My husband is one of those annoying beer snobs.  The ones that want to know how many units of blah blah blah there are, thinks that anything below 8% alcohol is a joke, and hates American Lager with a passion.  He has an opinion on which type of stout he prefers (spoiler, Guinness isn’t the only stout around) and for the record, his favorite is a Russian Imperial Stout.  He likes his IPA’s to make him feel like his face is being peeled off. I mean he’s a SERIOUS beer snob.  

For a long while, my husband exclusively homebrewed his own beer.  Life made that a tad complicated, so he went back to microbrew beers.  Mostly. He still occasionally home brews, which he uses a kegerator for, but by in large, it’s snooty microbrews. 

In addition to being a beer snob, he’s also super hard to buy anything for because if he wants something, he just gets it. His tastes tend to run on the expensive side, as well. Factor in my minimalist nature, and it gets complicated, fast. 

I like making things. It helps keep me entertained.  This is a project that took two years to come together, however, it ended up being a great birthday gift, even if a tad redundant since I essentially remastered gifts I had already given. I guess I technically regifted him his own things and gave him a board for his birthday. Meh.

Several years ago I found the “Mike’s Bar” sign in a tourist shop in North Carolina. We were on vacation, it was small, and it made me think of when he has his friends over for a few beers.  I bought it and gave it to him as a holiday gift that year.  Last year, I found the bear head bottle opener, at Target of all places, around the holiday season and gave it to him as well. 
Since his tastes tend to run on the expensive side of large things like “look honey, I bought a camper!” as much as the two gifts amused him, and he liked them, he didn’t really know what to do with them. They ended up in a drawer at his fly tying station. I knew that. It didn’t bother me. I had a PLAN!!!

I spent a loooong time trying to figure out what I was going to mount them on. I have a small stash of 100+ year old barn wood. The planks are awesome!  Grey, weathered, in crazy dimensions you can’t find anymore… but the components really just didn’t look right against the wood. The sign has too much of a modern feel, though the bear looked alright.  Next, I tried a roughhewn cedar fence picket thinking the colors of the cedar would bring it all together. No, not even close. It looked even more horrible. No aesthetic appeal at all.

Frustrated, as his birthday was looming, I came across a broken down midcentury modern dresser. It was on the street as trash, I’m not even going to lie. The second I saw the drawer front lying there, abandoned, with it’s clean lines, bronze recessed knobs,  good color and minor rugged imperfections- I knew I found what I was looking for. I trotted right on over and picked it up.  

I got it home, cleaned it, and snuck into his fly station to get the components. Originally, I wanted to use black matte screws to secure everything onto the board.  I couldn’t find black matte screws.   I decided to go polar opposite and use shiny brass screws instead.   FYI, that’s a bear’s head, not a pig! I promise!!

Technically, I could have just used the double stick tape pads that came on the back of the bar sign, and I thought about it, but I didn’t want to give a birthday gift that fell apart a month later, so I opted to screw it down, too. 

It took me a minute to find a hose clamp large enough to do what I wanted, and of course I had to buy a heavy duty one that I had to actually clip a section out of the threads to put a screw through, but that wasn’t really a big deal. The Mason jar I had. I do a lot of canning. Once the hose clamp was screwed down to the board, it was a simple matter of tightening the hose clamp around the jar. 

I used standard frame hangers on the back, and opted for a twisted wire rather than a cable.  All in all, I think it all came together pretty well!  I was able to get it together and give it to him for his birthday, and he really liked it.  He popped the cap on one of his favorite IPA’s that our daughter bought him for his birthday to celebrate.   

I hope this inspires you to make something similar for the beer snob in your life!