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The 32 Best Beer Gifts, Including Editor-Tested Favorites

Our list includes curated snack baskets, coolers, glassware, and lots more.

By
Jason Horn
Jason Horn
Jason Horn
With a culinary degree and nearly 20 years of food-writing experience, Jason Horn has spent his entire career covering food and drinks. He's Food & Wine's resident knife expert and has tested hundreds of blades in dozens of categories, along with everything from pots and pans to cold brew coffee makers.
Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines
Updated on December 4, 2025
Two hands holding insulated Yeti can holders toasting with drinks outdoors
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If you know a lover of lagers and ales, you’re likely on a perpetual hunt for the best beer gifts. Proper beer glassware, like specific vessels for stouts, IPAs, and wheat beer, is a great idea. So are beer subscription boxes or craft beer clubs that deliver noteworthy brews to their doorstep every month. But there are plenty more options, like customizable bottle openers and tap handles, storage gear, and fun accessories.

We've combed through our tests and polled beer-loving editors to round up 32 of our favorites here, from heavy-duty coolers to adorable koozies — and plenty of actual brews. These best beer gifts are an excellent choice for any occasion.

Stanley is known best for insulated water bottles, such as the famous Quencher tumbler. Still, the viral brand makes awesome drinking vessels for any beverage, including one of the best beer gifts. This handled stein is traditionally massive: It can hold two 12-ounce cans at once, and its double-walled insulation keeps the contents cold for up to 5 hours. As with many Stanley items, there are lots of color options available, some of which are collectible limited editions.

Our overall favorite cooler in testing, RTIC's massive model kept ice fully frozen for 24 hours, with 70-plus cans inside staying fully chilled the whole time. The brand makes extremely well-insulated coolers of many shapes and sizes, and this 52-quart model has an excellent balance of cost and capacity. It's one of the best beer gifts as it can be used for many occasions and social settings, from camping to tailgating to backyard barbecues.

If you're gifting a book called The Beer Bible, you'd better give this leather-bound heirloom edition. At more than 600 pages, it's equal parts reference work and history, a deep dive into all things beer. It delves into 10,000 years of brewing's past, walks through dozens of styles with tasting notes and technical details, and shares fun stories about beer. It's a thoughtful gift for beer-loving bookworms.

It's time for your beer-loving friend to ditch those foam can holders they've been holding onto since college; this is the best beer koozie. The Yeti Colster is a double-wall vacuum-insulated can holder with a "Load-and-Lock" gasket that twists onto the can to keep the whole thing completely covered. It keeps cans ice-cold for more than 2 hours. The Colster also comes in many colors for a more personalized gift. (If you buy it on the Yeti website, you can even have it custom-engraved with text or images.)

A glass that's been in the freezer for a few hours is a great way to enjoy a frosty pint, but it's not the most comfortable to hold. Rabbit solved the problem with a simple silicone sleeve around the glass. A freezable liquid inside keeps the beer colder longer, while insulating your fingers at the same time. The borosilicate glasses are ultra-strong and dishwasher-safe (though the removable sleeves are hand wash–only).

Beer trends may come and go, but for many craft-brewing nerds, IPA is forever. Fans of heavily hopped beers will jump for this selection of sought-after India pale ales. It packs a dozen cans of the year's finest hoppy brews, from breweries across the country. This year's selections include Dr. Juice from Parish Brewing in Louisiana, Hazy Wonder from Lagunitas in California, and Elvis Juice from the multi-location BrewDog.

For double the variety — and double the generosity — there's also a best IPAs 24-pack.

There's perhaps no better beverage–cooking method pairing than beer and grilling, which is why grill tools often make for the best beer gifts. Well, this is our pick for the best splurge barbecue tool set. It includes high-end stainless-steel-and-silicone versions of the essential tongs, meat fork, spatula, and basting brush, all with gorgeous wooden handles.

Beer doesn't need alcohol to taste good. Athletic Brewing is doing some fantastic things with zero-proof brews, and the brand's chuggable, balanced IPA is our favorite nonalcoholic beer. It uses five Pacific Northwest hop varieties and a blend of barley, oats, and wheat for a mix of sweetness and citrusy bitterness. Athletic makes a variety of other styles in nonalcoholic form, and they're all quite tasty for weeknight, weekend, or weekday drinking. Give one, or make a mixed case of several — we also like Athletic's intense Free Wave Hazy IPA, malty Upside Dawn Golden, and refreshing Cerveza Atletica.

Not every beer gift has to be practical. These puffy coats for cans are simply some of the cutest things we've ever seen. There are lots of color options, and Puffin's insulated drinkwear (get it?) also comes in many other styles. Choose from life vests, spa robes, Hawaiian shirts, space suits, and more.

Wine and cheese get all the attention, but beer and cheese pair perfectly, too. If the beer lover in your life has their brews covered, this gift treats them to a monthly delivery of hand-picked artisan cheeses. You can add optional specialty crackers, go with the default choices, or specify preferences for milk type and funk level. Cheese Grotto is one of our favorite cheese subscriptions for its incredible selection. Plus, the cheeses always arrive beautifully packaged and thoroughly chilled. If you're feeling extra-generous, throw in one of the brand's namesake cheese storage boxes to keep all the dairy in top condition.

We've pitted Yeti and RTIC against each other, and in the end, we can't pick a single winner. Both brands are at the top of the heap for beverage insulation. This easy-carry Yeti model is our favorite soft-sided cooler. It may not be as large as the RTIC above, but it's convenient to bring to the beach, an outdoor concert, or a party at a friend's place. In testing, it kept beer cold for 24 hours with ease, but what impressed us most was the zipper's leak-proof seal. We turned the bag full of half-melted ice on its side and didn't notice any drips.

One of the best beer gifts is a subscription: It's the gift that keeps on giving. Beer Drop's customizable beer-of-the-month club includes 10 beers from five different breweries every month, with upgrades that substitute special-edition and taproom-only options for standard brews.

Beer Drop also makes giving a subscription to someone else super-easy with its gift cards: You pick the length (one, two, three, six, or 12 months), the recipient can decide when their beers start arriving, and you don't have to worry about anything auto-renewing. Shipping costs are included in the price, and giftees can always skip or customize their monthly drops as desired.

Making beer yourself is an impressive accomplishment, and the Pinter 3 makes things incredibly easy. It's an entirely all-in-one, fully automated homebrew system: You choose a beer kit, pour in water and ingredients, and in about a week, you can pull the built-in tap handle to dispense 10 finished pints. It's a lot more compact than other homebrewing options, and the small batch size allows for more experimentation.

Give the ubiquitous pint glass an artisanal upgrade with this hand-blown version. Glasvin's reasonably priced glassware is on our lists of the best Champagne, stemless wine, and coupe glasses, and it's a great choice for beer, too. Glasvin's pint glasses are the standard shape and size but feel fancier thanks to thin walls and light weight. Nonetheless, these vessels are dishwasher-safe. They're part of Glasvin's GV Home line, a lower-priced selection with the same handmade quality.

There are lots of traditional chocolate Advent calendars, plenty of other food and drink Advent calendars, and even whiskey Advent calendars. This sudsy version is the perfect Christmas gift for any beer lover. Twelve mystery beers represent a range of styles, all from American craft breweries.

But the best part of this calendar is that it's both flexible and interactive. The recipient can start their Advent adventure on either December 15 or 26, with live-streamed kickoff tasting parties both nights featuring experts, brewers, and other beer luminaries.

Now your favorite beer lover can use their own face to open their bottles! Send a photo, and FantasticBobbleheads will sculpt a custom topper onto a classic metal opener. You can order multiples at once, making this a perfect gift for a wedding party, bachelor/bachelorette weekend, or any other group event. The options aren't limited to humans, either: You can also get pet portrait bottle openers.

Want to drink beer like they did in the 1700s? You need this seriously old-school tool. Often called a loggerhead, the device has a hefty metal tip that you heat until red-hot (over a campfire or gas stove, or with a blowtorch), then plunge into a mug of dark beer like stout or porter. The result is a steaming-hot drink with lots of comforting sweetness from the caramelized sugar. For extra authenticity, you can beat a whole egg, some spices, and a little rum or whiskey into the beer first to make a hot ale flip, a predecessor of the modern cocktail.

One of our favorite beer glasses in testing, this tall model is intended primarily for light, refreshing, bubbly styles like Pilsner. You can think of it like a Champagne flute for beer, helping keep carbonation from escaping and leaving plenty of room for a foamy head. Crystalia's glasses are durable, with thick, weighted feet to prevent tipping. Plus, the set's reasonable price you can throw in a six-pack with your gift—a locally brewed lager would be perfect.

Beer can chicken is not just a gimmick: Suspending a whole bird over a half-full brewski on the grill helps it cook evenly and stay juicy while it's infused with extra flavor. But the setup can be a little wobbly, and we have some qualms about high heat on a thin aluminum can coated with ink—or sometimes a plastic label. This cast iron device solves both problems, with a heavy, stable base that will never tip over while your chicken roasts. The large interior capacity expands recipe options, too: You can pour in beer, wine, cider, or any other liquid; and add aromatics like herbs, citrus, and garlic.

The dedicated beer collector needs somewhere to store all those brews, and this is one of the best beer fridges we've found. It can hold a staggering 154 cans, with adjustable shelves to accommodate bottles and specialty sizes. You can set it from 38°F for ice-cold lagers to 66°F for barely chilled dark beers.

This thoughtful gift basket includes four pints of craft beer and all the salty snacks you need to pair with them. With beef jerky, garlic sausage, cheese made especially for melting into queso dip, and water crackers, it's a full weekend kick-back in one convenient crate.

Chilled beverages and wooden surfaces don't mix, so coasters are always a thoughtful gift for the beer lover. Dorai's set is among our favorite coasters for its organic look and the diatomite material, which soaks up liquid like a sponge. The set comes in a blue-gray Slate or creamy Sandstone color, either of which will fit on any dining table or bar cart.

For beer lovers who also love hiking, camping, and the outdoors, this is our favorite backpack cooler. It can tote two dozen cans into the wilderness and keep them cold for more than a full day without any trouble. The materials are strong, thick, and well-built, with comfortable straps for countless journeys.

This one is for those lucky enough to have a kegerator or an entirely built-in home tap system: a customized tap handle. The CustomBrewGear option is highly customizable, with your choice of walnut and cherry woods, more than a dozen graphics, and custom text on three sides. You can create a full logo for your friend's home bar. There's also a chalkboard on one side of the handle, so they can always identify what's on tap.

Beer is not only the most-consumed alcoholic beverage in the world but also the oldest, with a history dating back to the very beginning of human civilization. Writer and Craft Beer Channel co-founder Jonny Garrett takes you on a globe- and time-spanning tour of beer in this book, including stops at Budweiser, Oktoberfest, the Arctic Circle, and Ancient Egypt.

One of our favorite homebrewing kits, Craft-a-Brew's set includes all the ingredients and tools (besides a stockpot) required to make a gallon-sized batch. The best thing about this kit is that it's available in more than 30 styles—from a traditional IPA to a chocolate milk stout—so you can customize it to the recipient's taste.

When the weather's perfect, a nice casual yard game goes beautifully with a few cold ones. Cornhole is the ideal game to play with beer, as you only need one hand for throwing. This space-saving set is light and portable, which is a benefit whether carrying it through the park or pulling it out of the garage.

The GrowlerWerks uKeg is the ultimate in long-term beer storage. The double-walled vacuum-insulated stainless steel can keep a brew fresh for weeks. It also lets you customize the carbonation level of the contents, with an attachment for CO2 cartridges, a pressure gauge, and a sealing cap that can maintain up to 15 pounds per square inch of pressure. It's a big upgrade to the standard growler, a good gift for homebrewers or fans of small-batch tap room–only beers. The uKeg is available in copper or stainless steel, and there's a larger gallon size in addition to this half-gallon version.

When enjoying a quality brew by the pool, at the beach, or on a picnic, it's not a good idea to use a breakable glass made of...glass. These shatterproof vessels are the perfect alternative, and they're cheap enough that you can outfit a whole party or lake house for just a few bucks. Thanks to the price, the fluted texture, and the subtle blue color, they're some of the best unbreakable drinkware we know of. They're also dishwasher-safe and won't absorb flavors or odors.

Why choose between brewing and baking? These cookie cutters are shaped like a beer bottle and stein, so your homebrewing giftee can put those spent grains to good use. Both are generously 4-plus inches tall, providing you with enough room to create a cute label and detailed bubbles with decorative icing. The hefty steel tools have rolled edges for comfort on the side you hold, with a flat cutting edge on the other.

This enormous beer stein is like a trip to Oktoberfest in a glass. It holds an entire liter and bears the logo of Hofbräu, the four-century-old brewery that's Munich's most famous. It's one of the best beer gifts out there as it's suitable for celebratory hoisting and toasting, as well as for display on a beer-lover's memorabilia shelf.

Anyone who loves beer and grilling probably loves barbecue, too, and this class is for them. A MasterClass subscription grants your beer-loving pal instant access to hundreds of topics—from Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie's creative writing advice to basketball drills with Stephen Curry—but we're perhaps most excited about this session. Famed pitmaster Aaron Franklin teaches the nuances of Texas-style barbecue, including detailed tutorials on smoking brisket, ribs, and even veggies. MasterClass has tons of other culinary classes, too, with legendary chefs like José Andrés, Madhur Jaffrey, Thomas Keller, and Roy Choi.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What food pairs best with beer for a gift?

    Beer is extremely food-friendly. Assertive IPAs can stand up to the spiciest of chiles and the stinkiest of cheeses; crisp lagers can cut through fatty meats, and rich dark beers pair beautifully with chocolate and other desserts.

    But if you're giving a food gift, you don't want to force the recipient to cook a whole meal. Stick with prepared foods and packaged items —things that require little to no preparation and make good snacks. Think pickles or gift baskets full of crackers, nuts, cheese, and other items you might find on a charcuterie board.

  • How do I choose the right beer to gift?

    Not every beer lover has a single favorite style, but most have preferences — light or dark, heavily hopped or not. If you know your recipient's taste, go for an assortment of beers that fit it. This shows you took some extra time and thought to put together a custom mix, and might help the giftee find a new favorite.

    When in doubt, think local. There are small breweries in every corner of the world making all sorts of interesting things. Send a mixed case from a maker near the recipient, or simply a gift card to the tap room.

  • How can I gift a beer subscription?

    There are lots of monthly beer delivery services to choose from, including GiveThemBeer, Craft Beer Club, or Beer Drop. These companies often allow you (or the recipient) to customize shipments, with options for the length and size. Keep in mind that many beer subscriptions automatically renew unless you cancel in advance; if you're giving one, check for a specific gift subscription option that doesn't include renewals.

  • Can you ship beer?

    Yes, but with some restrictions. US laws on shipping alcohol by mail vary from state to state, and the locations of the sender and the recipient both matter. Online retailers can generally ship to most states, but each one has its own set of rules. Any seller should have a shipping page with details on its policies so you can be entirely sure.

    Another thing to be aware of is that packages containing alcohol must be signed for by someone aged 21 or older. It's great to send a surprise gift, but if you're sending beer, you should alert the recipient to expect a package.

More Food & Wine Gift Guides for 2025

Our Expertise

Food & Wine senior writer Jason Horn has been writing about food and drinks for 20 years, including as an editor at Liquor.com and spirits columnist for Playboy. He used to love dark beers, but now he prefers light, refreshing lagers. There are generally a few cans of Pacifico in his fridge at all times.

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