Five gifts for the beer snob in your life

Comfort and Joy

If Americans are famous for their ingenuity, where’s my refrigerated Christmas stocking, suitable for a gift six-pack?

While that gift remains unavailable, a sleighload of hoppy holiday presents awaits the craft beer lover on your list. My top five for 2017:

1. Jonny Quirk’s Beer Adventures app launched late this year with a focus on Europe -- Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Rome, London and Quirk’s U.K. hometown, Manchester – and a few U.S. destinations, led by San Diego.

“That’s one of our most popular international cities,” Quirk said.

The app designs a beer tour itinerary on the fly. Just enter a location – Knotty Barrel downtown, say. After 45 minutes, your phone will ask if you want to move on to your next destination or stay for another round.

“This app will take you to amazing places for food and beer,” Quirk said. “I guarantee it.”

2. Neiman Marcus’ splurge-tastic Christmas Book – check out Dolce & Gabbana’s hand-painted refrigerator, $50,000 -- offers a range of options for homebrewers. BrewArt BeerDroid Beer Brewing Station ($835) can be run from your smart phone; the compact Pico Model C ($549) fits on a kitchen counter; while Pico Zymatic ($1,999) is a garage-filling brewhouse.

3. Curious about brewing, but reluctant to buy supplies and equipment? Start your homebrewing career with a party at Citizen Brewers, 5837 Mission Gorge Road, Suite A, San Diego. At this fully-stocked facility, you and up to five friends can brew and bottle a batch (72 22-ounce bottles, or one 50 liter keg) for $259 to $299.

4. Westvleteren XII is one of the world’s great beers, but the monks of Belgium’s Saint-Sixtus Abbey produce limited amounts. For decades, sampling this prized quadruple ale required transatlantic airfare, but no longer.

Beer of Belgium is one of several companies peddling this rare beer online, offering six 33-cl bottles (each 11 ounces and a splash) for $69. Add $53 for shipping and, gulp, a six-pack runs $121.50. If you’re still game, visit beerofbelgium.com.

5. In “Food on Tap” (Countryman Press, $24.95), Lori Rice pairs simple recipes with delicious beer. How about a dinner of pale ale marinara meatballs and a pint of Deschutes’ Mirror Pond Pale Ale, then a milk stout caramel tart with Belching Beaver’s Beavers Milk Stout?

Kings of Beer

Founders is famous for KBS, its boozy (11.8 percent alcohol by volume) imperial stout. But at a tasting of ales from this Michigan brewery, I was bowled over by the milder (6.5 percent), more subtle Porter.

Roasted coffee, dark chocolate and walnuts initially dominate, giving way to field-fresh hops and a dry finish. The body is in the Goldilocks zone — not thick, not thin, just right — with tightly-defined flavors.

In the 1700s, Britons and their American colonists drank porter by the hogshead. Still, in the mid-20th century the style was on life support. Founders Porter, this week’s King of Beer, reminds us of the treasure we almost lost.

To everything there is a season, and this dark beer suits late fall days better than our previous King, ChuckAlek’s Cranberry Orange Gose (5 percent). That tart, salty German wheat beer’s season will come again.

Ale-Right?

The Washington Post recently reported on alt-right attempts to enlist brands as their own. This unsolicited attention from neo-Nazis is unwelcome, insist the targeted companies, which included the nation’s oldest brewery.

“D. G. Yuengling & Son, Inc. does not support, condone, associate or tolerate any groups mentioned in the Washington Post article,” reads a statement from the Pottsville, Pa., brewery.

“As a company, our values support, and will continue to support, respect for all individuals, where people (will) be treated equally regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, and marital status.”

Did you know…

Originally a working class beer, porter was also embraced by the gentry. “The Oxford Companion to Beer” notes that “George Washington’s favorite porter was brewed by one Robert Hare of Philadelphia...”

Twitter: @peterroweut

peter.rowe@sduniontribune.com