11 Gifts for Beer Lovers That Aren't Another Pint Glass

The Quick Answer

The best gifts for beer lovers match the kind of beer lover, not the word "beer." A tailgater wants something that survives a parking lot. A home bartender wants real barware, not a keychain opener. A collector who has everything wants their name on it. Below: eleven real options sorted by who's actually getting them, starting under $20.

Personalization was impressive, exactly what I was hoping for, one reviewer wrote about a custom-engraved growler he'd ordered as a second gift - the kind of review that tells you a gift actually landed.

The eleven gifts, sorted by drinker

• The tailgater - an insulated can sleeve that survives a cooler full of ice and a parking lot full of regret
• The "my growler never stays cold" guy - a 64 oz insulated growler, the one DrinkTanks size with 181 ratings behind it
• The half-a-beer-a-day person - a 32 oz growler, the little sibling, currently the easiest-to-find size on the shelf
• The home bartender who's outgrown red Solo cups - a stainless cocktail shaker set
• The person who drinks two fingers of something, not a whole pint - a set of stainless steel shot glasses
• The person who already has everything - anything with their name engraved on it
• The coffee drinker who insists they're "not really a beer person" - a craft cup, which your own reviews show gets used for coffee and tea about as often as beer
• The collector who cares about matching sets - the whole line in one color, gift-wrapped as a set
• The person who lost the lid eleven months ago and never said anything - a replacement lid or spout cap, quietly the most-requested "gift" in your own reviews
• The camper who treats a cooler like carry-on luggage - a soft cooler, packed light
• The brewery-owning friend, or the one who wishes they did - a bulk custom order with their logo on it, which is a bigger gift than it sounds like once it shows up branded

Why "just get them a growler" isn't wrong, but it's incomplete

Here's the thing about buying a beer lover a gift: almost anything with "insulated" on the box will get used, eventually, by someone. That's the easy part, and it's also how everyone ends up with four of the same tumbler. The part people skip is matching the size and the use case - a 128 oz growler for someone who drinks alone is a science experiment in flat beer, and a delicate glass shaker set for someone whose idea of a home bar is a cooler on the porch is just extra dishes with better lighting.

So sort by person first, product second. Below is the actual lineup.

The lineup, compared

Prices intentionally left as ranges - check drinktanks.com for current pricing, since this list gets updated and prices don't.

For the tailgater who treats a parking lot like a second home

Nobody needs to be told that a warm beer at a 1pm kickoff is a personal failure, on par with forgetting the folding chairs. What they need is something that survives being shoved in a cooler, sat on, and forgotten about until halftime. A can sleeve does the unglamorous work here - it's not the growler getting the compliments at the tailgate, it's the one can that's somehow, impossibly, still cold three hours in.

For the person whose growler "just doesn't stay cold anymore"

This is usually not the growler's fault, whatever they've told you. It's a size mismatch - a 128 oz growler opened once and nursed over four hours loses way more carbonation and cold than a 32 oz growler finished in one sitting, the same way a bathtub full of ice melts slower than an ice cube on the counter, but nobody ever nurses a bathtub. If someone's complaining their growler goes flat, the actual gift might be a smaller one, which sounds like a downgrade and isn't.

For the home bartender who's still using a mason jar to shake a Manhattan

There's a specific kind of beer lover who's graduated into cocktails and hasn't told their kitchen drawer yet - the one currently shaking a Manhattan in a jar that used to hold pickles, one hand clamped over the lid like it owes them money. A real cocktail shaker set is the gift that tells them you noticed, and it quietly ends the pickle-jar era for good.

For the person who already has three growlers and opinions about all of them

Once someone owns the standard lineup, a fourth growler isn't a gift, it's a storage problem, and you will hear about the storage problem. What they don't have is one with their name on it. Custom engraving turns growler number four into the one they'll actually reach for, purely because it stopped being generic the moment it had their name on it instead of yours.

For the "I'm not really a beer person" person on your list

Every family has one. They stand near the cooler holding a seltzer, making it everyone else's problem. Good news: a Craft Cup doesn't actually require beer, and real reviews on these prove it - "used one of these daily for 8 years," "definitely will for coffee." Give them the cup, skip the growler, and let them keep pretending they're above all this.

What we see in the reviews (the part a generic gift-guide can't tell you)

We read our own reviews before writing this instead of just guessing, which is a lower bar than it should be for an entire industry of gift guides:

• The most common 5-star gift review is about engraving, not the product itself - "The Laser engraving was precise, detailed, it is exactly how i imagined it," one reviewer wrote after ordering a custom piece as a gift. Nobody has ever written that sentence about a pint glass.
• The single most requested "I lost mine" item is the lid or spout cap - which means the actual best stocking-stuffer for someone who already owns a growler is a $10-ish replacement part, not a new product. Deeply unglamorous. Also correct.
• A meaningful number of 5-star reviews on the Craft Cup mention coffee or tea, not beer - so "for the beer lover in your life" undersells the gift to anyone shopping for a non-drinker, who is, statistically, at least one person at every holiday table.
• Our best-selling growler carries 181 ratings on Amazon alone, mostly five stars - a genuinely large sample for a niche drinkware category, and more people than have ever agreed on anything else at that same holiday table.

FAQ

What size growler should I buy as a gift?
64 oz is the safest default - it's the best-reviewed size and works for one person over a few days or a small group in one sitting. Only go with 32 oz if you know the recipient drinks alone, or 128 oz if you know they're regularly filling up for a group.

Is a growler a good gift for someone who doesn't drink beer?
Yes, with one adjustment: buy a Craft Cup instead of a growler specifically. The insulation works exactly the same for coffee, tea, or cold brew, and it's not branded around beer the way a growler visually is.

How long does a custom engraved order take?
Custom and personalized orders take longer than a standard order ships, so build in lead time - check the current estimate on the Customize collection page before a deadline-sensitive gift like a wedding or a birthday.

What if they already have a growler?
Then the actual gift is one of three things: a replacement lid or spout cap (genuinely the most reviewed "I needed this" item), a different size than the one they have, or engraving on the one they already own if that's an option.

Do these come with a warranty, in case it's a gift that gets used hard?
Yes - Craft Growlers, Craft Cups, Session Growlers, Session Cups and Proof Barware carry a lifetime warranty against manufacturer defects, and the Spout Cap and Closing Cup Lid carry a 5-year warranty. Worth mentioning if you're buying for someone who'll actually put it through its paces.

Ready to actually pick one

Every product above lives on drinktanks.com - browse the full Growlers collection for sizes, or head straight to Customize if engraving is the plan. Free shipping on orders over $149.

Written by Nicholas Hill, Founder & CEO of DrinkTanks. Nicholas founded DrinkTanks in Bend, Oregon in 2013 and has spent 13 years building the growler and personal keg category from the ground up.