Holiday Gifts for the NH Beer Lover

Looking for the perfect gift for a Granite State beer lover? Here are nine* suggestions for excellent beer-related gifts with a local connection.

1- Tickets for Granite State Growler Tours will allow your favorite beer lover to check out some local brews with a designated driver and a knowledgeable tour guide.

2- Soap from Beveridge in Wolfeboro. It is made with beer -- how cool is that? You might consider "Liberte" (Earth Eagle Liberte) or "Alpine Garden" (Tuckerman Pale Ale).

3- A Growler Tote from Urban Quilter. These are made (by me) in Manchester, NH from grain bags emptied by local brewers.

4- A Swirly Fish bottle opener from 2ndChanceMetalArt. If this fish isn't your thing, there are some other cool designs as well from this Concord-based Etsy shop.

Bottle Opener from 2ndChanceMetalArt
(photo used with permission)

5- A long-sleeved thermal shirt from Great North Aleworks (it is cold in NH and the shirt has a great graphic on the front). You can also buy UQ Growler Totes here.

6- An Urban Quilter Grain Bag Tote which you can buy at Bert's Better Beers. While you are at Bert's, you can find tons of great local (and not-so-local) beer for gifts or for your own holiday celebrations.

UQ Grain Bag Tote -- one of several designs

7- For the beer-lover's best friend check out Gunther's Goodies. These dog treats are made here in NH from spent grains. You can get them online, at Bert's, or from many local breweries.

8- A White Birch Growler -- A growler from any local brewery would be a good gift, but I particularily love the graphics on the White Birch growlers. Did you know the white birch is NH's state tree?

9- A Smuttlabs graduated cylinder beer glass. Yes, most beer lovers already have more glasses than anyone could use in a lifetime, but this one is unique (and beer geeks love branded beer glasses anyway).

*Nine is the perfect number for NH lists because we were the 9th state.

Experiments with Grain Bags

I'm lucky enough to have friends who are professional brewers. This means I not only have access to great beer, I also have access to lots of empty grain bags. Recently I have been playing around with ideas for using these to create stuff. Grain (aka malted barley) used to make beer comes in 50lb. bags which are typically made of a woven plastic-y material and often have cool graphics printed on them. A commercial brewery empties a lot of these each time they make a batch of beer, so finding a way to use them seemed like a fun, green project.

I came up with a design for a small bag to carry growlers in.

I also figured out how to use an entire grain bag (of the kind that shreds when you cut it) to make a tote bag. (I used strips cut from a less temperamental bag to make the handles.)