This post is by Liz, Kevin's wife.
I feel like at this point in my relationship with Kevin, I should be able to write a book on "Gifts for Homebrewers." (I've done quite a bit of Googling). For Kevin's birthday last year, I gave him a homebrew store gift card and a membership to the American Homebrewers Association. This year, I decided to get creative and up the ante'...
Here's some back story: About a year and a half ago, Kevin and Ed picked the name "Battery Brewing" for their homebrew operation based on the street name where we all lived: Battery Ln. Subsequently, Kevin designed a logo and screenprinted some rockin' t-shirts for Team Battery Brewing at the annual Dogfish Dash in Milton, DE.
It wasn't long before I scanned the design, did some photoshopping, set up this blog and named myself the Chief Marketing Officer of Battery Brewing. A title which is sometimes stripped from me when I say things like, "hm, this beer tastes like chicken."
So for his birthday this year, I decided to do what any *good* marketing person does and slap that logo on EVERYTHING. I mean, who doesn't love custom beer-related swag? (We certainly bring a lot of it home from other breweries).
I started with some basics from Zazzle and Cafe' Press like stickers, magnets and a key chain. I designed a lovely poster with some choice pics of the Battery Brewing team in action. Finally I found some specialty shops to order a bartender's bottle opener and, the best part, a dozen custom pint glasses. Ooooh, ahhhhh.
All I will say is... it was worth having the glasses done professionally. I ordered a first round off Cafe' Press and they were a disaster (for which I got a refund and got to keep the disasters... woohoo?). The professional ones were expensive if you think of the per-glass cost, but it was the perfect thing and I literally did a dance when we got them in the mail.
To round out the birthday celebration, I hosted a Battery Brewing-themed dinner party with each course paired with one of their homebrews (menu below). Each lucky guest got to take home a pint glass!
I have know idea how I'm going to top this next year!
