Waxing bottles looks bad ass.  I think almost everyone will agree to that.  So, when our homebrew club racked out the Russian Imperial Stout from the Maker's Mark barrel , Eric and I decided to bottle (who needs that on a keggerator?), label, and wax cap our share.  Coming up with a name is post all its own - as is labeling, so I won't talk about that here.  What most people want to know about is how to wax.  I found a very helpful post over on Passion Beer's website and we followed their example.   I'll walk you through our steps and give you our details.  We were going to wax about 48 bottles. 1.  You need crayons.  We used 12 Crayola crayons.  There were cheaper options, but I decided on quality.  I hear that when school supplies hit in the fall, these 8-packs are about 25 cents.  I ended up paying 79 cents for these.  But now I can do this seven more times. 2.  You need hot glue gun sticks. ...

Or, as I wanted to name the this post, "How to Put a Hole in a Perfectly Good Pot."  I feel like the current title is more constructive.  So, that will be the topic for today: drilling a hole in your stainless steel pot for a ball valve. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous going into this project.  I read enough to know that I could royally screw up something, namely, the pot.   That is what I would have cared about.  A drill bit?  So what.  A 32-quart stainless steel pot?  That's another story. Equipment for drilling a hole. After reading up on this, Eric came over this past Saturday afternoon and we headed into the project.  After discussing our process, we decided the mantra for the day would be "patience."  And patience did pay off. To the right you will see the equipment I used.  Some of the more normal things I hope you recognize: a pot, a tape measure, a drill, safety glasses, a sharpie.  Also I have a met...

Money shot.  At the beginning, nonetheless. So, while I am waiting on the rest of my valves to come in and while I am putting off drilling a hole in my very nice, very expensive brew pot, I needed a post.  Since we are still in the beginning stages of this blog, I figure looking back some more is not all that bad.  So, since I reasoned myself to this point, this post will be about my kegerator which I built in August of 2011. Now, a kegerator is typically a beer lover's dream come true.  Draft beer at your fingertips.  Ready to go at a moment's notice.  Unfortunately, buying a pre-made kegerator can be expensive and you usually can't get exactly what you want.  So, many homebrewers and beer lovers have converted an old fridge to serve such a purpose. Some people use chest freezers (and convert them to "keezers") and build a collar around the top to give some extra head space for kegs, as well as giving a convenient place to put faucets without ...