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Beer Candied Bacon Bark and Craft Beer Lovers Holiday Gift Guide

Beer Candied Bacon Dark Chocolate Bark plus Holiday Gifts for Beer Lovers 

Beer Candied Bacon Bark-4

If you were to ask me about the best gift I’ve ever been given it’d take me a while to come up with the answer. I’m always uncomfortable getting gifts, awkwardly opening them as the giver waits for the expected reaction. Giving them, that’s where I excel. I can give a gift like a champ, and I love it. Figuring out what will make the person I care about wonder how I did it, how I found that perfect gift. Those stories I can tell you all day, the times I found the perfect present for someone I care about.

So take my gift giving advice if you have a beer lover on your list, skip the can cozies, and the kitschy pint glasses, and those weird tin signs that they won’t hang in their dens, and buy them things that will make them think you’re brilliant. Because you are. And if all else fails, make some bacon studded chocolate treats, those are always a hit.

Beer Gift Guide

 

  • State Beer Shirts: Not from California? It’s cool, they have other states. Maybe even yours, and if not, California is a pretty great one.
  • Homebrew recipe journal: For the homebrewer in your life that has a drawer full of spiral notebooks that are hard to decipher. Their future batches will thank you.
  • Sierra Nevada Lip Balm: The perfect stocking stuffer. And at only $1, you can fill the entire stocking.
  • The Craft Beer Cookbook (affiliate link).: Don’t look so shocked. Of course I’d add my book to this list. I’m pretty proud of it. Plus, it’s a great gift for the craft beer loving cook in your life.
  • Oatmeal Stout Soap: Because for a true craft beer lover drinking it isn’t enough, bathing in it is imperative.
  • Beer Glassware: I love these. I have every one. You can’t open a rare bomber of beer and expect to put it in Solo cups.
  • Beer Tote: Especially great for the beer lover who frequents the farmers market. It’ll be her favorite, she can use it to haul around her growler or her produce.
  • Rogue Hop Salt: How can you possibly have homemade popcorn without it?! It’s hops and salt!
  • Growler Tap: Growlers are great, if you can drink it all in one sitting. If you’re a normal person, you can’t. This allows you to take your time and enjoy it over time. It’s amazing.
  • Hard to find beer, like: The Lost Abbey’s Angels Share. Especially if you live in a different region than the person you’re gifting, it’s almost a guarantee that you can get a beer that they can’t. Go to your local bottle shop and ask about it.

Beer Candied Bacon Bark and Craft Beer Lovers Holiday Gift Guide

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

For the Bacon

  • 6 strips thick sliced bacon
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbs stout or porter or pale ale
  • pinch cayenne

For the Bark

  • 10.5 wt oz dark chocolate 72% cacao content
  • ¼ cup stout or porter or pale ale
  • 1/3 cup smoked almonds

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven the 350.
  • In a sauce pan over medium high heat, bring the brown sugar, beer and cayenne to boil, boil for one minute.
  • Place the bacon on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Brush the bacon on each side with sugar mixture.
  • Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, flip, re-brush with sugar mixture, bake for ten more minutes until bacon is a dark brown. Remove from oven, allow to cool. Bacon will harden as it cools. Chop the bacon once it has cooled.
  • In the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water add half the chocolate and the 1/4 cup beer, make sure the heat isn’t too high or the chocolate will seize. Stir constantly until chocolate is melted. Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining chocolate until melted and well combined. Stir in the smoked almonds.
  • Pour chocolate onto a baking sheet that has been covered with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Sprinkle with chopped bacon. Chill until set. Break into pieces.

Notes

A stout or porter will work well, especially a barrel aged version. For a more intense beer flavor use an IPA or a pale ale.

 

Beer Candied Bacon Bark-5

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Comments


Christine December 10, 2014 um 1:59 am

Fanfreakintastic ideas, thanks! !
That Hop Salt is *definitely* happening to my life, stat. And hopefully some will make its way to actually being gifted to others as well 🙂

I met the CabanaBoy at a growler station bottle share, when he initiated me to the wonder of Pliny the Elder. His gift is a Russian River/Pliny work shirt, which is currently out being embroidered with his Untappd handle, and the date of that epic sip inside the collar. ..I can’t wait to give it to him! ! Maybe with some hop salt in the pocket 🙂

Merry Christmas, Jackie!

Reply

julie December 10, 2014 um 5:32 am

Could you use a stout instead of a pale ale?

Reply

Jackie December 10, 2014 um 8:27 am

Yes. I made it twice, once with a stout. The beer flavor is slightly stronger with a pale but a stout works just fine.

Reply

Leah December 10, 2014 um 10:11 am

If you happen to be near Berkeley, you can pop into the Torpedo Room to taste Sierra Nevada beers & they’ll give you lip balm for free 🙂 It tastes good & would be a great stocking stuffer.

Reply

Jackie December 10, 2014 um 10:29 am

That sounds like a lot of fun! Next time I’m in the area I’ll do that.

Reply

Natalie | The Devil Wears Parsley December 10, 2014 um 2:11 pm

Love this!!! I’m a fan of that growler tap! There’s only two of us most of the time, and I don’t always want to drink half a growler in a sitting. Brilliant!!

I haven’t had the Grapefruit Sculpin yet… mainly because there’s always a pack of the Habanero Sculpin next to it, and I just.cant.pass.it.up! It’s my absolute favorite beer ever. EVER!

Great list, Jackie! <3

Reply

Thalia @ butter and brioche December 11, 2014 um 12:15 am

YES to everything about this recipe. Beer, bacon and chocolate.. could it get any better?!

Reply

Sophia @ NY Foodgasm December 11, 2014 um 5:29 am

I looooove the bark and really love the gifts ideas! But beer candied bacon- hells yes! WOAH!

Reply

addie | culicurious December 12, 2014 um 1:22 pm

Wow, what a great guide! Also: I love the hop salt. Going to have to get that!

Happy holidays, Jackie! 🙂

Reply

Aileen December 13, 2014 um 5:01 am

Do you leave the almonds whole?

Reply

Jackie December 13, 2014 um 8:36 am

Yes, they soften in the chocolate

Reply

Jeff December 24, 2014 um 6:49 am

I’m seeing "pale ale" in the ingredient list twice but a stout in the recipe instructions. Which is correct?

Reply

Jackie December 24, 2014 um 9:18 am

Sorry for the confusion! The first time I made it with a stout and the second time with a pale. You can use either but you get a slightly more "beery" flavor with the pale.

Reply

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