When I worked retail, people were always hesitant to buy beer as a gift—as if it wasn't special enough. Be advised, beer nerds always appreciate the gift of brew, and might not always splurge for themselves. But a bottle of mind-blowing beer can cost the same as a bottle of everyday red wine. This time of year, people will easily spend $50 on a single bottle of wine as a gift. For that price, you could buy all of these singular brews:
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Look for these beers and their friends anywhere with a large import selection, or visit Bottleworks, 1710 N. 45th St., Wallingford.
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Chateau Jiahu ($12 for 750 milliliters), from Dogfish Head, is the sexpot of beers, clad in a hot label. I put her up against a bevy of Belgian brews, then forgot their names. The Chateau Jiahu is high concept, to say the least: An archaeological chemist recently determined the contents of 9,000-year-old clay jars found in northern China, and Dogfish based its Neolithic recipe on those results, using barley malt, rice, honey, grapes, hawthorn fruit, and chrysanthemum flowers. Pleasing beer and mead freaks alike, this bottle is a hopless wonder of light honey, spice, and pretty fruit from the use of muscat grapes. It's creamy and rich but not cloying, and I didn't notice the 9 percent alcohol at all. I have always had a crush on Dogfish Head's strange brews. Balanced and highly drinkable, they're much more than gimmicks.
If I had to suggest one classic, it would be a cork-finished and gold-lettered bottle of Het Anker's Gouden Carolus "Grand Cru of the Emperor" ($11 for 750 milliliters). It smells like pumpernickel and fresh pralines, and this is a good thing. Belgian beers are known for their complexity, but the list of this beer's nuances hangs somewhere shy of War and Peace. As it warms in the glass, aromas and flavors of cocoa, fig, and coffee appear and disappear. Each sip is different from the last. Even a fine port doesn't give it up as good as this beer.
If you want ultraluxury, I'd suggest Bosteels' Deus "Brut des Flandres" ($27 for 750 milliliters). The Belgian brewers have taken a spa vacation to the Champagne region of France to give this beer the same cellar treatment as a bottle of bubbly. The resulting hybrid is a style known as bière de Champagne. The Brut des Flandres looks like a fancy bottle of the former, cork, wire cage, and all. It has a deep golden tone and smell of sweet fruit and biscuits, and pours like a glass of champagne, with streams of bubbles and a creamy, mousselike head. It takes a few sips for your brain to reconcile the two colliding messages—"beer" and "champagne"—but once it does, sit back and enjoy Deus' beauty and charm.
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