Welcome to the Spring edition of the Food GPS Beer Gear Guide, a quarterly round-up of essential and/or fun items to add to your craft beer loving lifestyle.

Pacific Plate Brewing Beer Soap – The folks at Pacific Plate have added exfoliating soap to their branded merchandise. Now you can visit their taproom and order a flight of beers and leave with a T-shirt, a growler and a bar of soap!

BrewHug – There are all sorts of clever ways to transport bottles from your beer vacations. For awhile, I even had a suitcase that was filled with padded foam that had bottle shaped cutouts in it, but this “life vest” might be even safer. It is a self-inflating pouch that holds bottles but stores flat when not in use.

The Drunken Botanist – Learn the botanical how and more importantly the why behind “extraordinary and obscure plants that have been fermented and distilled, a few are dangerous, some are downright bizarre, and one is as ancient as dinosaurs.”

Buy a year of membership in the now 20-year-old Pacific Gravity homebrew club. $30 gets you the camaraderie and expertise of a talented group of brewing veterans and newbies alike.

Your Beer of the Week may be hard to find, but is well worth it (maybe for the name alone). Rye Like An Eagle is part of the barrel-aged beer series from Beachwood BBQ & Brewing that included 8 Buffalo and Sadie in the past. This latest release is a “barrel-aged imperial rye brown ale is the first Beachwood brew to be expertly aged in American rye whiskey barrels for one year.” You should find the flavors and aromas of dark fruit, tobacco, cocoa, vanilla, and oak inside the bottle.

Your Homework for the week is to help Select Beer Store celebrate their 3rd Anniversary. The celebration starts tonight with the release of their 3rd Anniversary collaboration ale with Monkish Brewing. Starting at 5pm, they will be serving the appropriately styled tripel. On Saturday, March 14, at noon, the official 3rd Anniversary Extravaganza Blowout Party! Begins with “special drafts from some of our favorite LA and Orange County breweries.”

Find more of Sean Inman’s writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.