What is a Beer Candle?

A Candle That Smells Like Beer?

The Beer Candle

Quite simply, it depends on who you ask and what you are looking for. Beer candles come in many different forms and styles. There are at least 10 notably different styles of beer candles available for you to choose from. All have great features, WHAT ‘beer candle’ means really depends on the maker.

If you google the phrase beer candle, you will find the following below, in no particular order. This is not a review of candles, it is simply intended as an FYI article.

5 Types of Beer Candles

1. Etsy Beer Candles – If you know anything about Etsy, you know it is an online market for crafters & makers. I have seen gel beer candles, more gag-like beer candles, rough-cut beer bottles, beer can candles, and more.  I would try to break-down every beer candle variety you find there but I simply do not have the time.
   Pros: You have many to choose from.
   Cons: You have many to choose from.

2. Beer CAN-dles – This is when the candlemaker pours the wax into an actual beer can. Most all of the Beer CAN-dle companies I have come across simply borrow the beer branding and give the buyer the option of choosing their own candle fragrance – most often being the most commonly recognized candle aromas. Choose from aromas such as vanilla, fruits, essential oils, florals, and kitchen aromas. Made with soy wax and hand-poured.
   Brands: Wax & Tin, M.A.D. Candle
   Pros: Choose your favorite scent. Cool art. Recycled.
   Cons: Narrow opening, hard to light when burned down further. You would have to have a BBQ grill lighter or some of the long fireplace matches. Some have very long wait times, up to 15 days.

3. The Beer Candle Trio: Just as the title implies, beer candle trios are sometimes sold as a set of three or you can choose one of three different craft beer styles usually being a Dark (Stout, Porter), Hopped (IPA, Pale Ale) or Amber (Wheat, Lager.) The descriptions from the makers do imply that the candles smell like beer. After reading reviews on Amazon, I was left thinking that the candles do smell fantastic but not like beer. One of the trio series is poured into a recycled 22oz glass beer bottle with smooth edges. The other, a clear glass vessel shaped like a beer can. Both are made with soy wax.
   Brands: Swag Brewery, Cool Material
   Pros: Long burn-time, smell great, nice packaging, aromatic.
   Cons: Don’t really smell like craft beer. Harder to light when burned down to  3/4.

4. Brewery Beer Candles: These candles are also poured in recycled 22oz beer bottles and have smooth edges. The biggest difference between these beer candles and all of the rest on the list is that they are endorsed by the breweries shown on the labels and carried in the breweries swag shop. The stickers aren’t recycled from an old bottle, they are provided from the brewery upon approval of the aroma. The candles do have more of a craft beer essence and come the closest to smelling like the brewer’s description of the brew – playing mostly upon the top-notes of the brew. Each scent is custom blended and hand-poured. The wax is an apricot wax. It is the cleanest form of wax available.
   Brands: Barley & Hops Craft Candles
   Pros: Long burn-time, brewery endorsed, a wider selection of scents, cleanest wax, very aromatic.
   Cons: Harder to light when burned down to  3/4.

5. Beer Candle Tin: The beer candle tins are very much in the mandle category. The aromas are unapologetic and claim to smell like 100 beers or a fraternity house floor.
   Brands: Hotwicks, MandleCo
   Pros: Smells like beer.
   Cons: Smells like an American Lager such as Budweiser, Coors, Bush.

Hopefully, this helps you when you are shopping for the world’s oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drink in wax form. Each of the candles listed above are fantastic in their own right, it really just depends on what you are looking for!

Happy beer candle hopping!