Who doesn't love commercial craft beer? After all, it's a nice check-in for the characteristics that we aspire to while homebrewing. Here's an idea you might want to try instead of tossing some of those cool looking six pack cartons.

A few years ago, a buddy gave me the carton of every blue moon style of beer and thought they would look good up on the wall. What a great idea indeed! Since then, I've been saving every one to eventually frame and run across the top of the bar. I probably have around 200 already and some of my favorites are pictured above.

After looking online at a few of the dollar store sites, there are definitely some viable options for frames. You could also paste them to a poster board to put up in your garage or brewshed. All you need is a nice pair of sissors or paper cutter to get started.

Most containers will rip right in half by pulling the sides apart (up by the handle). Once it's split, put one of the sides face down on a flat surface and rip out the supports. Being double-sided, you will have two chances at this if it tears--or if it was already wrinkled or bent by the time you got it. Finally, cut off the excess on all sides.

Now if I could only get them signed by the brewmasters!

Cheers!

Have you ever heard of a beer tower? 
I hadn't until a bunch of us were out at a local joint called Cheeseburgers in Paradise and the server was telling us about them. The girls ordered fufu drinks like frozen sangria pina coladas (which they said were unbelievable) and we ordered a beer tower.

I'm talking about 100oz of your favorite beer that is conveniently brought to the table and poured at your leisure!  It's kept cold by a frozen stainless steel canister that is dropped down into the beer.

This got me thinking of getting one of these for home. How nice would it be to pour some homebrew right from the tap and take it to another location in your house? Made of plastic, it's perfect poolside or for summer BBQs.  

After looking a little online, I realized they are actually called beer tubes and can be purchased for under $100.  The steel canister will set you back another $22 bucks.

Not to toot our own horn or anything, but we are very excited that the American Homebrewers Association is showcasing our drip irrigation system this month in their Pimp My System column. It's a great series with a few years worth of brew setups, gadgets, and DIY projects.

If you are not familiar with the AHA, they are a fantastic resource for everything brewing related and have great community forums as well. 

Check 'Em Out!

Bertus Brewery posted a great guide on clearing your beer using gelatin. We've used this method a number of times for our beers, especially when brewing for a party or event on short notice and it works great!  

Here's a bit from their site and a link for the process.

"This is a topic I've brushed on before, but I get plenty of questions about it. So I decided to do a full post dedicated to my favorite fining agent: gelatin. If you ask people their feelings on using gelatin to fine beer, you'll get a number of different opinions. Personally, I find it invaluable to clear my beer quickly. Fining one's beer with gelatin isn't difficult, but it does require a few specific steps. Here's the process I've had success with.

Fermenter or Keg

The first question to ask, is: What state should our beer be in when we add the gelatin? There are two methods, and they both work equally well. You can fine with gelatin in either a fermenter (primary or secondary), or directly in the serving keg. I typically opt for the later. Although, in either case, you want the beer to be cold, and I mean ICE cold. The colder the beer is, the more haze-forming particulate will form. The more haze-forming particulate that forms, the more particulate the gelatin can fine out. I've heard people have used gelatin with some success at cellar temps (50-55F), but I've only had it work well when the beer was at serving temp (32-40F).

Which Gelatin to Buy?

Obviously, you shouldn't buy cherry jello; you're looking for unflavored gelatin. Knox is a popular brand that most supermarkets carry, but I find the store-brand works just as well. Most LHBS also carry gelatin, but they tend to include a hefty markup on the price. The specifics don't matter much, so long as you buy unflavored gelatin, you'll be fine."
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Alright, don't pretend you haven't woke up hungover and your trashed house is like every spy movie in the 80's where they were looking for something they didn't find and you think... Beer.

With no modivation to start cleaning, you hop in the shower and the hot, steamy water never felt better.  Cold beer with the hot water is like some kind of crazy yin and yang harmony.

Wait... no one else?   (crickets)

Okay then, I guess you probably don't need this handy guide on where not to put your shower beer!

Thanks to pnovara on visual.ly

For anyone looking to improve their brewing process, I am pleading with you...  GO BUY BEERSMITH RIGHT NOW!  It's the cheapest single investment you can make toward brewing better beer.

We plan to write a future article on how BrewGeeks uses BeerSmith and some shortcuts that we have found, but in the meantime, check out this great video from our friends over at 2 Noble Dogs Brewing.  They have even managed to work out an additional 25% discount (good thru June 17th) on this already affordable piece of software.  Cheers!

(Click the image below to check out the article)

Beer's number one enemy is sunlight. While it's common to think this has something to do with the yeast during fermentation, it's actually because the hop flowers are extremely sensitive to ultra-violet sunlight. This is why many commercial beers come in brown bottles and most supermarket display cases are lit by fluorescent light.

When exposed to sunlight for even an hour, beer will undergo a chemical reaction that creates an organic compound called 3-methyl crotyl mercaptan. This compound can give your beer a "skunky" flavor similar to the commercial example Heineken. For this reason, always store the carboy in a dark closet or cover it with something. But what should you cover it with?

Well, you can always use a t-shirt, sweatshirt, or take your carboy out for a night on the town like this person, but we love to see it taken to next level like Alliloop did with her carboy covers!

Here are her directions:

• Cut out a piece of brown corduroy to be about 36 x 24 in. 
• Sew a straight seam up the length, making it about 34.5 inches (the carboy I'm using is 34 in. in diameter)
• Make a pocket along the top and the bottom and push elastic thru each (less elastic in the top and just bunch it more),
• Sew those up and VOILA! Done.

You can make a pocket for a note card or just safety pin the info to the cover. 

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I saw an article recently where the First Lady mentions homebrew and then was suprised to find out that Obama himself is into homebrewing. I think he just got some style points in my book!  

Here's a little bit from the article if you're interested:

During this year's Super Bowl, President Obama created a stir by offering guests at the White House beer that he'd brewed himself. And now the president reportedly plans to have another batch of his homebrew on hand March 17 — that's right, for St. Patrick's Day. According to the Irish Central website, when Obama announced that this March is Irish American Heritage Month, he also pledged to serve his own White House Honey Ale — made with honey from the White House garden beehive — to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day. [Read More]