Home brewers can consider this 5 gallon whiskey barrel ($120) from Balconies Distilling in Waco, Texas. Whiskeys were aged for a minimum of 6 months in each barrel. You’ll have the benefit of not over-oaking your beer and it’s also reusable multiple times. Enough said.
We all know what food items are on the Thanksgiving menu every year, but the beverages? That’s one area where the host has some freedom. This year, treat the family to homemade beer courtesy this Handcrafted HopBox Brewing Kit ($139). It doesn’t take up too much room, it looks gorgeous with those blue bottles, and it provides you with everything you need to take the holiday table by storm, including 25 recipes.
Could making gin be your new hobby? Well it beats crocheting, stamp collecting, and taxidermy, but let’s examine this further. Gintry & Co.’s handcrafted gin pack ($45) gives you everything you need to create your batch gin. You get a 2o oz. tin containing Gintry’s secret blend of organic herbs and spices; 4″ stainless steel funnel with stainless steel filter insert; 12″ x 12″ grade 960 unbleached cheesecloth; 750 ml American-made classic gin bottle; labels; instructions and more. And ‘bootlegger’ doesn’t crush ‘gamer’ when you’re asked about your hobbies, no?
So you live in the city, yet you’ve always yearned for the coolest thing to come out of the sticks: moonshine. Don’t ruin your access to public transportation, first-fun films, and solid dining options by moving to the country; just pick up the Kings County Distillery Guide to Urban Moonshining (Kindle $12, hardcover $16). Penned by the founders of Kings County Distillery, New York City’s first distillery since Prohibition, this 224-page book explores America’s age-old love affair with whiskey and offers a detailed, easy-to-follow guide to safe home distilling, complete with a list of supplies, step-by-step instructions, and helpful pictures, anecdotes, and tips.
Camping out on your couch on football-filled Sunday afternoons doesn’t require much effort, and that’s the we like it. But what if you had the crazy notion of making your own beer for the game? Would you need to get that plan going days ahead of time to have it ready by kickoff? Probably. That’s what makes the PicoBrew Zymatic ($3,000) so enticing. It turns the art of home brewing into a process that takes only a few hours. Just fill the filter box with grain and hops, add water, pick your beer recipe, and then go watch the game. By the 4th quarter you’ll be ready to add the yeast, allow it to ferment, and then bring in the carbonation. It’s really the only kind of do-it-yourself project anyone should tackle on a Sunday.
If you’re serious about entering the world of homebrewing, and yet you’d like a 21st century edge to the whole process, Brewbot (1,500 euros) has the answer. Developed by a team of inventors out of Northern Ireland (where they might know a thing or two about beer), Brewbot combines all of the vats, tanks, and machinery you need into one unit, then lets you manage it all via your smartphone. Just launch any of the recipes via the app, mix in the ingredients, and prepare to consume about five gallons of beer per batch. When the feelings return to your body, one of them will surely be a deep feeling of accomplishment.
Liquor stores are great places to find wrinkly old men who are full of stories about Joe DiMaggio, but not so much for reasonably priced booze. Spare yourself the yarns about how great John Wayne was and make your own honey wine at home with this Homemade Mead Kit ($60). You get a one-gallon fermentation jug with metal lid, hydrometer, temperature strip, siphoning tube, and plenty of yeast to create five one-gallon jugs of the good stuff.
Hate snakes? Yeah, you and Indy both. But in terms of finances, expertise, and skills with a whip, he has you beat–bad. So leave the archaeological digs to the professor and explore something you know much more about: booze. Absinthe Explore Kits ($32+) are composed of three or six 50ml test tube tasters, with each set giving you a unique way to sample the famous French liquor. Instead of an ark that melts people’s faces off, each kit instead comes with sugar cubes and an absinthe spoon. Much safer.
