You’ll start a conversation, help save the planet and ensure your present is the toast of Christmas Day, says Ralph Bungard.

A few seasons back our extended whānau decided to do away with the gifting of gimcrack over the festive season. The rule became that gifts had to be homemade and/or consumable. It’s a popular rule. It reduces waste and suits our changing world, where we are looking to minimise our global footprint. When it came to homemade and consumable, I had it easy – I had beer!

I know it’s hard to believe but some people say they don’t like beer and they may not appreciate it as a gift. In most situations, when questioned why they don’t like beer, you may find that they don’t like brown, slightly sweet and malty beer synonymous with the old-fashioned style that dominated New Zealand brewing for decades. I get great pleasure at the Three Boys Brewery front-of-house introducing these non-beer drinkers to a sour and salty gose, a fruity Belgian-style wheat, or even a rich, roasty, chocolaty stout and having them go mmm, I like that!
It’s hard to imagine anywhere in Aotearoa these days that does not have a genuinely local micro-brewery within reach. It is these breweries that will have something out of the ordinary that would make a great gift for beer lovers and those non-beer lovers who need converting.

Go out of your way to pick something unusual – a fruit-infused sour, a chocolate stout, a whisky barrel-aged pale ale, a super-cloudy New England-style IPA. And pick them from a genuine local brewer – not one of those pseudo “craft” brands from the multinationals. You’ll tick all the boxes, you’ll create a conversation, you’ll introduce someone to the amazing world of beer flavours, you’ll support a local business, and in some small way you’ll be saving the planet.

Besides, what’s the worst that can happen – you’ll have to help them drink it?

threeboysbrewery.co.nz