case, the logistics of being able to do this are not exactly practical. Obviously, during these rough economic times not everyone is interested in spending hundreds of dollars on their glassware. Dimple mugs, imperial pints, American pints, steins, weizens, yard glasses – on and on the investment in a proper beer bar never seems to end. With this in mind, I have set out to find the ideal ‘utility glass’ one can purchase in order to have the best experience from as many beers as possible. Here is what I have found to be the best all around beer glass and how I found it…
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A few weeks ago, I posted about attending Beer School at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. Instead of weekly updates, I have opted to do a midterm update as well as a postmortem in order to give you my impressions of the course. Seeing as we are at the half way point of the course, I’d better get summarizing. (note – if you like the beer school homework book you can buy one here)
Class 1 – Basics, History, and Tasting
In the first class we got right down to it by covering the basics of beer, followed by the history, and then tasting techniques. Beer basics should be just that for anyone who actively reads truecask.com – basics. The differences between lagers and ales, what countries are known for what styles, and various other facts and figures mark the bulk of the information. History, of course, covers the first known beer recipes dating back to early Babylonian times, all the way up to the modern North American craft beer revolution. Finally, we got to tasting techniques. Of course when one learns how to taste beer they must, you know, taste beer. Clearly this was the reward at the end of our information rainbow, and becomes a recurring theme in the weeks to come.
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There is only one more day to sign up for Vancouver’s first ever beer tasting course. The course, offered by the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, is an excellent step in the process of becoming a Cicerone. What is a Cicerone? Have a look at this description from their website:
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Previously, I posted about pint sizes in British Columbia. Although this is a major issue for beer drinkers here, we’re not the only people who are getting ripped off when it comes to the size of our pints. Many people have been trying to solve this problem. Of the solutions I have seen so far, some are successful, others… not so much.
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