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  

It looks like a case of third time’s the charm for brewing giant, SABMiller.

It has agreed to buy Foster’s Group for an increased price of $5.10 Australian dollars per share, valuing the Australian beermaker at just under $10 billion Australian dollars, that’s $10.2 billion U.S. dollars.

As part of the deal, Foster’s will also return $0.30 a share as well as a final dividend for the year to June.

Including debt, the total value of the deal comes to $11.5 billion Australian dollars.

SABMiller’s Chief Executive said his company was pleased with the agreed deal, which will now be put to Foster’s shareholders.

The London-based brewer of Peroni, Miller Lite and Grolsch has been chasing Foster’s since late June, first with a bid of $9.5 billion Australian dollars before taking the offer hostile at the same price in mid-August.

Foster’s rejected both approaches as being too low.

SABMiller says the bid is part of its strategy to create an attractive global spread of businesses to add to its operations – largely in the emerging markets of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

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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!

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

What?  You’re not making beer or wine 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!

If the idea of being able to craft delicious homemade beer is something that appeals to you – regardless of how much money you have, you’re educational background, your skills or the amount of equipment you own, then you will love this…

But one quick thing before I continue: I have $89.90 in free bonuses reserved in your name. To discover how easy it is to get all of them for FREE, follow the link below.

If you are just starting to brew, if you are curious, or if you are a brewer looking for an A-Z guide, this is the one to get. Home Beer Brewing Secrets gives you a solid foundation of knowledge that will serve you well in your brewing pursuits. Everything is presented in a simple-to-understand format that answers all your questions from the most basic, to as technical as you could possibly want!

Home Beer Brewing Secrets is jam-packed with simple, sure-fire instructions for making your very first beer… accurately, clearly, and simply.

All You Need to Know to Start From Square-Zero

to Being an Expert at Making Delicious, Hearty, Home-Crafted Beer!

Here’s just some of what you’ll discover:

• - Learn the 10 crucial steps to an irresistibly refreshing home brew
• - Learn about the ingredients of all forms of beer
• - How to prevent your precious brew from getting spoiled… using one simple, inexpensive tool
• - Which beer bottle you must use to prevent beer being spoiled during storage
• - Simple formula that lets you adjust alcohol content up or down (I suggest UP!)
• - 4 tips for beer storage

Home Beer Brewing Secrets

So, here’s the home bar the easy way:

The kegerator is the first thing you put in your bar.  It keeps your keg cool and it adds style in an inexpensive way.

This kegerator can actually make the entire bar.  If you choose to use a kegerator like this to hold your kegs, you can make it a part of the bar’s counter top.  Then, you only need counter space on each side.  That’s a setup made easy, as easy as it gets. 

Grab a tap handle of your favorite beer and now you’ve got something to really get you bragging.  There are tap handles of all kinds, from your favorite domestic to your favorite import.  As a promotional tool, every beer you can think of has a beer tap handle for commercial uses as well as the home bar enthusiast.

But, just in case you have a beer of your own or some other “unrecognizable” libation, get the beer tap handle you can write anything on that you want. 

Tell people, “Try Me!”  Give your concoction a name.  Have fun with it and write, “Make Your Own Beer…” or whatever else you might come up with to prank your friends.

You’ve got the bar.  Dress it up in style.  The kegerator and a beer tap handle can turn any room into a bar.  Your bedroom, your dorm room (oops), your garage, your basement, your tree house…

Anywhere!

But when the bar is in place and you think you have it all, what kind of lame bar serves draft beer in plastic cups?  And I’ll be willing to bet that’s what you have.  Red plastic cups that you bought at the grocery store.  Hmm…all that work and then you tap out at the end.

Well, you can add some specialty glasses so that your friends are drinking in style.  This is where it gets tricky, but you can manage.  You don’t just want to get mugs of any kind.  You need to stock up your cabinets with mugs of all kinds.

Vintage mugs from old fashioned beers add such a touch of class.  Especially when you have friends asking you where you got the mugs.  That’s when you realize saving money on those red plastic cups wasn’t worth it after all.

But, don’t stop there.  You should have Pilsners and Pints, Dimpled Mugs and Retro Pubs.  Get mugs with different logos like Coors, Molson, Blue Moon and Killian.  It’s a blast to make sure that you drink out of the right glass for the right kind of draft.

Logo Beer Glasses