Beer Gifts

I have posted beer gift ideas twice before, here and here.  The list from two years ago holds up pretty well.  This year, to make it even simpler, I narrowed the list to two essential items for the beer drinker:  A blank, flip-top growler or a gift card from a brewery. 

In California, to fill a growler of beer to go, most breweries accept either their labeled growlers or unlabeled growlers.  I have been to some breweries that will only fill flip-top growlers.  Apparently, the screw tops don't keep beer fresh long enough.  (For some reason I don't seem to have this problem with my screw top growler.)  I recommend a generic 64 oz stainless steel flip-top growler, which can be filled and refilled at multiple breweries.  Skip the urge to buy a 32 oz growler, a jug this small is kind of pointless. 

A gift card from a brewery is beer cash.  Not much more to say about a brewery gift card other than do not be stingy.

Last year I broke my cardinal rule about not gifting beer and sent a family member some fresh IPAs.  On a visit, I noticed the once-fresh IPAs languishing in the fridge eight months later.  This year the family member is getting a lovely holiday pillow.