If you’re thinking about repping your love of a particular brewery, you’re probably thinking of a sticker on your laptop or water bottle, or maybe something like a t-shirt or a hat. Well, what if you could have something that’s a little more under-the-radar, and bring something along that was intrinsic to their brewing process?
For those not familiar with Original Grain, they’re producing watches out of a variety of woods. Wood watches were quite a trend a few years back, and they are an interesting experience. They are often lighter than anything you’ve worn before, and having those woodgrains right there on your wrist, well, that’s a type of organic warmth you just don’t get many other ways.
Wood is definitely the key here. So, how did Original Grain and New Belgium collaborate? Reclaimed wood from barrels, of course!
Each New Belgium Chrono is a true one-of-a-kind, handmade with reclaimed staves from the actual foeders used to ferment New Belgium’s Wood Cellar Reserve. The Wood Cellar is home to the oldest, continuous souring culture in the country, and these foeders – essentially massive wooden barrels made from French Oak – are the deciding factors in creating a superb sour ale.
This wood is paired with a black-toned metal, which works well, as there are plenty of dark notes in the wood they’ve used. For the hop-head, you might say it looks like any other wood watch. To ensure that you know it’s something special – and using wood from New Belgium’s process – you’ve got that instantly-recognizable bicycle logo on the lower part of the dial, and special engraving on the caseback.
For those not up on their watches, the Original Grain X New Belgium is a battery-powered quartz chronograph. That means you’ll have accuracy in what time is shown, as well as whatever you might want to time with the chronograph (say, how long it was, exactly, you were out at the taproom). Between the steel of the case and the sapphire crystal, this watch should stand up easily to a night out.
At $595 on the price tag, the Original Grain X New Belgium chronograph is not necessarily like the impulse buy you grab from the corner store when on the hunt for the latest Voodoo Ranger release. However, if you’re looking for something for a guy (or gal) who’s the biggest New Belgium fan you know, this is a rather unique route to go – particularly when the packaging on this limited-edition watch (only 500 pieces) can be turned into a leather 4-pack carrier originalgrain.com
Patrick is a big data developer and leader with a penchant for gadgets, books, watches and beverages. You can find his work on WristWatchReview, Knapsack.News, and Slushpile; you can find him on Twitter and Instagram as @PatrickWatches.
We’ve come up with some great gift ideas this year! We also tracked down discount codes for many of these gifts to save you some money. Happy holidays!
Shirts On Tap
Shirts on Tap is a box club for beer fans. Each month they team up with a local brewery, collaborate on a sweet custom shirt design, and then send it to their members with coupons, stickers, a brewery bio, and more!
You can choose one of seven craft beer cities, or have them surprise you with breweries from all over the country. We’ve been using Shirts on Tap for more than a year now and all the original shirt design have been fantastic! They have some really talented designers and they team up with some great breweries. You can use BEERSELFIE to get your first box for only $5!
YOpeners
We can say with great confidence that YOpeners are the most popular wooden bottle openers on the planet. The YOpener’s unique design allows a bottle to be opened without bending or marking the bottle cap in any way. Then there’s the YOpener’s integrated wax-cutter which makes easy work of those pesky, albeit beautiful, waxed bottles. The final YOpener feature is the rare earth magnet embedded within the YOpener itself which keeps the cap from falling to the floor and also allows the YOpener to be conveniently hung on the fridge for easy access. These wooden openers are handmade by Josh Miller and his dad. Josh is affected by Autism and Tourette’s syndrome and is visually impared. This father and son duo loves spending time in the garage making sawdust and memories together. Through the sales of YOpeners, they’ve been able to donate thousands of dollars to local charities supporting Autism and other causes.
While their flagship opener is made from bourbon barrels that once aged craft beers, there are other beautiful exotic hardwood options to choose from as well. Custom engraving your YOpener makes it an ideal and unique Christmas gift. Head on over to YOpeners.com to read more about how a father and son’s hobby led to a business, and order a YOpener – or a few – of your own today! Use BEERSELFIE for $2 off your order!
Chill Systems
Have you ever wanted to enjoy some ice cold drinks in the sunshine, but couldn’t be bothered to lug around a heavy cooler with you? Chill Systems products are for you. They’ve designed a revolutionary portable beverage refrigerator called The Chiller that gives you hours of cools drinks without the cooler and ice. It’s powered by freezing gel inside the walls – so just freeze it, load it with drinks, and hit the road. The Chiller will cool multiple rounds of beverages for up to 6 hours.
Need to Chill a little longer than that? Chill Systems also developed a line of insulated bags for the Chiller – The Chiller’s Pack backpack and The Chiller’s Tote. These bags will keep your Chiller cold up to 24 hours, plus they carry extra drinks and gear, among some other great features for day trips, picnics, and beach days. Check out their website to learn more, and use code BeerSelfie for 20% off your order!
Kegworks
Grab this gift set for your favorite beer geek on your list. Available for a limited time this holiday season, KegWorks’ Beer Lovers Gift Pack includes 6 fantastic beer gifts and comes packaged in a gift box ready to go under the tree. Featuring KegWorks’ exclusive 16 oz Beer Stein Can Grip designed to keep your hand warm and your beer cold. This gift set also includes Beer Socks in Lager Yellow, a beer tasting notebook, reusable silicone bottle caps, a KegWorks wood-handled bottle opener and the KegWorks’ original 12 oz Beer Stein Can Grip handle. Become an email subscriber at checkout to get 10% off your purchase!
The Brewpub Jerky team believes that beer drinkers deserve a better snacking option. Something with great flavor that doesn’t fill you up with a gazillion carbs.
Brewpub Jerky Original is the perfect complement to your beer. It brings a smoky, warm flavor and has just the right amount of kick to it.
Pass a bag of Brewpub Jerky around at your next party, or throw a bag or two into your favorite beer drinker’s stocking. And put down those pretzels already!
Enter code BEERSELFIE for 10% off your order (valid until December 20, 2019)
Barley & Hops Craft Candles
Barley & Hops hand-pours a libation of soy-blend candles that dare to push the aromatic boundaries you have come to know in the fragrance world. Every single candle and room + body spray fragrance they produce has been custom crafted by hand.
They’re dedicated to safety and quality, They are eco-friendly, dye-free, hemp-wicked, highly fragrant, and hand-poured.
You can use coupon code BEERSELFIE for 15% off your order (expires December 8, 2019)
Beer Lover’s Table
The growth in craft beer is a full-blown phenomenon that is also making waves in the culinary sphere. In The Beer Lover’s Table, food writer and beer expert Claire Bullen answers the question: how do you successfully pair craft beer with food? Inside, 65 inspiring recipes – from cast-iron skillet pizza to harissa roast chicken – are matched with a diverse range of craft beers to enjoy with your meal. Soon you will see beer as not just a prelude to a meal, but rather as a drink that can work as well as wine when partnered with food.
Drink Better Beer
If the beer lover in your life is already all set with glassware and brewery swag, how about giving the gift of knowledge this season instead? Joshua Bernstein, a journalist and veteran beer writer, is here to tap some beer wisdom on you. Featuring must-know insights from 100+ beer industry pros written in a fun and light-hearted way, Drink Better Beer is here to help you navigate the complicated landscape of craft beer, debunking commonly misunderstood myths. Learn more at joshuambernstein.com.
Tavour
Want to get something original and exciting for the beer lover in your life this holiday season? Say hello to Tavour, a company that focuses on bringing craft beer from all over the nation right to your doorstep. They deliver gift boxes containing a select variety from independent breweries that you cannot find in your local stores.
Tavour was created when its founders realized the lack of variety of craft beer in local stores and knew that there were so many more independent breweries out there to enjoy. They’re the only item to be included in all four of our holiday gift guides! We’ve ordered beer from other services and always come back to Tavour because they are the best. They have themed gift boxes or gift cards available.
Grainfather
If you really love the home brewer in your life you’ll get them the Grainfather. This electric, all in one, brewing system is the height of home brewing convenience. It can be used indoors; No need for burners or hot plates; just plug in and go; Heating from mash to boil takes as little as 20 minutes.
Use the Connect Control Box in conjunction with the Connect App and Grainfather Brewing Community for the ultimate brewing experience. Create your recipes on the Grainfather Brewing Community and then sync these recipes with the Connect app. The control box has Bluetooth connection to your mobile device and Grainfather Connect App so it can be controlled remotely. This allows you to multitask or simply relax while brewing and then be alerted when to return to your next step.
Beer Selfie
Last but not least we have our own Beer Selfie gear! There are shirts, tanks, and sweatshirts in our PopFever Creator’s Collection, and we have glassware, shirts, tanks, and stickers in the BeerSelfie.com Store. You can use BEER for 10% off in both stores.
Our newest addition is this gorgeous metallic gold stemless glass designed by CraftGraphics.beer:
We’re very excited for this new BeerSelfie.com glassware, designed by CraftGraphics.beer! They’ll begin shipping the first week of November, but for the rest of October you can pre-order your glass for 25% off.
This stemless glass will hold 17 ounces of your favorite beer and has metallic gold printing.
Can you believe we’ve done 10,000 posts on the @beerselfie Instagram?! Obviously we couldn’t have done it without our fantastic followers who tag us on their great photos. To say thanks we’ve teamed up with Pacific Brewery Systems to give away six prizes! Check out the giveaway Instagram post to find out how you can win:
When asked ‘what is my favorite beer book’ I had to take a pause, and for a brief moment felt slightly down on myself for not seeming more studious! You see, I believe everything I’ve learned about beer has come from listening, doing, drinking and brewing. Not to say I’m not a lover of books, because I have many! However, the books I collect are gorgeous eye candy for the food and beer lovers out there, and so much more! … Because they are cookbooks! I am excited to share a few of my favorites with you!
THE BEER PANTRY, cooking at the intersection of craft beer and great food by Adam Dulye and Michael Harlan Turkell. Exquisitely illustrated with upscale recipes that all incorporate beer. The best part is they have made a list of suggestions for each menu item of what beer style to pair with it … even down to the brewery name!
THE CRAFT BEER COOKBOOK and CRAFT BEER BITES COOKBOOK, two that I have in my collection from Jacquelyn Dodd. Let me just say that this delightful woman and chef really knows how to have a good time! Anything I’ve made from either of these books, that include beer, have been crowd pleasers! To see all her amazing food photography her IG is @thebeeroness and I promise you will drool!
By all means, don’t be fooled into thinking that I am an amazing cook!! I just really enjoy cookbooks, and have always been this way since a child. It’s not always about actually cooking for me, but the enjoyment of turning the pages of each beautiful image and making a list of what could be. Cheers!
Food On Tap Cooking With Craft Beer by Lori Rice – This is my favorite book because it includes two of the things I love; craft beer and food. This book takes it beyond pairing beers with dishes, it has amazing photography and recipes for dishes that are cooked with beer. Just to see how it all comes together is an awesome process. I also love that you, yourself can recreate these dishes and have some friends over and have your own beer dinner.
I’m not going to say mine, that would be lame. The first beer book I feel in love with is The Brewmasters Table by Garrett Oliver. He’s an absolute legend and the gold standard for beer writing. I also really enjoyed reading The Craft of Stone Brewing because I would read absolutely anything Randy Clemens wrote. And I firmly believe that The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth is a must own, he’s just so damn brilliant.
The Ontario Craft Beer Guide is an excellent survey of the Ontario Craft Beer scene (as of 2017 in the second edition of the book), with introductions to more than 200 breweries and 1000 beer reviews and tasting notes. Very accessible for the 90+ percentile of the market that is still unfamiliar with the craft beer scene: this book gets you familiar without any pretentious, snobby language. A fantastic reference, and an informative read.
We loved Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer! It was a huge help and jumping off point when we first waded into the sometimes intimidating waters of home brewing. We haven’t done any brewing since hitting the road, but it was awesome to get to try some of Jamil’s beer (@hereticbrewing) while touring California and even used it as a prop in our favorite beer selfie!
Books about beer, if only this would have been apart of English class maybe i would have been a scholar. Anyways I would have to say Business For Punks by James Watt Owner of Brewdog is a must read, and a book I always go back to. It has such a strong focus on the business of beer as well as business practices for any entrepreneur.
As a home brewer I’ve also spent hours doing my homework by reading Craft Beer for the People (and I’ve got the paper cuts to prove it). Again a Brewdog book bought to us by James Watt, Martin Dickie and Richard Taylor. CHEERS!
One of my favorite beer books is Beers of the World by David Kenning. When I first moved in with my fiancé, he always had this book on his coffee table and I spent a lot of time reading it. David Kenning covers all sorts of beers. From Canadian ones to Slovenian and New Zealand beers! He displays a picture of the bottle with the poured pint along with a background description of the beer, the Brewery, location, style, ABV, serving temperature, and food pairing. I have the book displayed on my dining room bookshelf along with my cooking and pastry books.
We’ve started a mailing list! Click the “BEER MAIL” link above to sign up. To kick things off we’re giving away a t-shirt or tank! Sign up for the mailing list before Friday (6/7) for a chance to win.
Emails to the mailing list will be rare and hopefully you’ll find them interesting. To give you an idea of what you’re in for we’ve included the content from our first email that we sent out last week below:
Welcome to Beer Mail!
This is the inaugural BeerSelfie mailing list email to update you on what we’re up to. Don’t worry, these will be rare, but there’s an unsubscribe link below if you aren’t interested in receiving another.
We’ve teamed up with Pop Fever to create some fun BeerSelfie and Craft Beer shirts! There are currently eight designs available in multiple styles of tshirts, tanks, and sweatshirts.
We love seeing these shirts pop up on Instagram! We’re not saying wearing a BeerSelfie shirt guarantees a @beerselfie repost, but we’re not not saying that.
We recently ran a poll to find out what you’d like to see on BeerSelfie.com and beer reviews received the most votes. We’re happy to oblige and up first is a review of Firestone Walker’s Rosalie from @brewsandbio.
We’ve teamed up with Pop Fever to create a Beer Selfie Creator Collection! We’ve created a bunch of Beer Selfie and craft beer t-shirts, tank tops, and sweatshirts in women’s and men’s styles.
