It really gets under my skin to read reviews of beers that are clearly within style, clearly brewed well, then bashed because they are not hoppy enough or big enough even when the beer is not intended to be hoppy or big. Then to read about beers that I know are just brewed to be innovative and new, and get rave reviews from these people just because they are the newest fad. Again, I am not knocking the breweries for brewing them, or people who drink them. Hell, I am one of those guys myself. But you need to take a beer for what it is and judge or review it fairly. Something it seems so many of these self-proclaimed “beer connoisseurs” lack the ability to do. Below are is a sampling of some interesting numbers I gathered from Beer Advocate and the scores for the top rated beers for these styles. See if you notice a trend.

Standard American Lager (Adjunct Lager): Highest Rated Score=84
Cream Ale: Highest Rated Score=88
Light Lager: Highest Rated Score=81
Low Alcohol Beer: Highest Rated Score=77
American Amber/Red: Highest Rate Score=87
Euro Lager (like Becks, Heineken, St. Pauly Girl, ect): Highest Rated Score=87

English Barleywine: Highest Rated Score=100
American Barleywine: Highest Rated Score=96
American IPA: Highest Rated Score=98
Belgian Dark Strong: Highest Rated Score=96
Oud Bruin: Highest Rated Score=94
Belgian Lambic: Highest Rated Score=99

Now I chose the beers categories above for one reason, one group is considered “trash” by the elitist beer snob, the other group is the biggest of the big, the boldest of the bold, or considered styles that only “those in the know” would find appealing, like the sour beers. See the difference? Do you mean to tell me the BEST CREAM ALE in the world is at best a 88 out of 100? Look at those poor low alcohol beers? Not a good one in the bunch. I find that hard to believe if you were taking a beer for what it is supposed to be, the best of that style will always be world class examples of that style. Something many of the type who frequent these websites don’t seem to understand. If you are to consider yourself a connoisseur, you need to understand and respect a beer for what it is, not what you think is worthy of your palate.

With that said, there are some bloggers out there who will call a light lager garbage, or say they suck. I just don’t buy into that mentality. Granted, they are not my go to beer styles either because they just don’t excite me, but if I am going to review one, or judge one in competition, I will take the beer for what it is supposed to be. That is how a beer review should be done, regardless of whether or not you like it, as long as you judged it according to style, that is all that matters. I am NOT saying every beer is worthy of praise and bad beers should not be called bad beers. I feel the Alstrom Brothers from Beer Advocate do a great job of that, the members of their website, not so much. I have read some great, fair, and honest reviews according to what the beer is supposed to be. I respect those people for doing so. But sadly the elitists seem to outnumber the competent ones on there. If you are offended by that statement, all I can do is apologize and say you must be part of the problem, because if you are doing a fair review for what the beer is, then you should not be offended at all.  Also, I must add that I am not talking about the forums or conversations going on in there, I am talking strictly the beer reviews.

Bloggers also are not free from guilt on that matter. I have read several reviews that made me think, “What the hell were you comparing that beer to?” because I have read some reviews on some blogs that could be reviewing an English IPA for example, then according to their review list some of the attributes one would expect in an English Style IPA, like a nice malt backbone, moderate hop flavor, aroma, and bitterness and so on, then go on to say it’s one of the worst IPA’s they have ever had. It’s my opinion that you cannot compare an English IPA to an American IPA and bash it for being an English IPA. Sorry, but that’s like bashing the delicious chicken dish you ordered because you prefer steak.What really is even worse is when only beer from a certain brewery’s is considered good. That also gets me going. LOL.

In the end, my point is, not every beer is good and not every craft beer is great; but you do need to evaluate it according to what it is, not what style you prefer and every other beer that does not fit that flavor/aroma profile is a crappy beer. That’s just not fair evaluation. If you are or want to be a beer judge, you do need to let go of that mindset.

Sprecher Brewery, Milwaukee Wisconsin

As part of my winnings from this summer’s grilling with beer competition, I received a coupon for a case of Sprecher beer and 2 tickets for a brewery tour. So Brian Lesperance and I headed down to Milwaukee this past Monday for a day to geek out on beer. We stopped at Northern Brewer in Milwaukee, then headed over to the Ale House for lunch. The Ale House was great! I enjoyed their Weekend at Louie’s beer which is their Louies Demise brewed with blueberry rooibos and Hibiscus tea. The blueberry tea came though the most for me. I also had one of their cask ales, a vanilla bean stout. Both were outstanding. Brian had the Ale Houses Monkey Paw which is a big 7% beer which we found funny that they had listed in their session beer section. He also asked for Black and Tan of their Solomon Juneau Extra Pale Ale and Sheepshead stout. After the Ale House we headed to Downer’s Wine and Spirits based off a beer advocate review of beer stores in the area, Downer’s got an A+ rating and we could see why. The store is small, but packed with one hell of a selection. But the purpose of this post is to talk about the brewery tour at Sprecher, so with that let’s get started.

Sprecher has tours Monday through Friday at 4pm, and also has tours on the weekend at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm. The  cost of the tour is $5. You do have to call ahead for reservations. They also have a gift shop that you can hit at the front end or back end of tour. They have all of their beers and soda, as well as shirts and glasses you can purchase. They also have some interesting beer food, like beer flavored chips, BBQ sauce, and candy. I should also note that children are allowed on these tours because they offer soda. So if you are the type who would like to bring your children on a brewery tour, and sample some beers while your kids drink soda, you can do that. Personally, I don’t care for that idea because I know some people that even after 5 sample sized glasses of beer, probably shouldn’t be driving even more so with kids in the car. But that’s just my opinion. You don’t have to drink the beer I guess, but that sort of is the highlight of any tour, sampling the beer after.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

So now at the start of the tour, everything seemed to start as any other tour in general. We started out in the brewing room with a very brief explanation of the brewing process. Now normally, I expect things to go into a bit more depth, than saying we mix different grains with filtered municipal water and heat it up. It makes a syrupy liquid that get’s pumped over there, then cooled and moved to our fermentors, where we mix that with different yeast and the yeast makes CO2 and of course alcohol. The beer will sit for 2 -21 weeks depending on the beer. Then he pointed to where the spent grains go. Honestly, that was the gist of the tour. No mention of hops at all, no talk about lagers or ales or where they get their grains from. No showing  us the equipment or explaining how it works. You can see where the tour guide stood and he just pointed over in the direction of the equipment. Brian and I were very disappointed. All in all it was less than 5 minutes on the entire brewing process and introduction. We then breezed through by the fermentation tanks without stopping or the tour guide even telling the people what they were, what was inside, or how they lager.

Bottling Line

This is where we spent the most time on our tour. The bottling line. Brian and I had a  theory that the guy who gave us our tour worked on the bottling line. We spent a disproportionate amount of time on bottling, labels, dates, and a very odd amount of time discussing neck labels.  We spent more time here listening about the bottling process than we did about the brewing process. Here we heard every detail. I took a picture behind us, of all the ingredients which which we didn’t talk about where they may be used or what beers/soda the go in.

What are these for? Where do they come from? What are they used in? Are they in something going right now?

From the bottling line we went into the tasting room, which was quite nice. You got a tasting glass and 5 samples of any beer you wanted, and unlimited soda samples. Between Brian and I we sampled the Dopplebock, IPA2, Abbey Triple, Pub Brown (which is what I used in Skirt Steak Fajitas), a contract brewed IPA, and Oktoberfest. The part that also bothered us was that Brian asked our guide a few questions and we got an answer of I’ll have to go ask someone and I will get back to you. But as we sat and sampled our beer, we never saw him go ask anyone. It was clear to us that the tour is not so much a tour for the beer fanatic, but more for general public who has a mild interest in beer. Unlike the New Glarus Hard Hat Tour which was a tour that any beer lover would love to take, this brewery tour (at least the one we were on) was just a glorified sample session. We didn’t learn anything about the brewery or it’s processes, which was disappointing to us. A discussion on Facebook came up shortly after and some I did hear from another beer loving friend who lives in Milwaukee that his tours there went down the same way so we were not alone. In the end, I’d say it’s worth the $5 price for the sampling, but the tour itself is nothing to write home about.

Tasting Room

Great Lakes Brewfest

This was another great year for the Great Lakes Brewfest, one of my favorite beer festivals of the year. The new venue was not what I was expecting at all, which was a plus. I was a bit apprehensive about it being at the zoo, because I was thinking we would be among the animals and who knows what could have happened when you get 4,000 people drinking some great craft beer among a bunch of caged animals. But the area was not around the cages and was a very nice open area.

I was unable to make the Friday event, but from the postings on their facebook page, that event had a great turnout and some very positive feedback. I cannot comment on this portion of the event because we did not travel down Friday and stay the extra night. You can probably place that blame on the economy.

The staging area beautiful. There was some entertainment as the monkey cage was right there. They seemed a bit confused about what all those people were doing there. I also like the castle-like entrance. All that though was small potatoes compared to the electric feel of the anticipation of the doors opening.

Waiting for the gates to open to the GLBF

One the gates opened it was a mad dash to your fist tent. If you are an experienced fest participant, it is smart of have a game plan for your first few beers. We had a game plan and that was to bypass the first few tents because like every year, those seem to be the first hit, so we made a dash for some of the back tents. This brings me to my first noticeable difference in the fest at the zoo compared to the Festival grounds. At the festival grounds, a bulk of your breweries were located in a central location. It got a bit crowded and at times hard to get into the beers you wanted. While the tent situation scattered the breweries all around the grounds, which lead to more  moving about from station to station, it did open up the area and it was not as congested as it is at the Festival grounds. Each setup had it’s advantages and disadvantages I guess. I didn’t mind either way. I do have to say I had a hard time finding (and in the end never got to) the stone brewery tent which was not where it said it was on the map. I was a bit disappointed in that. But it’s not like I didn’t have other choices.

Here is a shot of the festival grounds at the zoo.

There were many great craft brewers represented at the fest, as well as a few mead and cider producers as well. A few local breweries to note were Ale Asylum, New Glarus, Aeppletreow Winery, Hinterland Brewery, Furthermore, and Titletown brewing. On the National level you had heavy hitters like Stone, Left Hand, Avery, New Belgium, Rogue, Moylens, Dogfish Head, Ommegang, and Flying dog…..just to name a few. In the end there were hundreds of beers represented, some special firken tappings, or special offerings that were tapped at specific times. You had over 90 different brewers to choose from. If you couldn’t find something you like, you were not looking. That’s for sure. A few of my personal favorites from the day were Ale Asylum’s Hopalicious, Ommegang’s Aphrodite, and Left Hand Brewing’s 400 Pound Monkey. But really when you think about it, how many great beers do you have after you’re already well on your way? LOL.

Kilties

I’m going to be honest. I was so engrossed in the beer tasting, that I didn’t even notice the band playing. From time to time I recall hearing some background music but I didn’t get to pay much attention. The area was so big, perhaps the sound just was not carrying. I did get to stop and see the Kilties perform which is a treat every year. The Kilties help sponsor the event every year.

The Food is top notch for a beer festival. Although I didn’t get to sample much, I do go right for the pig roast sandwich. It has become my favorite meal at the fest. However, inside the food tent I did see that there were crepes, roasted corn, popcorn, brats and burgers, chili fries, and beer candy. There may have been more, but that was what I saw.

If you are concerned with driving, the GLBF takes good care of you. This was the first year I took advantage of the shuttles to and from the hotel, and I have to say it was a lot of fun both on the way there, and a lot more fun on the way back. There are other services available as well, from cabs to a designated driver program. There should be no excuse for drinking and driving from the festival.

So in the end, again year after year the Great Lakes Brewfest provides an outstanding assortment of craft beers, great food, and good good solid entertainment. I can’t stress enough that if you life in Wisconsin (or even if you don’t) this event is the one to hit. I’ve been going for years, and plan to keep going for many many more. This year, I did do something a little different. I asked a couple of other Fest goers about what they thought of the fest and below are their thoughts.

Brian Lesperance

My first set of feedback is from Fest Goer, Brian Lesperance. I asked Brian the following questions.

Is this your first year at the fest? No.

Did you like the new venue, or did you prefer the Festival Park grounds? I Like the new venue it’s more open and not as maze like.

Was it easy to locate all the beers/brewery’s you wanted to try? Pretty much. But I could not find tent 19 with Stone and Lagunitas.

What did you think of the choices of brewery’s? I am always looking for new brewery’s and beers to sample and regionally undistributed beers are great to sample.

Did you attend the Friday night event? No. We come down on Friday night but we sample the local cuisine and tour the Racine area.

What was your favorite beer of the night? Four Wolves English Ale from Stonefly, Left Hand’s 400 Pound Monkey, I also enjoyed  Alaskan Amber by Alaskan Brewing Co.

Did you like the Entertainment? I Didn’t care for this years band. The Kilties performance is always top notch.

Were you happy with food choices? Hell yeah! Pulled pork is awesome, as well as the usual fair of burgers and brats. The chili cheese fries were yummy.

What do you like most about the Fest? The beer of course. But the  other fest goers at the GLBF are the most friendly group I’ve been around. for the most part No fights, No raging drunks and everyone is friendly and courteous!

What do you like the least of the fest? Staggered Sampling.

Will you attend next year? Yes!

I also received feedback from a first time Great Lakes Brewfest Attendee, David Taylor.

David Taylor

Was this your first year at the fest? Yes.
Did you like the new venue, or did you prefer the Festival Park grounds? I have no way to compare but I think I would prefer a more circular shape so that the path from any one brewery to any other is more 2-dimensional. But that’s just being picky.

Was it easy to locate all the beers/brewery’s you wanted to try? Yes, for the most part, although I did miss a couple that I would have loved to have seen.

What did you think of the choices of brewery’s? Excellent!

Did you attend the Friday night event? No

What was your favorite beer of the night? Does it have to be beer? I loved Aeppeltreow’s Cyser Rose the best. For beer it would be one of two of Bear Republic’s — Racer 5 IPA or the Stout.

How would you describe the atmosphere of the festival? Big and beautiful, and pretty laid back. There were a lot of lines but you didn’t hear people complaining much about them either.

Did you like the Entertainment? I didn’t pay attention.

Were you happy with food choices? Yes, it all looked very good.

What do you like most about the Fest? The selection and the outdoorsy-ness.

What do you like the least of the fest? The sheer size and the lines. Need more port-a-potties!

Will you attend next year? Honestly, probably not. It’s a great fest, but a little too huge for my personal taste. I like being able to get from point A to B in zero minutes with no lines.

I would like to thank Brian and David for their feedback on the fest. It’s always good to give the readers a different opinion other than just my own. I hope to see you next year, I already have my room reserved.

The Festival is a two-day event with Friday September 16th being a showcase to Wisconsin’s Craft Beer scene. The “On Wisconsin Brews” portion of the Festival will showcase over 100 of Wisconsin’s finest craft beer offerings from about 35 different brewery’s from around the state. If you would like to see a line-up of the beers being offered, I will provide a link here. This particular event runs from 6:30pm until 10:30pm. Aside from the beer there will food and live music as well. Last year I had a pulled pork sandwich which was awesome, I hope that same vendor is there this year.

Saturday is the “Full Monty” which runs from 3pm till 7pm for general admission and from 2pm-7pm for Vip ticket holders. This Saturday event is the one I make sure I hit not matter what. The most exciting part of the whole thing is the choices you have. You have all of these brewery’s to choose from (select Wisconsin or Nationwide to see the full list). From my experience, each of these stands will offer anywhere from 3 to 5 different beers to choose from and many of them them will have special tappings of their specials or seasonal beers. Generally there is a few different musical performers staged at a few different locations of the festival so Entertainment is never an issue. Sometime about mid-fest you also are treated to a performance by the Kilties Drum and Bugle Corps as well. There is a large food tent,(Again, pulled pork my friends. Pulled Pork!) with several vendors offering a wide variety of food.I should also note that there will be a prize for the best animal costume too. So if you love to dress up, this is your chance.

So, are you ready to buy a ticket yet?  Ticket prices are $40 for each day of the fest, or $71 if you buy tickets to both days at the same time. VIP tickets for Saturday only will run you $85 each, or $116 if you bundle with a  general admission Friday ticket too. designated driver tickets are $15 each for general admission and $25 for VIP designated driver tickets.  You can purchase tickets Here.

Since drinking and driving is not the responsible way to attend a fest, I have to add that if you don’t have a designated driver ticket, you should seriously think of purchasing a shuttle ticket if you are staying at one of the hotels. For either $4 or $8 round trip, it is really worth it. You can purchase those Here.

So hopefully you can make September 16th and/or the 17th. If you can’t make this year, make a plan for next year because this fest is one you don’t want to miss!

The recipe poster in front of my grilling station

A week ago I posted that I was selected as one of eight finalists in the Sprecher Grilling with beer contest. The event was a great time, and I give a lot of thanks to Sprecher Brewing, Keg-a-Que, and the Beef council for sponsoring such a cool event. Anything that spreads awareness as beer as an ingredient in great cooking is A+ in my book. I am also happy to say I took a 2nd place spot in this competition with my Pub Style Skirt Steak Fajitas. I am sad to say at this time I don’t remember who took the 1st and 3rd place spots, but I promise to update this post with that information once Sprecher updates their site with the other winners. I did get a chance to sample some of the other contestants food around me and I have to say their recipes were very tasty, I can see why they were selected for the contest.

The day started at noon when I arrived to let the people at Sprecher know that I was indeed there to compete. However, since my turn-in time was 2:10 and my dish only takes approximately 45 minutes to prepare and cook, I didn’t have to start cooking until just before 1:30. At about 1:25 I start slicing my peppers and onions and turned on the grill. Once hot, it was just a matter of cooking the skirt steak to about 7 minutes a side. Normally on my charcoal grill I do about 5 minutes each side, but this grill seemed to feel a bit less intense than when I use charcoal. This worked well. I ended up pulling my steak off just shy of 1:50 and got started on the peppers and onions. Shortly after, the steak was done resting about 2pm and I sliced the steak. By the time I was done slicing the vegetables were done, and I had time to quickly grill a tortilla. I was nervous about my serving because I didn’t have time to make another or make it look pretty, so I bet I didn’t get the best score for presentation. But the meat was spot on for what I was going for and the vegetables were of good flavor and texture. Below are some pics from the event.

Here I am receiving my instructions for turn in times and so forth.

Here is the grilled skirt steak as it rests.

Here is the beer braised onions and peppers.

Here is the sliced skirt steak.

Finished product, I also quickly warmed the tortilla on the grill as well.

This is just a shot of the judges eating my entry. I'm probably the only one who likes this pic.

Called up on stage for 2nd place!!

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All three of us winners up on stage. 1st place was a rueben burger, then my skirt steak fajitas, and at third place was Farmer's Fantastic Ribeyes grilled by Shana Johnson (no relation).

For second place I received a grill, various beef shwag, a gift certificate for beef, a grilling with beer cookbook, a case of Sprecher beer, and 2 tour passes.

The Beer!

The beer is the most important part of any beer festival, but that should go without saying. Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival will have over 90 beers from the Milwaukee area for you to sample. The brewery lineup is quite good with some craft beer lover classics like Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee Ale House, Milwaukee Brewing Co, and Sprecher. But the lineup does not stop at those classics. Also making a showing at Firkin will be Horney Goat, St. Francis Brewery, Stonefly Brewing Company, Water Street Brewery, Rock Bottom Brewery, Buffalo Water Brewing Company, Leinenkugels, III Dachshunds Beer and Cider, Chameleon Brewing Company, Miller Valley Brewery, and Big Bay Brewing. So you can see there is quite a great representation of Milwaukee brewing tradition here as well as newer breweries that starting to make a solid mark in the craft beer world. Many of these breweries are favorites of mine. For example Milwaukee Brewing Company has their Sai Son Farmhouse Ale which I will be reviewing shortly on here. I think it is fantastic. I have also heard a rumor that there may be a special commemorative beers being served at the festival as well.

Something else that unique and exciting that the Firkin Festival is offering that you may not find at many other craft beer festival is that they are serving 10 authentic cask ales served from Firkins. People who have been to Oktoberfest may be familiar with Firkins. They are about the size of a quarter barrel and hold roughly 40 liters of cask conditioned beer. If you want to see exactly what a Firkin is, check out this link on Youtube. A huge part of the fun is tapping the Firkin. But this festival offers more than just beer.

The Music

There are two musical acts in the line-up for the fest. First is the Milwaukee blues band Reverend Raven and the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys (Click the link for a taste of their music). There is not much better drinking music than some good old classic blues if you ask me. Reverend Raven is a well seasoned, and fairly well known blues band. I have seen them perform here locally before and they were quite good. One of the songs featured on their website is a funny blues tune called Jiggle My Junk which is a satirical look at Airport security, the scanners in particular, and wondering what Uncle Sam wants with those photos.

What Wisconsin festival would be complete without a Polka Band? Well, if you ask most Wisconsinites, the answer would be none. The Squeezettes bring polka to life like I have never seen before. I listened to some of the their music and with rock styled vocals and what they are calling Power Polka, they sort of remind me of a combination of the low rock styling of The Twinemen meets Irish folk music. Personally I am not a fan of Polka music, but this band I could really listen too. Let’s just say it’s not your Grandpa’s Polka.

Wait, there’s More?

So what else is going down at the Firkin Craft Beer Festival? There is more than just beer an music going down at the Festival. There will be a talk given by renowned Milwaukee beer historian Len Jurgensen. You will also be able to view various displays of Breweriana as well as beer exhibits put on by Discovery World and the Pabst Museum. You will also be able to find a beer kiosk on the grounds as well.

The Low Down

So the bottom line is where is this fest located, how much are tickets, and what do I have to bring?  The Milwaukee Firkin Festival is located at Cathedral Square Park in Downtown Milwaukee on July 23rd from 3pm to 7pm (Unless you purchase a VIP ticket in which case the doors open at 2pm)

You have two options, you can with a regular admission ticket for $40 and get unlimited sampling of the 90+ beers on tap plus a Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival Pint Glass. You can also roll like  VIP and get the unlimited sampling and pint glass, but you will also get in an hour before the general admission (no risk of missing out on your favorite beers) , a T-shirt, a chance to mingle with the brewmasters, and some crackers and cheese sampling in the VIP tent. All that for $25 more ($65). You can purchase tickets directly here.

To answer the question about what to bring, you only need to bring your love of great craft beer, a thirst for some good music, and bring an appetite. There will be local food available at the fest as well. One other thing to consider bringing is a designated driver. The Milwaukee  Firkin Craft Beer Festival does off designated driver tickets for only $15. Always remember, have fun but be safe. Drinking and driving does not just endanger yourself, but everyone who shares the road with you.

This craft beer festival should prove to be a Firkin good time, and with Milwaukee’s rich brewing tradition, provide some solid craft beer choices. Prost!

Step 1 is plan way ahead and be patient. In other words, the key to building a Kegerator on a tight budget is to not get all your parts in one purchase. Once you know you are going to build one, start watching for sales and scouring craigslist, ebay, ask around at your homebrew club for someone with extra equipment they may want to sell, and sign up to hear about special deals from online homebrew supply stores. Morebeer’s deal of the day is a good one to check daily. For the chest freezer, if your patient you will find a heck of  deal in your area if you give it time. I know that Menards in our area sells used but working units that they remove from people’s homes. So it may be worth checking places like that as well. Chances are one will turn up in your family or among your friends soon enough. Sometimes if you offer to move it out of the house or offer up a case or two of homebrew some people will part with an older chest freezer. Worst case, you may have buy one, but do not spend over $100 for a used model. Heck, I wouldn’t spend over $45 which was my cap limit until I found one for free. The most expensive unit on my kegerator is the temperature controller, you can find these used on ebay or buy them without the plug wired and wire it yourself. A digital one will run you a bit more, but the analog one I got ran me $45+shipping.

Parts List

• Used Chest Freezer
• 1 Tube of Caulk
• 1 small box of Roofing nails
• 2 – 1x4x8 premium boards
• about 8 small L brackets
• small Sheet Metal and 1 1/4″ wood screws.
• 6 plastic cable clips
• Super Glue (For attaching the cable clips)
• Then you will need a faucet, some tubing, a keg, a CO2 tank, Regulator, gas and beer disconnects, ect. (Prices vary based on used equipment prices or new, and where you purchase these. But count on at least $150 minimum for this portion of the investment)

The Process

First things first. You should block the hinges because they are spring loaded. Then, once you have them blocked to they don’t snap you in the fingers, unscrew the lid from the hinges.

If you don't block the hinges, you run a risk of some broken fingers.

Once you remove the lid. You want to use a pry bar to gently remove the gasket, while keeping the snap in buttons in tact as much as possible. If you break a few, don’t worry we have a remedy for that. You will also be removing the plastic cover if your lid has one.

Then, like in the picture below. You want to cut your wood with a miter saw and screw the wood pieces together getting them as square as possible. Then line it up with the lid. It is important to measure twice and cut once in this instance. Plan out where the collar is going to go in relation to not only the lid but also the main part of the freezer.

Cut to Fit.

Once you have it figured out, cut, and put together, you want to attach the collar to the lid (If you are wondering why I attached the collar to the lid, it’s because the extra height of the collar on the freezer would make it difficult to reach the bottom. If you prefer to attach the collar to the bottom of the freezer, that is your choice. It will be easier to put together, but harder to reach the bottom on large freezers). To do this I used small L brackets. When possible I drilled directly into the lid to fasten the collar, where it was not, I placed the L bracket below the sheet metal and attached the part to the wood. I also used caulk around the edge to help create a seal and to act as an adhesive.  See below 2 pictures.

Here it is attached directly to the lid with sheet metal bolts.

Here is the shot of how I used the L bracket to hook under the sheet metal of the lid to hold the lid in place.

Now that the collar is firmly attached to the lid. It’s time to put on the gasket and plastic cover. To do this I placed the plastic cover on the collar. This plastic cover on my model had the holes for putting back in the plastic buttons. So I used that as a template then drilled small holes to fit the button prongs in the place of the holes. That way I could snap the buttons into the holes, and use a bit of caulk adhesive to help reinforce the hold. I also used caulk between the plastic and the collar as well as the gasket and plastic. It worked out pretty well. See below for pictures.

Lining it up

Attaching the gasket.

Snap the plastic buttons into the holes you drilled.

Remember when I told you if you break a few, I have a fix for you? I had a small box of left over roofing nails and used those to nail the gasket into place where the buttons were missing. Just remember how many you broke and don't drill holes for those spots.

Now we are in the home stretch. Figure out where you are going to put your taps. In my case, I was not going to use the whole freezer for taps, but just 2 for now and up to 4 later. The rest of the space if for bottle storage. So I cut a space in the plastic for access to 2 taps.

Space for taps. However this picture was taken after I already had one beer in and tapped, but you get the idea.

I used some plastic cable clamps to hold my hoses. Having the collar on top and the taps to lift when you open your lid would leave hoses in the way. So I used the clamps to manage the hoses. EDIT: Although I forgot to mention it here, don’t forget to install your temperature controller. I attached mine to outside on the collar, on the rear corner. I then took the probe and placed it in a bottle of water. You can see it in the second picture below in the corner on the compressor hump. That ensures that your beer will be at the temperature you are setting the controller at and reduce the cycles of the freezer, or so I have been lead to believe.

Hoses kept out of the way as they are now attached to the lid as it opens.

Inside the Kegerator, I know it's a mess. But it's a beautiful mess.

All that’s left is to add any accessories you have purchased and/or clean and paint the kegerator. I chose to repaint it since the one I got was a bit dingy on the outside. Here is the completed kegerator from the outside.

The finished product.I probably shouldn't have gone with all white, but oh well. The black on the edge is caulk board paint we had left over from another project. That will work well for writing what is on tap there.

Your basic run of the mill faucet.

First you want to remove the top portion of the faucet, right below where the tap handle is attached to.

Remove this part of the faucet. You may need a pliers, but you can usually do this with just your fingers.

Next, simply pull out the stem that the tap handle attached to.

Pull out the stem that the tap handle attached to

Now last, pull out the assembly inside the faucet from the back.

Pull out internal assembly

There you have it. That is all you need to do in order to take apart your faucet to inspect the gaskets and O-rings as well as clean off the internal components. If you paid attention to what it looked like when you took it apart, you will notice that the only part you really have to pay attention to when putting it back together is the slot in the internal part that hooks into the stem that the tap handle attached to . All you have to do it line up the slot with the flat part on the stem and screw on the top part. Your good. It’s that simple.

To clean them, I like to give them a quick soak in beer line cleaner then just wipe them off with a clean rag. Then rinse and pat dry. To clean inside the faucet I use a large q-tip and scrub out the inside. Then prior to reattaching it to the kegerator, I sanitize it. Then run sanitizer through the lines before tapping my beer. Overkill? Maybe or maybe not. But it’s better than infecting your beer once it’s tapped by having dirty kegging equipment.

What you will need:

• 1 licensed copy of Beersmith (again, this does not work with version 2 of Beersmith)
• 1 flash drive (I would go with a 1 gigabyte or better drive)
• An Internet connection

Your first step to create a nice interface to use. You don’t have to do this, you could just copy and past your Beersmith folder into the flash drive and be done with it, but this easy step will make things a bit easier to access, plus you can add other useful programs to it. To get this interface, go to portableapps.com and download the Portable Apps Platform. Once Downloaded, run the install and point to your flash drive as the place to install the program to. Once it is installed, navigate to the flash drive. It should look similar to the image below.

Now find your Beersmith folder on your C drive. Most of the time it will be in C:>Program File (or Programs)>Beersmith. Now copy the entire Beersmith folder. Then open the folder on your flash Drive called “Portable Apps” and paste (or drag and drop your Beersmith folder) in here.

This is the folder you want to either Install Beersmith to, drag and drop your Beersmith folder to from your Hard Drive, or copy and paste to.

Now, you can either click the “Start Portable Apps” Icon, or just pull out and insert your flash drive and it should appear as the shown below. Alternatively, you could just install Beersmith into your Portable Apps folder then register it from there, But by dragging and dropping the folder, all of your settings and past recipes should remain. Again, this needs to be a purchased and licensed copy of Beersmith for this to work.

Now you have a portable copy of Beersmith without having to install on multiple machines.

Now you can have your licensed copy of Beersmith on a portable drive that you can take with you on your laptop and insert into your main PC. You can also take this drive with you to your friends house if you are going to be doing a brew there, or take it with you to club meetings to collaborate with your Homebrew Club members. You can also easily make a backup copy on another flash drive in case one gets lost or damaged. There are a lot of advantages to having your Beersmith program portable, but it’s up to you on the reasons why. I do want to stress that it is important to only use this portable copy yourself. If you don’t, you are not only breaking the license agreement but also steeling from someone who put a lot of work into the development of this program. Beersmith is only $21.95 so there is no reason to not purchase it, especially if you make it portable.

Making a hop martini is one of the many things you can do with elixir!

Calling all hopheads out there! Have you ever craved the Ultimate hophead experience? Well, I have it here for you. I have made a hop infused vodka with my homegrown glacier hops that you can spruce up almost anything to fit your hophead needs….even a full on hop martini. The process is simple, and the possibilities are endless.

The process is very simple, you just take hops and place them in a vessel, say a mason jar. Then fill it 1/2 full (or more. I did about 3/4 full) then let it sit for 4 days or more (I did four days). The hops will absorb some vodka, so you may need to add vodka throughout the process if you used a lot of hops. What I also did, was every day I gently shook the jar to help bring out more hop goodness. I don’t have any scientific evidence on if it dissolves more lupulin, but hey, it worked for me. What you see in the picture was 4 days of infusing glacier hops in the Vodka. From there, I strained off the vodka and placed the hops in a strainer. I gently squeezed the hops to extract more liquid, but I did not wring them out. I wanted mostly lupulin and not so much of the leafy matter that I would get if I abused the cones too much. I took it to my homebrew club for evaluation, and we all agree, there is a ton of hop flavor and aroma dissolved in that Vodka. For me, the first two swallows are bit harsh, but after that, its smooth sailing.

Some will say the type of vodka you choose really doesn’t make a difference, but I disagree. If you use a cheap vodka that you have to mix with something to taste good, you probably will still end up with vodka infusion you really are not happy with. My favorite vodka by far is Tito’s Handmade Vodka. It is relatively inexpensive ($16.95 for 750ml here where I live), fairly easy to find, and is a top-notch vodka you can easily drink straight. To me, it’s the perfect vodka for this task. But you can use whatever you want.

So what can you do with it? Well, obviously you can have a hoptini of any type, you can use this either straight like I did or find something sweet to mix it with. You could serve some hop shots with this for some hophead fun. But you can also use this to hop flavor to marinades, or other aspects of cooking. You can also make small batches to test the characteristics of different hops compared to each other. This would be an excellent tool for training your palate for judging. The last think I am going to mention is adding hop character to an underhopped beer. Let’s say you brewed a beer that just seems a bit bland to you. You can add this homemade hop extract to not only add a bit of bitterness, but mostly hop flavor and aroma to your brew. I have tested this with beer poured into a glass and adding a small amount of this hop extract to it. It works. I don’t know exactly how to measure up for a 5 gallon batch, but it could be done. The amount of alcohol you are adding is minimal. You have to think that Vodka is only 40% abv, so just under half of whatever you add is contributing to the alcohol content of the brew.

Mmmmm, hops.

Beer and Food Pairing by Beer Style Download. (you can download this document by clicking the “File” tab in the upper left corner in the Google Docs section then selecting “download original”. )

DoppleBock Sauce

2 cups of Apple Cider
1 Bottle of Sprecher Dopplebock (or your favorite Dopplebock)
1 1/4 cup Ketchup
1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Cup Honey Dijon Mustard
1/2 Cup Yellow Mustard
1/2 Cup light dry Malt Extract (you can substitute Brown Sugar)
1/2 cup of Honey
1/2 Cup Molasses
2 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
2 TBSP Frank’s Red Hot (or your favorite Hot Sauce)
2 TBSP Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon celery Salt
1 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Hot Madras Curry Powder (optional)
1 Medium Onion (chopped)
2 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)
1 Roasted, peeled, and chopped Anaheim Pepper
Kosher Salt to taste (or sea salt, do not use Iodized salt)

Roast the Anaheim Pepper by brushing it with olive oil and either grilling it until the skin starts to char, or placing in the oven at a low broil. Turning every minute or two until the skin starts to char.Then place in a plastic bag to steam for about 15 minutes. When cool, the skin should peel off easily.

Add all the ingredients above to a large non-stick sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer from 30 to 60 minutes, or the sauce starts to thicken. Allow to cool, then quickly run it through a blender or food processor to smooth out the peppers. Transfer to jars and keep cool until you give them away as gifts, or till you cook with it. This sauce will keep in the fridge for several months.

This sauce goes great with Chicken and Pork. However, try it with some grilled shrimp and you will fall in love. I guess you could use it on Lamb or even as a sauce for cocktail weiners too. It may be a bit too sweet to be used on Beef, but that’s your call. (EDIT: I have since tried it on a few beef dishes like Salisbury steak and as the liquid in beef stew, and it turned out great. Turns out it’s not too sweet for beef. My wife actually liked it so much she demanded we have some in the fridge at all times. )

Now, being a solid beer guy, I get upset with the stigma that Wine is a drink for the sophisticated palate. The fact that some people drink wine simply for the image, really gets under my skin. But all that aside, I really don’t hate wine, and have enjoyed a glass from time to time. What I don’t like is that people think if you are having a wine and anything party, be it a wine tasting, a wine dinner, or wine and cheese tasting, they think that is the best thing ever. But let’s be honest, for quite a  few people, wine is really nothing more than another alcoholic drink just like beer…..except this one brings an image of class and sophistication. Beer still carries the image of pounding down a six-pack of flavorless barley water with alcohol just for the sake of getting a buzz. The truth is, beer has just as much (if not more), complexity and sophistication as wine. Plus,  beer does have one huge weapon against wine when it comes to pairing well with cheese. Can you guess what that is? That’s right Carbonation (if you were paying attention, you would remember that from earlier on). So you would be hard pressed to find a cheese (or any food for that matter) that you cannot pair well with beer. But, for the sake of this article, lets focus strictly on cheese and beer……an easy subject for me because let’s face it, I’m from Wisconsin. We have a strong beer history and German heritage here, and we have some of the finest cheese in the US here.

There are some classic cheese and beer pairings. Well, at least to me they are classic. Because of region, I will stay fairly generic and stay with the most popular brands. Just keep in mind that some specific beers will pair better with specific cheeses from certain cheese makers. This is only a rough (very rough) guideline. One classic pairing is aged (not baby) Swiss Cheese and a good Bock or better yet, a dopplebock. The silky velvety and slightly nuttiness from the cheese pairs so well with toasty and melanoidin flavors and aromas from the bock. Both are smooth and silky, its a good basic pairing. Another one of my favorites is a good solid sharp well aged cheddar cheese and a good quality American IPA. Only a few short miles from my house is Pine River Dairy, once in a while they have an 11-year-old cheddar they sell which is to die for. It’s pungent, it’s sharp and borderline bitter. There are also some very deep earthy tones to the beer, in an odd way it reminds me slightly of the red clay we have here in the soil. I love to pair that beer with Dogfish Head’s 90 minute IPA. I also found it goes well with Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. The sharp bitterness of the beer travels right along side the slightly bitter nature of the aged cheese, yet can overtake it to cut through the fat. One last basic pairing for today is your classic aged Gouda. I really like pairing that one with Norther English Brown ales. One beer in particular I like is New Glarus Fat Squirrel. When you can get that beer fresh, it is so nutty and sweet up front, and has some great malt depth to it. It’s fairly well carbonated and finishes slightly dry, even though it is sweet up front. To me it’s the quintessential beer to enjoy with Gouda. To me, Gouda is smooth, creamy, a bit sweet, and quite nutty for a cheese. Those are some great pairs for my personal taste.

There are a few sort of odd pairings I am very fond of as well that I suggest you try. Oddly, both of them that I mention include Framboise (Raspberry Tart from New Glarus in particular). I found two cheeses that I simply love with this beer are Gorgonzola and Parmesan cheese. That’s right Parmesan cheese. Not the grated kind you buy near the pasta, I mean the wedge or block of real hard, nutty, tangy, salty Parmesan cheese. There is something about the tangy character that also goes with the sour raspberry of the beer. The sweetness is the yin to the salty cheese yang. Honestly consider Parmesan cheese as a snack cheese sometime and pair it with a local Framboise. You will not be disappointed.  As far as the Gorgonzola goes, I know it is an odd pairing, Barleywine traditionally goes well with the Blue Cheese family, but for me, I like the sour sweetness that opposes the sharp tang from the blue cheese. It’s an odd pairing, but one I really enjoy. 

Lamb Stew with Pere Jacques

Today I’m going to do things a bit differently. Instead of simply talking beer, or talking beer and food pairing, or cooking with beer. I am going to invite you in and show you a recipe I created using Pere Jacques from Goose Island. Although in this recipe I used lamb, this will work with pork or beef as well since dubbels pair nicely with both those. There are a few beer styles that pair well with lamb, but I chose the Belgian Dubbel because I felt the yeast character, particularly of Pere Jacques, would work well with the mild gameiness of the lamb.

My wife and I have discovered the joys of grass-fed animals. Come to find out, corn is not the natural food for cows, and this can lead to health issues, not only with the cow (or other grass-eating animals) meat, but some say it can be linked to the presence of E. Coli in the meat. Now, I’m not going get all preachy on it, but this was something interesting I learned. Moreover, grass-fed meat does taste a bit different, and I actually like the flavor. We get our meats from a place called grassway organics.

With all that, here is the recipe I came up with.

Lamb Stew with Belgian Dubbel

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil (more if needed)
2 pounds lamb shoulder or leg meat, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bottle (12-ounces) belgian dubbel
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon mediterranean seasoning
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large onions, sliced into rings
4 shallots
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large potato cut into large cubes
3 medium-sized carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 celery stalks
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary*
2 fresh basil leaves*
a few sprigs of fresh mint
3 bay leaves

*use dry store bought if fresh is not available.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add lamb to skillet in batches, being careful not to crowd the pan, and sear well on all sides.

Sear the meat.....

Remove from skillet.When all the lamb is seared well, return it to the skillet. Sprinkle with flour and stir to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Cook 3 minutes. Remove to a Dutch oven or slow cooker.

Degrease skillet. Place over medium-high heat; add beer and stir, scraping up any browned bits. Blend in vinegar, mustard, and mediterranean seasoning. Pour over meat mixture.

Add the beer mixture

Melt butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and shallots and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté an additional 2 minutes. Mix onions and garlic into meat.  Add carrots and potatoes along with  rosemary, mint, bay leaves, and celery.

Ready to cook.

Bring stew to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until meat is tender, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.If the stew is too thick or dry, add a little more beer as needed. If too liquidy, cook uncovered until desired consistency or use a cornstarch and water mixture.

Now reap the rewards of your labor!