[HOT LIST] Your EID Holiday Shopping Guide

Two James Spirits. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

There's one week until Christmas - time to start shopping!!! Allow me to make it easy on you: buy them booze. Why? Because everyone likes booze. (Except people who don't drink. Don't buy them booze. But everyone else likes booze.) Here's a few (several!) ideas for booze-themed gifts to give this holiday season.

Schramm's Made in Michigan basket.

#1 Buy them booze baskets
Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a basket full of booze. Schramm's Mead in Ferndale is offering two different gift baskets in $40 and $60 price points. The larger basket features all items made in Michigan. 8 Degrees Plato in Ferndale has customizable gift buckets (as in ice buckets), which you can choose to stock full of craft beer and any combination of artisan foods, beer stemware, beer-themed gift items like beer bottle cap jewelry made by a local artist, beer books, and more.

Merchant's Fine Wine in Dearborn is making customized gift baskets from their extensive assortment of imported and craft beers, as well as wine, coffee, tea, chocolates, cheese and sausage, and whatever else they carry (which I don't  really know because I never make it past the beer section…it's a big store!). The Wine Garden in St. Clair Shores also has customizable gift baskets which can include anything from their selection of craft beer (they pay extra close attention to the Belgians) as well as their large selection of wines, their custom-built cigar humidor, and their exceptional selection of whiskeys and bourbons (one of the best in the state - get your George Dickel bottles there right now, and nowhere else).

Specialty meads from Superior Lakes at the Wine Garden.

#2 Buy them straight-up booze
Alcohol is the perfect holiday gift for those you don't know what to buy. It says, "I don't really know what you like, but I know you like to drink." Michigan's craft booze scene - beer, mead, cider, spirits, even wine (yes, wine counts) - has been exploding in recent years, and, as is typically the case with fast-growing industries, this has been the biggest year yet. This holiday season, give the gift that says you're thoughtful, you support the local economy, and you also have taste.

While Founders and Bell's get all the accolades from the chest-thumpers on Beer Advocate and the media outlets that troll them for their listicles, the reality is New Holland's Dragon's Milk is probably the best bourbon barrel aged stout being made in our state. (SHHHHHHHHHH, DON'T TELL ANYONE.) But don't take my word for it. (No but really, do.)

Valentine Distilling in Ferndale now has two vodkas, a gin, and a whiskey on store shelves, but stop by the distillery itself to pick up some of their barrel-aged gin, an extra-special gift for spirits connoisseurs. Or give them a taste of Detroit history with a bottle from Two James Spirits, the first licensed distillery in the city of Detroit since before Prohibition. The bottles alone are pieces of art. Plus they come with booze in them.

Heed the mead with a little something special (as in, special release) from Schramm's, B. Nektar, Superior Lakes, or Kuhnhenn. Or brave the crowds at Kuhnhenn this weekend for their special Winter Solstice bottle release - all the big, burly beers and meaty meads their rapid fans wait all year for. It's kind of a big deal.

Craft Box + custom buckets from 8 Degrees.

#3 Buy them booze subscriptions
What's better than the gift of booze? The gift of booze 12 times. 8 Degrees Plato now offers a monthly "Craft Box" club membership. With a one-time membership fee of a whopping $5, members get access to a monthly Craft Box selection featuring craft beers, ciders, artisan foods, and beer-themed goodies. The boxes are $45 each month.

Great Lakes Coffee in Midtown now offers BWC (beer - wine - coffee) clubs. Sign up for a monthly subscription for beer ($25), wine ($40), coffee ($30), or all three ($85), all of the exceptional quality and quirky caliber you've come to expect from the folks at IFAD. Email andrew@greatlakescoffee.com to get signed up, or to sign someone else up.

#5 Buy them books about booze
First, buy the two books I was somewhat involved with: Ann Arbor Beer: A Hoppy History of Tree Town Brewing and Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider's Guide to Detroit. Both are amazing. Because they in some way involve me.

Aside from those, also pick up the newly-released Detroit's Historic Eastern Market, written by Eastern Market's vice president of business development Randall Fogelman and writer Lisa Rush. This book is part of the Images of America series from Arcadia Publishing.

Also newly-released is Michigan's Best Beer Guide, a comprehensive guide to all of Michigan's breweries and brewpubs. (But with how fast this industry is growing, it won't be comprehensive for long.)

#6 Buy them furniture made out of booze barrels
DEAR FRIENDS, THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BUY FOR ME, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING. New Holland (I LOVE YOU GUYS) has started re-purposing their used barrels into crafty furniture pieces - with a special emphasis on Dragon's Milk, MICHIGAN'S BEST BBA STOUT BUT DON'T TELL ANYONE BECAUSE THEN IT WILL BE RUINED. The BarrelWorks Project shop is now live.

#7 Buy them booze clothing and accessories
Got a man who likes his ties as much as he likes his whiskey? BAM - whiskey ties. Detroit tie lab and international sensation Cyberoptix has whiskey and beer-themed ties. Order them online or pick up the whiskey tie at the Emerald, an independently-owned store inside the Park Shelton in Midtown. Hugh in Midtown has all sorts of crystal beerware, cocktail accoutrements, and vintage ice buckets, but I'm particularly partial to the tiki mugs, because tiki mugs.

#8 Buy them booze-infused foods and mixers
Speaking of Hugh, they are the first retail outlet to carry Wolf Moon, a local partnership with McClure's Pickles producing artisan cocktail mixers. Just add booze! (For that, see #2.) Read more about Wolf Moon here. And speaking of McClure's, it's still the best damn Bloody Mary mix on the market, the end. Always good for gifts with a nice bottle of vodka. (Or gin! Tequila even, like Blue Nectar, another Michigan-made product.) And speaking of mixers! Order a hand-crafted seasonal syrup (or six) from Voigt's Soda House, available for pick-up in store or delivery (for orders over $50). For sodas. But really for cocktails.

You still have time to order some beer mustard, beer soap, and hop candy from Founders. Plus, Rock City Eatery will be selling bourbon/butterscotch/pecan and sweet potato whiskey pies (and two other flavors not boozey) on December 23 and 24, first-come first-serve. (He sold out within minutes on Thanksgiving so, you know. Can only make so many pies in that oven and spend so many hours not sleeping.)

[HOT LIST] Michigan Craft Beer Month - Summer beers

It's July, which means it's summer (in theory), and also that it's Michigan Craft Beer Month. Now, if there's one thing all beeries can count on as reliably as death and taxes, it's that one (and usually several) of Michigan's top breweries are going to make it on to some somethingsomeonesomewhere's list of "best beers for MAKING A LIST WITH." Like this one, for example: summer's best beach beers! ZOMGZFOUNDERZZZZZ!!!!

Which is swell. Really. It is. Lists are great! But the feasibility of actually getting your hands on any Founders Rubaeus this summer is about as likely as winning a $300 million jackpot (though some hardcore beer trolls out there would probably find it equally as exciting).

And that is the fault of many of these ZOMGZBEERLISTZZZ out there: they usually only focus on the ultra-rare, ultra-limited releases that, hell, most of their readers don't even live in a state where the brand is distributed, much less stand a shot of getting their hands on any. And what's the fun in that? "Here is a list of awesome things you will never, ever try!" Ah, slideshow journalism as powered by Google.

Here is a list you can actually use. These Michigan beers are in wide release (some are high-production seasonals; others are year-round) and readily available for your drinking enjoyment. And since it's summer, and bourbon barrel-aged barleywines and the like just don't make any damn sense in the dead of summer, I'm sticking to summer-friendly beers as close to sessionability (defined as 4.0%ABV and lower) as local brewers seem willing to make.

#1 New Holland
There will come a day when New Holland is as popular as Founders and Short's and Bell's, and their specialty beers will be just as hard to come by. This will be both a happy and a sad day: happy for them, sad for me. But for now, we can still enjoy all the beers this stellar brewery puts out as if they were brewed just for us. Mainstays include Full Circle (an excellent kolsch, 4.9%ABV), Mad Hatter IPA (hoppy, 5.25%ABV), Sundog (amber, 6.0%ABV), and Monkey King (a superb saison, 6.6%ABV). Seasonals include the full Hatter series (the White Hatter, a Belgian-style white pale ale clocking in at 5.5%ABV, is probably the most popular), and the newly-relaunched Paleooza, a Michigan pale ale (5.6%ABV).

#2 Brewery Vivant
Brewery Vivant follows Belgian brewing traditions, which means there are certainly some heavy-hitters in their lineup. But their year-round releases are also some of the best drankin' beers around. Sold in four-packs of 16-oz. cans, they also make good travelers for summertime boating and camping and stuff-some-beer-in-your-backpack biking trips. Farm Hand is a French-style farmhouse ale and highly drinkable at 5.0%ABV, while Triomphe is a Belgian-style IPA - which means it isn't the hoppy cock-punch of your typical American IPA, but has a more gentle, pleasant hoppiness (reminds me of black teas). It's 6.5%ABV though, so not exactly poundable.

#3 Bell's Brewery
Say whatever you want about Bell's (they rule, they suck, Larry's a dick, whatever), their summer beer suite is second to none. And actually, their most summer-friendly beers happen to be the ones they make year-round. There's the Amber (a simple and tasty amber ale, 5.8%ABV), the Pale Ale (a classic, 5.2%ABV), Third Coast Beer (a hoppy ale with a modest 4.8%ABV), Lager of the Lakes (in the tradition of Bohemian-style pilsners, 5.0%ABV), Oarsman (a real-and-true sour-ish session beer made from sour mash and only 4.0%ABV), and the ubiquitous Oberon (their summer seasonal wheat ale, 5.8%ABV).

#4 MillKing It Productions
Remember when craft beer in a can was super-weird and everyone wondered if it would really work and if it was any good and if it was going to last? Well, MillKing It Productions was the first in the area to adopt aluminum, and now it's so much a THING that it's not even a thing anymore. While their product lineup has expanded quite a bit in the last three-ish years, their original lineup of AXL Pale Ale (5.2%ABV) and BRIK Irish Red (5.2%ABV) are still some of the best local go-to beers.

#5 Keweenaw Brewing Co
Is it any coincidence that three of the top five breweries on this list distribute in cans? Well...yes, it really is just a coincidence, but still one worth noting, if for no other reason that just to say, "Huh, that's funny. What a coincidence." ANYWAY. So Keweenaw's Widow Maker Black Ale (5.2%ABV) is a great chuggin' beer, as is their Pick Axe Blonde (4.7%). We don't see a lot of Yooper beers down here under the bridge, so these Keweenaw brews are a real treat. Nothing XTREME about them; just pop the tab and drink.

Bubbling under Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca (4.8%ABV) + Luciernaga (6.5%ABV), Atwater Grand Circus IPA (4.2%ABV), Founders All Day IPA (4.7%ABV), Arbor Brewing Co. Sacred Cow IPA (6.8%ABV) + Bollywood Blonde (6.0%ABV), Rochester Mills Cornerstone IPA (7.0%ABV), Greenbush Sunspot (6.0%ABV), Saugatuck Brewing ESB Amber (5.5%ABV) + Oval Beach Blonde Ale (5.0%ABV), Crankers Bulldog Red (5.1%ABV) + Torchlight (4.9%ABV)