The Champagne of Blogs

Holy shit, it’s the 14th of December! There are less than two weeks before Christmas/Hannunkah! We should have written this post weeks ago (apparently we were too busy twittering to look at the calendar)!

We bet there are a few folks out there with an uncrossed name on their list, and in the interest of helping your holiday productivity, we present our top quick-shipping picks for the beer/bacon-lover on your list this year:

Vintage Beer Commercials on DVD

Ahh, the 1950s. Every day we wish we could hop in our time machine and thank them for the magic they gave us: White Bread, Well-Defined Gender Roles, and of course, the Swilly Beer Monopoly. We can’t taste all the beers that the American Lager machine put out of business in the last 50 years, but we can at least watch their commercials, thanks to some obsessive compulsive AV club nerd.

$14.95. Order by December 17th at: BeerBooks.com

Rogue/Vosges Beer & Bacon & Chocolate Gift Pack

While we haven’t been Rogue’s biggest fans of late (join our Facebook petition!), we do admire some of their beers, and we love chocolate. And bacon. Oddly enough, this gift pack covers all three bases with an included bottle of Rogue’s Shakespeare Stout and a bacon chocolate bar. No, really. There’s delicious bacon IN the chocolate. Try it, you’ll like it. We did.

$42.00. Available at: Vosges.com

Vintage Beer Posters

It’s a dilemma. You love the look of vintage beer posters but you’re not a Guinness fan. We wouldn’t know, we actually like Guinness, but hey, it’s the holidays, and who are we to judge? Plaster your walls with a selection of nearly 100 non-Guinness beer posters dating from the 1900s to 1950s.

$22.95. Order by December 17th at: BeerBooks.com

40 Cozy

There are so many beer accessories out there … What can you get the beer lover who has everything? This year, we want you to think maltier. Think liquor-ier. Think malt liquor-ier. Enter the 40 Cozy, a very classy neoprene sleeve that keeps your hands warm while you’re chilling. It also keeps your “beer” cold while you drink it. We think this would be an especially great gift for the Edward 40 Hands afficianado in your life.

$8.99. Available at: 40cozy.com

Imbibe Magazine Subscription

In the interest of full disclosure, we should probably tell you that we know the Circulation Manager of this magazine. In fact, we taught her to homebrew. But our conflict of interest shouldn’t stop you from subscribing to this magazine dedicated to “Liquid Culture.” They cover beer, wine, spirits, coffee and tea in nearly equal parts, which we think is actually kind of nice. You see (and I know this is going to sound sacrilegious), life is about more than just beer. We drink coffee every day. And who doesn’t like a little scotch to close out the night? Get some perspective, and some bang-up reporting, from Imbibe.

$20.00 for 1-year Subscription. Available at: ImbibeMag.com

Good Beer Guide to the West Coast

This is the book we wish we’d written. Two British CAMRA members, Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham, compiled what is easily the best collection of Portland beer knowledge I’ve ever seen, and expanded the book to include the ENTIRE WEST COAST, including sections on Alaska, and even a section on the eerie beer wasteland that is Las Vegas. Essential for any West Coast beer trips.

$18.45. Available at: Amazon.com

Michael Jackson’s Great Beers of Belgium

Belgium is awesome. I mean, they serve Duvel on the trains. You can have the world’s greatest beer AND smoke a cigarette, in a monastery. They get it. You know who else gets it? Michael Jackson. Sure, he died in 2007, but his books live on, and Great Beers of Belgium, re-issued post-humously, deserves to be on your beery bookshelf. Each page is a revelation, be it an amazing photograph, lively personal narrative, or informative tidbit. I read about beer quite a bit. Other authors seem to be rewording the same factoids from book to book … I’ve learned more new things from 100 pages of this book than almost any other. Highly recommended.

$24.39. Available at: Amazon.com

Beervana Documentary

Portland is pretty awesome, too. We’ve got more breweries in our city limits than any other in the world (Suck it, Munich!). It might be the water. It could be the perfect hop-growing conditions that exist in the Willamette Valley. Whatever the cause, brewing’s been a big deal in Portland for more than 100 years, all of which are documented in this great, locally-produced documentary.

$19.95. Available at: OPB.org

Bacon Diagram T-Shirt

You didn’t think you would get through a BS Brewing post without a second bacon reference, did you? Until we get our “cuts of pork” tattoo, this t-shirt will have to do, serving two delicious purposes: educating the unwashed masses about where our favorite food comes from, and establishing us as bacon enthusiasts. We do find it ironic that the makers would choose an American Apparel fitted t-shirt as the canvas for a fatty meat-themed shirt.

$20. Available at: BaconShirts.com