With Amazon Days, Black Friday, and the Holidays coming up very soon, figured it was time to put together a guide to the best gifts for a homebrewer in 2020! Whether you’re looking for your friend or family member who is a homebrewer or simply looking to treat yourself, this guide will include fun gifts for both the beginner as well as advanced homebrewer!
This gift guide will include affiliate links to Amazon. Meaning that if you click the links and make a purchase, I will get a small portion of those proceeds. I greatly appreciate you spending the time on my website, and these proceeds will help to keep articles coming!
Stocking Stuffers/Inexpensive Gifts (under $20)
We’ll start things off with cheaper gifts that will still go to great use!
Wort Aerator/Mash Recirculator– this is a very small piece of equipment that can make a big difference in two ways! First, when a brewer is extracting sugars from the grain, a step called the ‘mash’, this plastic piece can be attached to hosing to spray the liquid over the whole grain bed easily. Second, when transferring wort (the liquid that will become beer after fermentation) into the fermentor, this piece can again be attached to hosing to spray the beer causing an increase in oxygen content. This oxygen keeps the yeast happy and healthy in the beginning stages of fermentation!
FermCap-S– another gift that has two very helpful uses. The first is that during the boil (a necessary step in both all-grain and extract brewing), it helps to prevent boilovers. If you are a homebrewer or live with a homebrewer, you probably have heard about or seen the unfortunate sticky mess that follows a boilover. Second, during the fermentation step of brewing, it helps to reduce krausen (foam made during fermentation) development. This, again, can help to prevent messes! The brewer in your life will thank you for this small gift!
Custom Bottle Opener– the first of a couple custom gifts on this list. When you get down to it, a bottle opener may be one of the most important tools in any beer drinker’s life. Why not remind this person in your life just how special they are each time they go to crack a cold one open?
Instant-Read Thermometer– there are several steps in the brewing process that a instant-read thermometer comes in handy, and is sometimes absolutely necessary. Never hurts to have a small, quick-read thermometer on hand.
Custom Glass– not many homebrewers are going to want to drink their homebrew straight out of the bottle. Many homebrewers start out by bottle conditioning, meaning that there is still yeast left at the bottom of the bottle. This combined with the fact that you can’t get the full experience with aromatics while drinking out of a bottle means that the homebrewer in your life definitely needs a custom glass to enjoy their tasty beverage out of! I will link to a pilsner-style glass, but there are tulip-style and your classic pint glass that your homebrewer will undoubtedly enjoy!
Bottle Rinser/Sanitizer– I didn’t have this piece of equipment until fairly recently in my brewing expedition. However, it has made a world of difference in shortening the duration of my bottling days. You simply fill this bottle rinser full of sanitized water and push the bottles down on the nozzle to sanitize them quickly!
Sanitizer– this may be the lamest gift on this list; however, it may just be the one that your brewer thanks you for the most. Sanitizer is used in a variety of steps during the brewing process, and it is always helpful to have more than enough on hand!
Medium Expense Gifts ($20-$60)
Brewing Books– maybe not quite as interesting as a gift, but trust me, no tool has made me a better brewer than the books I have read.
My two favorite books for the beginner brewer are How to Brew by John Palmer and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian.
If you are looking for more advanced selections, the Practical Guide series on Hops, Malt, Water, and Yeast have tons of great information in them.
Another series for the more advanced brewer is the Classic Beer Style Series of books, there are full books dedicated to in-depth reviews of styles ranging from Wheat Beers to Oktoberfests.
Bottle Drying Rack– I prefer these FastRack bottle drying racks far over a bottle tree. They feel much sturdier when loaded with bottles, and I like that no piece of the equipment is going inside of the bottle that I just worked so hard to clean and sanitize.
Refractometer– a refractometer is a tool that is used to measure the amount of sugar contained in the wort or beer. It is similar to a glass hydrometer in that its measures are used to calculate how strong the finished beer is (i.e. the ABV value). The benefit that a refractometer has is that you only need a couple drops of the beer to obtain a measurement vs. several ounces with a hydrometer. Refractometers are also much hardier than a glass hydrometer.
Custom Beer Tap Handle– If your brewer owns a kegerator/keezer, they would be sure to love a custom tap handle! Or perhaps, a custom tap handle would be all that they need to decide to build their own keezer (chest freezer turned kegerator).
Heavy-Duty Thermometer– this thermometer would be a step-up from something similar to the quick-read type discussed above. There are a variety of styles thermometers, but I have been impressed by the quality that comes out of Thermoworks. This thermometer is the one that I have been using with success for a number of years, I like that it can attach to the side of my kettle and I don’t have to worry about any potential damage.
Temperature Controller– a temperature controller is used to regulate the temperature of a fermentor, fridge, or chest freezer to the perfect fermentation or serving temperature for your beer. Inkbird is one of the best known brands for making quality temperature controllers that are reasonably priced. They do also make a product that you can control via WiFi!
Expensive Homebrew Gifts ($60+)
The time has come to show the brewer in your life how much you really love them, here are some gifts on the more expensive side!
Brewing Kit– this is the type of kit that I would recommend purchasing for someone interested in brewing that doesn’t have any equipment yet. It has everything you need to get started, and even includes ingredients for the first brew day!
If you are interested in a complete list of brewing supplies that I recommend for the beginner brewer, please click here.
Tilt Wireless Thermometer and Hydrometer– normally, to be able to monitor how fermentation is progressing, a brewer has to take samples of beer from the fermentor to test it. The Tilt product takes this sampling process out of the equation. This hydrometer simply floats in your fermenting beer and gives you both temperature and specific gravity readings right to your phone wirelessly!
The Tilt hydrometer/thermometer also comes in a variety of colors!
pH Meter– a pH meter is an essential piece of equipment when all-grain brewing, especially when getting into kettle souring. The pH of the mash (when hot water is added to grain) is very important to dial in correctly, as this can make a large difference with how much sugar is extracted from the grain. I will link to a higher end pH meter that will not fail your favorite brewer!
Immersion Chiller– an immersion chiller is used to cool the wort (unfermented beer) down after the boil step has completed. Cold water is run through the immersion chiller which is placed in the kettle full of hot wort. An immersion chiller can get the temperature down to a safe range for the yeast much quicker than a traditional ‘ice bath’ can.
Carbonated Growler– instead of your classic glass growler, which needs to be consumed very quickly, this carbonated growler can carbonate your beer and keep it carbonated! It uses the small CO2 cartridges that can be purchased very inexpensively. Super convenient!
Electric Kettle– electric brewing is becoming more and more popular recently, and for good reason! With the small footprint of most of the electric kettles, brewing equipment takes up much less space in your house. Without the use of gas, it is much easier to brew inside your house. Kettle souring is a breeze in the electric kettles. Have I convinced you yet? There are a number of electric kettles on the market these days, ranging from $200 all the way up to over $2000. I will link to the reasonably priced, Mash and Boil, which does have a built-in recirculating pump.
Beer Fridge/Fermentation Chamber– who doesn’t need another beer fridge in their life? Pair this fridge will an Inkbird Temperature Controller as discussed above, and your brewer has themselves a perfect fermentation chamber! The temperature of the beer when fermenting is extremely important, especially when brewing lagers. Whether they’re fermenting beers or simply just keeping some cold ones chilled, your brewer will love this gift!
Kegerator– save the best for last? At some point in every homebrewer’s journey, they want to start kegging. Kegging saves you a great deal of time vs bottling. It is also super convenient to have any amount of beer that you want at a time instead of opening ‘x’ amount of bottles.
The problem? You need to have a way to store and serve from these kegs. It’s time for a kegerator! Again there are a variety of options to choose from, but I will link to a quality option from Kegco.
Thank you very much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this gift guide, and I hope you and the brewer in your life have a wonderful holiday season!
If you are interested in learning how to brew, look no further than my how-to section!