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If you haven’t started your pumpkin beer brew by now, you won’t make it by Halloween. But, it doesn’t matter. Pumpkin beer is good all year around. You can definitely have a batch of pumpkin beer ready by Thanksgiving. So, let’s get started!
This set of steps is from my first batch of pumpkin ever. It’s a fairly new concept for me, so I had to really do some research to find the right stuff. It was a little difficult at first to decide on what types of extracts, malts and hops would go best with pumpkin flavor. Also, I have heard that some pumpkin ales have come out with a slight pumpkin taste while others come out syrupy oozing with pumpkin flavor. I prefer more toward the former.
So, the recipe I finally decided to use would combine cinnamon and nutmeg with an actual pumpkin. I had some other ideas, but I kept going back and forth…Continue Reading at the Learning Center
Posted October 27th, 2011. Add a comment
Home brewing can be a tricky science. Of course, there are home brewers who just throw it together and look forward to whatever brews. But making changes along the way, documenting every possible contingency and then tweaking it when it doesn’t come out just right is the art of the master brewer.
The one question most brewers ask will always be how potent is their beer going to get. It’s not really all that scientific. You need to know a little math and you need to be aware of a few measurements as you brew. Other than that, it’s a piece of cake…
Learn more at the Beertaps Learning Center!
Posted September 28th, 2011. Add a comment
The Facebook Like Giveaway
If you visit our Facebook Beertaps.com Page and Like Us with the Facebook Like Button so that all your friends know, we will add a gift with your next order from Beertaps.com. Just make sure that you put the word Like along with your Facebook Profile Name in the comments section on your next order!
Beertaps.com
This is some awesome new beer technology. Thought I’d share.
If you have some awesome beer technology to share, join us at the Pub for Beer Enthusiasts, Beertaps.com Pub.
Running beertaps.com has been an interesting ride that was more involved than I thought it would be. But, it has been fun. Each new challenge has presented an interesting and useful solution.
For instance, when I was asked about the kegerator a customer just purchased, I realized that there probably are more people out there who have the same questions. So, I wrote a report and published it on the site. Then, I wrote an article to let everyone know that I wrote the report.
That’s about the time the second question came in about keeping beer lines clean. Then, about home brew recipes. So, I kept writing reports to help people and I kept writing articles to make people more aware.
It started out as a big gaggle of reports that I finally organized into a Learning Center that is now populated with great stuff. From Home Brew Tips and Tricks to DIY Home Bar Projects, I keep adding to the learning center. But, I’m always willing to hear what you want to know. I have a form for questions at http://www.beertaps.com/contact.html
But, the recent interactive is the forum I created. It’s easier than a report to write a simple answer. Some answers aren’t as involved as putting an entire article together with pictures and everything. So, I populated the forum with a few items. But, it’s new.
I’d love to see some people on there soon. Start some topics and get some feedback. How else do you expect a forum to get started?
http://brewdrinker.com/thepub/
Hope to see you there!
You can’t just go in blindly when you are converting your old refrigerator into a kegerator. I’ve seen some horrible mistakes. I’ve seen mistakes that have caused the refrigerator to be no longer usable in any capacity. You don’t want your refrigerator conversion to turn into any of these catastrophes:
One day, a few friends of mine were enjoying their draft beers out of their freshly converted kegerator when all of a sudden they heard a pop. They didn’t think anything of it because they had been hearing different sounds all day. One of the beer enthusiasts decided to pour another drink and got a half glass with a lot of foam. After closer observation, the beer line had popped off the regulator and was damaged. The beer drinking fun was over until the beer line was replaced. A good bit of beer was on the bottom of the refrigerator too. A nice mess to clean up when you have a CO2 tank pumping air through a line to make sure the beer keeps flowing.
I have actually witnessed the next mistake go both ways. The CO2 regulator needs to be set to the right psi. Not over and not under. Can you imagine walking up to the kegerator and not getting anything out of it? Or worse yet, can you imagine damaging a beer line because you had the psi too high? Great ways to ruin a party.
But, the one that takes the cake is the amateur who decided to just drill the hole through the door without knowing what he was doing. The hole was too big for the shank because this guy wanted to drill the hole as big as the nuts. Enough said about that! Scrap the refrigerator and go find another one.
So before you make any of these mistakes, make sure that you know everything you need to know before you get started:
Converting a Refrigerator into a Kegerator
I love going on the forums and reading through discussions of people’s favorite beers. I hardly every hear Budweiser, Coors, Miller or anything normal, which is what you see people “normally” drink.
I always see some exotic beer that they’ve had maybe once. I’ve also caught some people up in their discussions when I realized they hadn’t even had a taste of the beer they were discussing. What in the world is that about?
Let’s be honest. We go to the bar and we get our favorite beer. We get the one we always drink. We love the exotic beers that are hard to find and not commonly sold. We love new tastes and textures. Of course, we’re up when it comes to trying something we’ve never even heard of before.
But, we have a favorite. It’s the one at the local store. It’s the one at the liquor store on the way home. Do we try new things every once in awhile? Yes. But, don’t we normally go for what we know? Most of the time.
If you disagree, please feel free to comment.
So, I’d like to know what you guys drink. What is your favorite beer? Throw us anything, worldwide. But, I would hope that you’ve drank your “Favorite” beer more than once and that it’s not just an exotic beer you thought would be fun to include in this survey.
There are beer enthusiasts who are deeply enriched in the beer making world, who own their own home breweries and who take advantage of all the benefits. Then, there are beer enthusiasts who have never even thought of making their own. I can’t imagine why a beer enthusiast wouldn’t at least be interested in giving it a try, but I’m going to try to change that now.
There are many benefits to brewing your own beer and I’m going to take it one step at a time. When you are ready to get off this wild ride, take stage coach left and no one will think any less of you for it. But I bet once this journey begins, you will want to ride it until the wheels fall off.
First, brewing your own beer is a way of putting a mark on your own home bar. You can even get online and design yourself a label and then place it on your bottles, glasses and beer taps even. When company comes over, you can have them all try it. It might just become their favorite beer meaning you might just get company more often if that seems like something you would like to have.
Then, you can start marketing your beer to the local bars. Give them a taste and see if they like it. There are different ways to make this happen. You can get in touch with a local bar owner and tell them you would like to have a tasting at their bar. You offer some of your beer for free and then when people say they like the taste, the bar owner will most likely want to stock it. Make a thing of it. It’s supposed to be a fun time. So, have fun!
The next logical level is to enter into some beer events. Start locally, but again have fun. Go across the country if you want. The more exposure you get, the more buyers you get. Don’t be surprised when someone approaches you to see if you want a sponsor. Sponsorship can take you to levels you have never imagined. Nationwide distribution. Export. International attention.
By this time of course, you have expanded your enterprise to include so much more than a bucket and a kegerator. You have built your brewery into a high powered system that produces enough beer to satisfy all your orders. You’ve moved your operation to a local location that houses your brewery and invites the neighbors to wander in and have a beer. You’ve had to apply for your beer license so that you can start selling your beer and you’ve had to build a bar so that your neighbors have a comfortable place to sit. You’ve got a sign on the front of your place with your name on it and you’ve been highlighted in the paper as the local beer expert.
With a few different flavors now in your inventory, you can have a seat. Take a breath. You’re finished the first phase of Operation Your Brew. The rest of the ride goes anywhere you want it to go.
This year when we’re making beer for Thanksgiving…
What? You’re not making beer for Thanksgiving? You don’t have a home brew that you make special for Thanksgiving?
Well, how weird is that?
It must not be a tradition everyone shares. But, see if you can relate to any of these:
- Sitting on the couch and eating Thanksgiving while watching football.
- Same thing…sitting on the recliner with a food tray.
- Saying, “It’s not worth it. We’re going to a restaurant.”
- I ordered Pizza and Wings one year…
That was the year I had just finished my home bar and I made my first home brew for our New Happy Thanksgiving Tradition.
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoys their own traditions, whatever they may be!
Posted November 25th, 2009. Add a comment
