Joe Sixpack: Put brews and gadgets in holiday stockings

NEED TO TELL your Aunt Sarah you don't need another knitted sweater this holiday season? Clip out this all-purpose gift list and slip it into her handbag. Maybe she'll get the hint.

FOR THE DIYER: The Complete Homebrew Beer Book by George Hummel (Robert Rose, $16.47). With 200 easy recipes, anyone can brew lager, mead, fruit beer - you name it. Order it with a homebrewing kit directly from the author ($150 at www.homesweethomebrew.com).

FOR THE BOOKWORM: "The Oxford Companion to Beer" (Oxford University Press, $65), edited by Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver, with more than 165 experts in a variety of beer-related fields. At nearly 1,000 pages, this tome requires its own shelf in your bathroom.

FOR THE PIOUS: Diary of a Part-Time Monk by J. Wilson (Old Line Publishing, $14.95). Wilson is the blogger who famously tested the legend that fasting monks once lived on double bock alone by embarking on his own 46-day beer-and-water regime during Lent earlier this year. Consider this a beer drinker's diet book for 2012.

FOR HANUKKAH: Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah (Malt Shop Publishing, $16.99) by Jeremy Cowan, who tells the story of his Shmaltz Brewing Co., maker of He'Brew, the Chosen Beer.

FOR THE WALL FLOWER: The Lagunitas Brewing Butterfly Bottle Opener. Guaranteed to turn the recipient into the life of the party. Either that or he'll poke his eye out. $15 at store.lagunitas.com.

FOR THE ATHLETE: Customized beer-pong table. The ultimate home-field advantage is a table with one's own logo and graphics. Available with optional iPod speakers. Starting at $70 at www.partypongtables.com.

FOR THE SPECTATOR: The BeerBelly. Worn under a shirt and filled with a sixpack's worth of suds, it looks like a full-blown gut. It's ideal for smuggling brew into a stadium ($50). And for her, there's the Wine Rack ($30), which really needs no description. www.thebeerbelly.com.

FOR THE NOT-EASILY IMPRESSED: A beer geek's jaw-dropping sixpack. Painstaking assembly required:

* Schneider Nelson Sauvin (Germany): A rich, fruity weizenbock with trendy Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand. 750ml, $20.

* Ithaca Alphalpha Double IPA (New York): A stunning double IPA with a honeylike sweetness. 750ml, $11.

* De Dolle Oerbier Special Reserva 2010 (Belgium): A Flemish brown ale with that classic oak- and sour-cherry flavor. 375ml, $10.

* Mikkeller Red/White Christmas (Denmark): A blend of British red ale and Belgian witbier with plenty of American hops and bitter orange peel. 1.5 liters, $31.