Mini kegerators are a convenient way to enjoy draft beer at home, and many beer fans are joining the bandwagon. In our world of gadgets and gizmos, this invention is quite sellable. Most mini kegerators are designed to dispense from a new kind of five-liter beer keg, available at most supermarkets. While these mini kegs are easy to find, I have only seen them from Heiniken, although I hear that many other companies produce them. Mini kegerators are very portable, making them the perfect choice for weekend camping or boat trip, and also fit into any RV with little work, as some brands run on 12-volt power. Mini kegerators are about the size and weight of a microwave. They make a good gift idea for any die-hard beer fan.

Some mini kegs require the use of electricity to keep the beer cold, and others you simply place in your fridge. This is where the mini kegerator comes in. Many companies are making these gadgets these days. Here is a brief revue of some of the more competitive models:

EdgeStar Mini Kegerator 
Under $200.00
The EdgeStar Mini Kegerators are good multi-purpose mini kegerators. Heineken 5 liter Draughtkegs can be used in them, and they feature quiet operating noise. These mini kegerators light up with a blue LED light to illuminate your mini keg beer choice. Includes cleaning kit (a must), and is capable of running off of AC or DC power. All this for only $200.00 or so. See Mini Kegerator Details

Avanti Mini Kegerator
Around $200.00
The Avanti Mini Kegerator MBD5L is another multi-purpose kegerator in which either gravity flow or CO2 can be used for operation. This unit can also be used with AC or DC power, making it a good choice for RVs, camping, or boating. It features a digital display and both tapping and cleaning kits are included, a real bonus! This model can be had for around $250.00. Icy Cold Mini Kegerator works with CO2 mini kegs and gravity feed mini kegs, and can hold even 6-liter mini kegs. A fan inside the kegerator ensures even cooling of the keg, and it is hand washable. These are found for around $200. See Mini Kegerator Details

Krups BeerTender Mini Kegerator 
From $99.00 to $200.00
Krups BeerTender is powered by a CO2 pressure system, and features three temperature presets (36°, 39° or 42°F), a beer volume gauge, and keeps track of how long your mini keg has been opened. A good multi-function mini kegerator – these run about $200.00. See Mini Kegerator Details

Vinotemp Mini Kegerator
Around $300.00
Vinotemp Mini Kegerator VT-BEER. Beer flow is powered with CO2. This unit comes with a digital display and push button temperature settings, and the cooling system operates efficiently. It also comes with 3 CO2 cartridges to get you going. Prices run from around $300. See Mini Kegerator Details

Nostalgia Electrics Mini Kegerator
Around $175.00
Nostalgia Electrics Mini Kegerator BC4600 is a mini kegerator designed for use with gravity flow mini-kegs. This model is self-cooling, and runs about $175.00. See Mini Kegerator Details

As you can see, there are many variations on the theme of mini kegerators. Some models focus on efficiency, some on multi-functionality. Take the time to consider what qualities will make the mini kegerator useful to you – it is a good idea to shop around to ensure you best value if you plan on buying one. Some questions you should ask before buying are:

Is this mini kegerator energy efficient? With the current economic and environmental situations we are facing in the world, this is an important issue. We see, smell, and hear pollution from our cars and trucks, but we often don’t see, smell, or hear the pollution coming from our power plants – but the effects of such pollution are drastic and frightening. The environmental destruction from coal and nuclear power plants is hard to measure now – future generations will be more familiar with the real costs of utilizing such techniques to power our gadgets and gizmos. Therefore, it is wise to conserve energy.

Does this model accept the mini kegs of my favorite beers? This is the most important question. What good will a mini kegerator be if you can only drink swill form it? Double check that the model you buy will fit the keg you drink from – or that an adapter is available for it.

Will this mini kegerator work with CO2 powered mini kegs? This question is related to the previous one. If the mini kegerator utilizes CO2, and your favorite beer mini keg utilizes CO2, it will probably work. If it does, you will also need some CO2 cartridges – know what you will need to operate your mini kegerator.

Is this model noisy or quiet? For some, noise pollution is as bad as smog. If you or the person you are buying for has sensitive ears, look for a mini kegerator that features quiet operation. If the user does not have sensitive ears, then go for the value on the louder mini kegerator.

Will this model function on DC power? And does it come with an adapter for such use? Especially if giving a mini kegerator as a gift, you will want to make sure it comes with everything it needs for operation. DC power is nice to have, and some models with DC power come with the adapter, but just in case, make sure that the model you are buying has the adapter – it may be hard to find otherwise.

If you are buying a mini keg as a gift, you should make sure to give them beer with it. Like giving a flask, it is bad luck to deliver the gift empty of alcohol. Some models use a gravity feed system, while others use a CO2 system for dispensing the beer. It is a good idea to check in with the mini keg receiver about what beer they like and suit the mini keg accordingly.

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Ah, to enjoy a cold draught beer after a long day of work or play – and in the comfort of your own home.  Kegerators can make any gathering more special, whether it is a night of music, movies, gaming, or football.  Finding the tight kegerator for your home can make all the difference, and they are essential appliances for the home bar, whether it be in the den or a speakeasy-style basement bar.  For home brewers, kegerators are the perfect choice for serving your kegged home brew.

Canned and bottled beers are great – but they run out so quickly.  They also take up a lot of space in the fridge.  This is why kegerators make such great additions to any beer fan’s home, whether you are a home brew hobbyist, a craft beer enthusiast, or just a fan of beer.  Draft beer just tastes better, especially at home.

The best thing about having a kegerator around is when company comes over.  To be able to say to friends,

“Help yourself to as much beer as you want – the kegerator is right over there!”

That is a beautiful moment.  I remember my first night of kegerator drinking.  I believe it was Austin, TX micro brewery Live Oak’s Big Bark Amber Ale.  My host was generous, and the beer cold and tasty – thanks to his kegerator.  It certainly made that visit “just to say hi” much more special.

Buying a kegerator doesn’t have to be expensive, either.  Kegerator conversion kits can turn that old fridge that you don’t know what to do with into a useful appliance.  They are available for $50 to $250, depending on what design elements you wish to incorporate.  You can even put that top compartment freezer to use keeping pint glasses and mugs nice and frosty.

If you are looking for something pre-packaged, you can still get a mini kegerator for as little as $100.  These mini kegerators dispense store bought mini kegs of the five and six liter variety with optimum ease.  Some even dispense the beer with CO2, supplied via cartridge, to ensure that your mini keg beer keeps for up to 30 days.  But one party and that mini keg is toast, trust me.  If the beer has not been drank after 30 days, you are doin’ it wrong!

Most kegerators have the capacity to serve at least one 15 1/2  gallon keg of beer at time.  With pony kegs or soda kegs, and multi-taps, you can even have more than one beer on tap at one time.  Some kegerators come with four or more beer taps.  That’s better than a lot of bars! 

Kegerators are also highly customizable.  If you want more taps, you can always add them later.  Tap handles are another way to customize your kegerator.  Put tap handles of your favorite beers on your kegerator, or make custom ones out of a gear shifter or a My Little Pony.  I have even seen someone take a wooden wine barrel and use it to build a façade around their kegerator to make a most convincing and entertaining illusion that the beer flowed up right from a wooden keg.  You can equip your kegerator with a nitrogen system for smoother draughts or add a filtration system for clearer pints.  Spice up your kegerator with custom skins or beer decals.

Whether mini or full sized kegerator is for you, the benefits of having draft beer at home remain the same: make your home more hospitable, have better parties, and never be short of beer, even on Sunday.  A kegerator in your home bar is a definite plus, whether on game day or for a great birthday party.  All of this is what makes kegerator beer so special.

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Lagering beer can be problematical for home brewers, if they are not properly equipped.  The key is that, for home brewing, kegs and lagering go hand in hand with the handy home bar invention called the kegerator.  A kegerator can do two things at once – act as a lagering closet and serve beer. If you want a little more control with your lagering temperature, you may opt for a lagering closet or separate fridge or freezer conversion.

The ideal lagering temperature for beer, according to white labs, manufacturers of specialty brewing yeasts, changes over the lagering period.  Ideally, the lagering process starts out at 51 to 53 degrees.  This temperature is maintained for the first week, and then the beer is allowed to warm to 62-64 degrees for four to six days.  After this, white labs recommends lowering the temperature five degrees per day until the ideal long-term lagering temperature of 31 to 32 degrees is achieved.  Then, lagering for six weeks at the lowest temperature takes place.

This is the most complicated lagering scenario I have heard of.  Most home brewers do not maintain such precise controls in any their brews, but it is clear that one would need to have a precise temperature controlled lagering closet in order to produce a lager of such exacting qualifications.  Keep in mind that the process of lagering was first developed by Bavarians keeping their beer in caves.

I would recommend a slightly more low-tech approach to lagering.  By utilizing your kegerator, you can lager your beer at roughly the same temperatures, as long as you are not serving beer at the same time (except at the final lagering stage, if you fudge the temp up to the regular serving temp of 38 degrees).  For the homemade conversion-style kegerators, there is plenty of room for an additional Cornelius keg, and sometimes a Sanke keg.

It is at this final stage that the keg comes into the picture.  This is the perfect time to transfer your lager beer into a keg for its final fermentation stage.  By lagering your beer in the keg for its final fermentation cycle, you can ensure that it will be a simple process to serve your beer.  After the fermentation is complete, simply tap the keg onto your beer line and serve.  No need to move the keg around and let it settle – although be sure to clean and sanitize your beer lines between each keg.

A custom temperature control can be installed into your kegerator or lagering closet if you do want to maintain such precise lagering controls as described by White Labs.  Johnson Controls produces what is probably the easiest to use temperature control unit.  The Johnson Controls unit plugs right into he wall and controls the power coming into your kegerator or freezer, turning of the power when the temperature reaches the right reading, and turning the power back on when the reading goes above the dial.

Whether you go low or high tech, lagering beer at home can be a challenge if you don’t have a kegerator or temperature controlled freezer / lagering closet.  It is not an impossible challenge, however, especially not for the home brewer who knows how to get things done.

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Breweriana has been come to be known as the collectable detritus of brewing’s past. The term breweriana first appeared in the U.S. as the 1972 founding of the National Association of Breweriana Advertising. Most beer fans consider old beer signs, neon signs, advertising bills, old rusty beer cans, pint glasses, t-shirts, patches, or anything with a brewery’s logo on it to be breweriana. The collectiblility potential of breweriana is easy to see – some people have been able to make a great deal of money through the sale of breweriana antiques.

Breweriana is a popular field of collectables for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as with most collectables, is nostalgia. To determine the nostalgic value of an item you must look at how trivial items play through history. The item must also be authentic to be worth much. Knock off nostalgia items tend to break the spell of nostalgia eventually. As with other fields, in the area of breweriana, it is important to look at discontinued items.

Another reason why it may be profitable to trade in breweriana is that many bars look for these ancient items when assembling their décor. If you run across a big sign or neon from an antique dealer or scrapyard hustler, you might be able to turn a profit by inquiring at local pubs and the hipper dive bars. The antique décor motif is one used in curiosity shops, bars, and even big chain stores like the cracker barrel.

When looking at breweriana, it is a good idea to find out about the location of the brewery that first created the breweriana. Regionally, breweriana from closed down and defunct breweries is more valuable than it is nationally. This is because more people recognize the name brand of their once-local brewery or brewpub. It is a good bet that an old beer sign can fetch a better price in the state that it was originally displayed.

There are many folks that collect beer cans and bottles from the past. These items must be handled with care, as the beer contained within (if any) has often undergone a hideous transformation. Most collectors drill a small hole in the bottom of the can and drain the sometimes-noxious contents before setting the collectable on the shelf. Bottle caps can be pried off carefully and re-applied to achieve the same effect.

Keep a look out for older cans. Cone tops, crowntainers, and flattops are among the most valuable. Cone tops and crowntainers both have a cone like top, which was usually capped with what we cap bottle caps these days. Flattops had no tab and required a bottle opener to get at the beer inside. “Instructionals” is the term for flattops that have instructions for opening listed on the side of the can.

Some of these cans, the earliest from the Krueger Company, required their own can openers. Flattops had no tab and required a bottle opener to get at the beer inside. The "flattops" needed a regular can opener, the sharp lever-pry type. Some of these collectibles (the openers) are usually formed from a piece of steel rod which loops around and is about 5-6 inches long. Usually the beer can openers have a stamp from the beer manufacturer. One of the more popular pieces of breweriana among private collectors is the crown, or bottle cap. Bottle caps were initially manufactured in the 1890’s. Those that survived through prohibition are the hardest to find, and most of those are from defunct breweries.

Beer signs, or even posters, are another hot item, mostly because they are sought after by bars and pubs to add to their décor. Some older signs look like posters but have been printed on sheet metal. We can see reproductions of these items out on the market as well, such as the old Guinness mascot, the beer-swilling Toucan. The original designs are worth a lot, not so much for the reproductions.

When looking for breweriana, make sure you know what you are looking at. There are many books out on the subject now, such as Beer Signs for the Collector and the Beer Advertising Memorabilia series. A visit to Amazon.com or your local library will give you some insight on this field of antiques.

See related:
Breweriana: Collectible Beer Signs
Breweriana: Collectible Pint Glasses
Breweriana: Specialty Beer Glasses
Breweriana: Collectible Beer Steins

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Many beer fans these days are decorating their home bars with the breweriana of the past. One field of breweriana is collectible beer signs. These signs come from many places – bars, restaurants, gas stations, and in many forms. Some beer signs are stamped metal, some are neon, and then there are the painted mirror variety. A fine old antique beer sign sure can liven up your home bar or den, and with many reproduction signs available, prices are coming down for this unique home décor item.

From antique European beer steins to pint glasses to neon signs, the realm of breweriana offers a wide variety of collectibles for beer fans the world over.

One item that no home bar should be without is a clever old beer sign. Many of the slogans used to sell beer are quite catchy. Steel or tin signs reading "Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder", and even "Best Head in Town… Get it at Luckey’s Bar" can be found as originals or reproductions to spruce up your home bar in a comic fashion.

The advent of reproduction beer signs certainly has brought down the market for the antiques, at least for those that have been re-made. For those home bar owners who have yet to invest in an antique beer sign, this is good news! Now you can get great vintage-seeming beer signs at low prices. But for antique collectors, do not fret. If you are the one who has a great old beer sign that hasn’t yet been reproduced, you may find a buyer or have some reproductions made yourself.

One of the flashiest types of beer sign made is, of course, the neon beer sign. Almost every brand currently in large-scale production has neon beer signs made to advertise their product. Even some micro brews have these neon beer signs. Although the theories leading up to the invention of neon date back to 1675, the first neon lamp on public display occurred in Paris, France on December 11, 1910. The inventor, Georges Claude, patented his invention is 1915 in the U.S. and sold the first commercially produced neon signs to a Packard car dealership in 1924 for a whopping $2400 (for two). It was not long after that neon signs started springing up everywhere, including bars and the Vegas Strip.

Vintage neon beer signs are rare items. Neon is notorious for its short lifespan. One of the oldest neon signs still glowing belongs to "Luckey’s" bar in Eugene, Oregon. The sign currently resides indoors, due to a law banning large signs in the town which was passed in the 1970’s. The Air Devil Inn of Louisville, Kentucky claims their sign is also from 1934. This would seem to be the logical date for any of the oldest remaining, intact neon beer-related signs. 1934 was a good year, after all, the year that prohibition ended in the United States!

Of all the forms that beer collectibles take, the beer sign is one that most effectively lends the flavor of the era in which it was made. Anywhere a vintage beer sign is hung lends an aura of authenticity to the room. You will find many bars collect and line the walls of their establishments with these old signs, beer posters, and other vintage breweriana. Why not your home bar?

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Collecting takes many forms, and in the world of beer collectibles, or breweriana, one of the most popular collectibles are the vessel by which beer is imbibed. From the early days of earthenware steins to crystal goblets, beer has been enjoyed in a variety of vessels. In recent times, the glass that most accurately symbolizes good beer is the pint glass, and many brew pubs and breweries have released their own logo-ed pint glasses, which are treasured collectibles for fans of their brand.

The number and variety of collectable items related to beer is staggering.  From beer signs dating back to prohibition days, to antique steins from Europe, to painted bar mirrors, to modern day pint glasses, breweriana is seen from coast to coast.  Of the many forms breweriana has taken, it is the pint glass which has now come to the fore of the modern collector’s shelf.

A look at the collector’s market for antique beer collectables will show you just how much beer vessels can fetch.  Some go for as little as $5, but the older items can fetch hundreds or even a thousand dollars!  Of course, you may not be around by the time your pint glasses are worth that much, but collecting is best when it is about enjoying what you have, not selling it!

These days, most commercial beer makers have produced pint glasses with their logo emblazoned upon them.  These are sold to the public at many breweries, and also to commercial bars, restaurants, and suppliers in the food and beverage industry.  The most collectable of these is the limited edition pint glass.  Usually minted in order to celebrate a special seasonal beer, these are sold at the brewery and at beer garden festivals as well. 

Commemorative pint glasses like these are great reminders of good times and good beer.  But not all commemorative pint glasses are produced for beer.  Many events are now making their own commemorative pint glasses as part of a lucrative merchandising strategy.  Events like Phoenix’s World Invitational Joust, Sports clubs, and even bands are producing pint glasses to commemorate shows, parties, and seasons.  In this way, pint glasses are beginning to move past the realm of breweriana into larger scopes of collectables. 

It is nice to have some different pint glasses around for social events as well.  A glass like the Phoenix’s World Invitational Joust commemorative pint glass can be a great conversation starter!  Glasses from local brewpubs can also remind people of good times they had there.  “Remember when…”

Often, a set of pint glasses will have a matching beer tap handle.  For those breweriana fans that own their own home draft beer system, these tap handles can add a nice touch to your serving.  There are many places on-line that sell different beer tap handles, and on ebay you can even find sets of matching pint glasses that come with the beer tap handle.

Collecting pint glasses is a common practice among home brewers and home bar owners.  Keeping an eye out for unique and interesting pint glasses can enhance your home bar experience and that of you guests – so keep an eye out for ‘em!

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There’s a new trend taking place amongst kegerator builders that is taking some of their designs to the extreme. Bigger, faster, stronger is the American way and so why not apply that to the modern kegerator? We’ll here is a few of the extreme kegerators we have been seeing lately that are likely to spawn a whole new way of thinking when it comes to drinking draft beer from a kegerator.

Garage Tool Cabinet Kegerators
If you were out shopping for a new tool cabinet for your garage you would expect to find features like durable chrome plating or rolling casters, but would a kegerator be an upgrade you would be interested in? Garage Fabricators from Central California thinks it should be. They’ve created the Diamond Plate Kegerator Cabinet that comes fully loaded including powdercoated steel plating and welded 6" phenolic casters. The kegerator cabinet is 23.5” deep x 47.5” wide x 64” tall and has the option of a Flatscreen TV mount. For only $1,678.57 you can call one of these kegerator cabinets your own.

Arcade Machine Kegerators
Whether its Pac-Man or Mario Brothers, imagine having access to fresh draft beer while playing your favorite arcade games. Well, two companies we’ve found seem to have the same idea. The Custom Bar Guys in Roanoke, VA have created THE GAMERATOR. The Gamerator offers access to over 1,000 classic and current arcade games and a refrigerated interior capable of holding a pony keg of draft beer. A device this unique is surely worth the $3,995.00 price tag, so order yours today, as they are handmade upon order and take up to 4 weeks to build.

Another company integrating a beer experience for gamers is Dream Arcades out of Folsom, CA. They have created a racing arcade kegerator entitled the Octane 120 Beer Arcade. The Octane 120 is a home arcade gaming system that combines three things every adult gamer wants: classic arcade games, arcade-style racing, and a full sized kegerator with in-dash beer tap to get your favorite beverage without having to get out of the seat. Only $6995 (S+H) and it’s all yours!

Hitch Mount Kegerator
California companies seem to be all over the extreme kegerator setups and Party-A-CarGo out of Concord, CA is no exception. They have put together a hitch mounted kegerator / entertainment system. Tailgaters, campers, or weekend warriors can pour up to 160 ice cold beers, play 12 hours of music and watch the early games on TV without having to recharge their battery, refill their cooler with ice or clean up empty beer cans. Check out Party-A-CarGo to get all the details on this extreme kegerator.

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Specialty glasses have existed throughout the ages, whether they are for wine, champagne, or different types of beers. From crystal goblets to stoneware steins, and, more recently, Belgian glass goblets, glass, ceramic, wood, and metal crafters have produced their visions of the perfect vessel for the perfect drink. The ratio of slope to surface area, breathing area, and volume contained within, are all tailored to the liquid viscosity and temperament of the beverage in question.

Having a unique specialty beer glass for each of your alcoholic beverages has always helped to make the moment special. Who ever heard of sitting around the local pub, drinking mugs of ale? That may be true for mid-evil re-creationists, but most beer fans prefer pint glasses. That way you can see what you’re drinking. In mid-evil times, you didn’t always WANT to see what you were drinking.

Having a nice rack of differing specialty beer glasses is good for when company comes over. It can encourage your friends to bring some fine ale if you have some Chimay glasses around. These glasses are called chalices, and feature a wide, flat bottom and straight sides to allow the many aromas of the monk-style Belgian ales to be smelled.

Having a set of German bier Steins up on the shelf may also lend clues to guests as to what you’d like at the next potluck (better Heineken than Budweiser, at least). The stein and the mug are best suited for ales of the inimitably quaffable kind. Beer that is guzzled easily. Beer that you want to drink a lot of because you want to become intoxicated.

European specialty beers often fall into the category of beers that should be served in specialty beer glasses. If you walk into a bar that serves a selection of Belgian ales, this is a good place to learn more about the difference between specialty beer glasses, but until then take my word for it: Weiss biers and hefeweisens have a glass which is curvy and top heavy. This gives a little lip at the bottom to catch any yeast sediment, which may result from drinking the bottle-conditioned variety of theses ales.

Pilsner glasses are the more straightforward, simple and elegant tall glasses with only the slightest of curves. The relatively narrow top channels the bitter aromas into the nose, facilitating an aromatic blast with each swig.

Lambics, being specialty ales from a nation of specialty ales, are best indulged in what is known as a flute glass. This resembles a champagne glass, but with more curves. This keeps the bubbles moving around, for like champagne, lambics are highly carbonated. The narrow top keeps the aromas from floating about too much.

Barley wine glasses usually hold less beer – barley wines being much stronger in alcohol and flavor than regular beers (around 7%-12% alcohol). In order to prevent patrons from stumbling over each other drunk or passing out in the bar, the volume of the glass is decreased. The glasses usually have a fairly open top to allow the rich and malty bouquet of the barley wine to waft above the specialty glass. Go to a good barley wine tasting and you will see what it is all about.

The Samuel Adams brewery of Boston, Mass., just this last year released a glass, which their brewers claim, serves beer as brewers intended. The Samuel Adams Boston Lager Pint Glass shares many traits with the flute, but it is bigger and has a much wider mouth.

"We wanted to create a glass that offers beer lovers a full sensory experience by fully showcasing Samuel Adams Boston Lager’s complex balance of malt and hop flavors.", said Jim Koch, founder of Samuel Adams.

And last, but not least, one good reason for having different specialty beer glasses, for different kinds of beers, is to help bar patrons to remember which glass is theirs. A night of drinking can sometimes muddle ones perceptions. In any case, is not a finely crafted beer worthy of its own glass?

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Breweriana is the collective detritus of breweries and beer fans from the days past.  Breweriana takes many forms, but the arguably oldest form of collectable breweriana hails from Germany, where beer Steins or bier Steins have been crafted sold and handed down for generations.  Although the tradition of beer steins has largely faded from practical use, those who have been left with old hand me down beers steins may find that they have antique treasure worth up to $3,000.

Originally known in German as the "Steinkrug", the beer stein is a traditional mug for serving beer, which can be made of porcelain, silver, crystal, glass, or wood.  Some steins have an open top, but most collectable varieties have an intricately cast or carved lid with a thumb-action lever.

As a child, I remember looking up on the shelf in the den and seeing the variety of intricately crafted beer steins.  Amid hand me downs from the family past were also spoils of war from my grandfather’s campaign in Europe during World War Two.  Such history was held in those beer steins, and swept away with the intervening years so that today, I have but two of the remnants of that fine collection.

Although not seen in the pub or at parties much these day, the practical benefits of the beer stein are as useful today as they were in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Although replaced with the pint glass in most pubs, the stein typically holds at least as much beer as a pint glass.  Older steins are likely to hold around one and a half liters of beer, which, back in those days, was considered one serving of beer.  More modern sizes from Germany are likely to hold only one liter.

It was in the 14th century that beer steins first started becoming fitted with hinged lids.  The lids were indeed sanitary measures, the result of a German law that all food would need to be covered in order to prevent the spread of disease.  This law came with many other laws that popped up at this time, when Europe came back from the brink of decimation as a result of the black plague.  For instance, pigpens could no longer run up to the edge of streets, meat that was old or came from a diseased house had to be labeled accordingly, and the German Beer Purity Laws began.  It is from this stage that beer began to be homogenized on a national level:  beer could only be brewed from hops, barley, yeast, and water.

Steins remaining from the periods earlier than the 14th century tend to be made of pewter and silver, as the earthenware and wooden steins from that period were easily broken over the yawning of the years.  The pewter guilds held onto the premier production spot for steins until the ceramics crafters of Europe invented stoneware, which proved much more durable that the old clay earthenware.  Not long after, porcelain and glazes also emerged on the scene.  A lot of advances in stein technology occurred around the 1700s, of course, during the Renaissance.

The additional benefit of the thumb-action levered steins come in especially handy for keeping unwanted materials out of your beer.  Flies, stray cigarette ash, and bits of food are always a downer when you find them in your beer.  I still use my capped stein from time to times when I find myself going to a party where such detritus may find its way into my beer.

Some varieties of stein have their own terms from the German, which you may run into while searching for the beer stein that fits you: 

• "Humpen" are steins that are made from stoneware, using the process which partially smelts the clay together, producing a harder and less porous product.
• "Steinkrug" are earthenware steins.
• "Glaskrug" are glass steins, very few of which survived from ancient times.  Some of these are actually crystal.
• Another term you might come upon is "Maßkrug", pronounced ‘moss kroogh’ in English.  These are steins that are explicitly measured out for one liter.

Hunting for steins is a fun and rewarding exercise in antique shopping.  Steins can be found in nearly every antique shop, and who knows, with a little knowledge you may find a valuable treasure in your breweriana adventure.

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From wooden casks to stainless steel and aluminum, from spile and shive to Sanke tap, the evolution of the beer keg has also influenced the evolution of beer. Driven by the mass production demanded by beer fans the world over, brewers have tinkered with and improved the beer keg in many ways during its evolution. Some of these changes have also impacted the quality of beer and even the brewing process. Though the old style cask ales, or “real ales” are still in production in some parts of England and the U.S., modern beer is dominated, even in the microbrew and craft beer markets, by pasteurized and filtered beers. Here we will look at the evolution of the beer keg and the effect mass production has had on the beer it has kegged.

History shows us that the drinking of beer goes back at least 4,000 years. In that time, beer was most likely stored in clay urns and pots. But somewhere along the line, humans discovered that beer could be carbonated by sealing it in a bottle or cask and letting the yeasty “spirits” or “miracles” of fermentation go about their business. With this discovery came the first beer keg.

As far as historical records go, we can see a lot of light shed on the development of beer in Europe. Originally, European beer, i.e., beer-as-we-know-it-now, was predominantly kegged in wooden casks. These casks were usually made of oak or other hardwoods that had a reputation for being non-toxic. Beer at this time was un-pasteurized and usually unfiltered, which lent it to spoiling. This beer had an expiration date!

Most of the advances in brewing and kegging technology since then have focused on increasing the life span of beer. The most important of these was the process of pasteurization. Pasteurization is a process by which a product in a bottle or can is rapidly heated and then cooled. This process ensures that any organism that may be purposely or un-purposely left in the product (in this case, the beer keg) is killed. Through the use of pasteurization, beer kegs have been granted a much longer shelf life.

For some, the change in taste that the pasteurization process yields is too much to ask for the benefits of increased shelf life. An organization known as CAMRA, the CAMpaign for Real Ale, has taken up the cause of un-pasteurized and un-filtered beer. Through this group, folks interested in cask ales and real ales may find them in the U.K. Interest in cask ales is present in the U.S. as well, although the term real ale does not have the same weight as in the U.K., where strict guidelines have been established. Real ales are those ales that are still “alive” with living yeast. Cask ales are ales that are served from a cask, although not necessarily a traditional wooden one. These ales may be filtered, but they are usually cask-conditioned. This means that they gain their fizzy carbonation through the natural process of fermentation instead o the “force-carbonating” that is usually done by commercial beer makers.

The modern Sanke beer keg is designed to be rugged, easily cleaned (at least with the right industrial keg cleaning machines, and to hold a great amount of beer while still being light enough to be handled by one person. Unlike the cask, the progenitor of the keg, the Sanke keg requires little preparation and knowledge to operate. Sanke kegs took the Shive hole and the keystone of casks and put them into the same hole, locked in with a coil spring and valve, released with the push of the tap once attached.

Today, most cask ales are served from steel or aluminum casks, just as regular beer kegs are. They still require the care of an attentive landlord or barkeep, however. The gas must be vented and the beer prepared two to three days ahead of time. The benefit of a little extra tooling and care produces the result of an ale the likes of which might have been enjoyed 2,000 years ago! For all the modern influence of technology on brewing, it is refreshing to see that some people still like to do things the old fashioned way.

See related keg beer articles: History of the Kegerator, Beer Keg Directory, Beer Kegging Tutorial

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Many men consider the world of beer to be a masculine realm, and these many men are increasingly more mistaken.  With the variety and taste sensations offered by the golden age of microbrew, many women are becoming more acquainted with the pleasures of drinking beer.  In addition to the trend of women increasingly drinking beer, some medical studies have shown that, for women, drinking moderately can help fight high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Although the beer market is still mostly a male demographic, beer analysts are realizing that up to 30 percent of the market is actually made up of female beer drinkers.  As of 2005, London based research firm Datamonitor has reported that low carb and light beers are driving greater beer consumption in U.S. women.  Some beer companies have even launched specific lines of beer to appeal to women, such as Heineken’s new malt cider Charli, and Poland’s Karmi.  Beer advertisers are noticing this trend as well.  A 30 percent market share cannot be ignored, and the public has already seen a shift in the content of beer ads.

Women are also drinking a lot of micro brewed beer.  According to a National Restaurant Association survey, about half of women are ordering microbrews when eating out.  Microbrewers must be even more aware of this trend in beer than industrial brewers.
 
For some women, it has been clinically proven that moderate drinking can have health benefits.  Two studies published by the Archives of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition support this claim in different ways.  The first study found that younger women who drink an average of two to three alcoholic beverages weekly have a lower risk of having high blood pressure than those who do not drink.  This study used 70,000 women aged between 25 and 42 years old.  The study tracked the women’s health from 1989 until 2002, and found that women had a 14 percent less chance of having high blood pressure problems. 

The second study, the one published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, focused on older women, 51 of them, who were aged above 60 years old.  The women’s diets were all strictly controlled. This study found that alcohol could lower cholesterol, but only if only one or two drinks were taken in a day.  The women were given strict dietary plans, including either a zero, one, or two-drink quota per day.  The health benefits showed up for the single drink group, but dropped off for the two-drink group.

With studies like these enhancing the trends already present in the category of women drinking beer, we can see that it is only more likely that this trend will continue.

But one Canadian study showed some slightly dismaying aspect for women drinking beer: "My study suggests that sober women who drink alcohol are less able to perceive facial symmetry when sober," said Dr Kirsten Oinonen, Dr. at Lakehead University in Canada,

"When sober, these women are worse at judging facial symmetry, and therefore may find less attractive men more attractive. Given that symmetry is associated with attractiveness of faces, my study does suggest the possibility that alcohol intoxication may decrease facial symmetry perception, and make people look more attractive."

It seems that scientists in Canada have found the technical term for the curious phenomenon commonly known as "beer goggles".

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Cheese has traditionally been paired with wine, fruits, nuts or things like marinated olives, but recently with rise of Craft Beer in America we have been noticing more and more brew pubs and bars offering beer and cheese pairings. These beer and cheese pairings include high end cheeses and craft beers that can compliment each other in a new way. Anything from Goat to Gouda cheese and Wit to Wheat beers, it’s all fair game in the new playing field of beer and cheese pairing.

The following are 9 beer and cheese pairings that will excite your palate and bring forward flavors in the beer and cheese you probably have never tasted before.

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Green Beer. What comes to mind? Young beer? Beer with food coloring in it? Beer that gets you stoned? Eco friendly beer? Beer naturally colored with spirulina? What’s spirulina? There’s a lot of things it might mean. Here we will discuss the tradition of Green beer that has to do only with color.

This is a recent tradition associated most often with St. Patty’s day, although not in Ireland. From all accounts, Green Beer seems to be a tradition only in North America, where “Irish pride” tends to encompass a kind of enthusiasm verging on the overzealous. Especially in a college town called Oxford, Ohio, where college students take to the streets early for their “Green Beer Day”.

From Canada on down to Chicago, Boston, and points beyond, the St. Patty’s Day green beer fad has been seen, tasted, pissed out, and blacked out upon. Yes, I did say pissed out. Where do you expect all that green to go after you drink it? Well, it isn’t going to dye your hair. The first mention I could find of green beer in print has to do with Miami University’s Green Beer Day circa March 1952. According to the student newspaper Miami Student, March 14, 1952. "the day was celebrated by Oxford restaurants selling "traditional dark green beer" on March 17". Strangely enough, Miami University is not in Florida. It is located in Oxford, Ohio. Quite a confusing conglomeration of names, if you ask me.

Green Beer Day
Green Beer Day is a school tradition that leads into the University’s Spring Break. The Thursday before Spring break, students of all sorts with alcoholic tendencies start a pre-dawn pub crawl around 5:30 AM. This is the earliest pubs are allowed to serve beer legally in Ohio. Invariably, the local grocer must be completely dry of green food coloring by then, because pitcher after pitcher is served to the thirsty college crowds. Now, of course, Thursday BEFORE Spring break is a school day. This lead me to wonder – do the students go to class drunk? You could bet your bottom dollar on it. Rumor is that, one year, some teachers became fed up with the drunkenness in the classroom and therefore scheduled exams on Green Beer Day. Happily, the drunken solidarity of the students re-enforced the tradition even more, and the idea of giving exams on Green Beer Day was dropped.

The Green Beer Day tradition is not reserved only for the pubs, apparently. Restaurants in uptown are rumored to serve “green eggs and ham, green bagels with green cream cheese, and offer [strange] food specials throughout the day”, according to GreenBeerDay.com.

While I personally enjoy the chaos and hilarity of drunken antics, the Green Beer Day of Oxford, Ohio does have its detractors. It has, in fact, been called the “AMERICA’S DUMBEST COLLEGE TRADITION”, as the Zenformation Professional called it. Citing instances of sexual molestation and public vomiting, he points out the blatant and crude hedonism of the event. There are good and bad aspects to any huge celebration where people are getting completely wasted, of course. Vomit is usually one of them, as anyone who has been to a huge St. Patty’s day block party can attest.

To be fair to the other pursuants of the green beer tradition, I should like to point out that the Miami University tradition is uniquely alcoholic in nature. The event does not fall upon St. Patty’s Day, but is kind of a jumpstart for those festivities. Yet it lacks the nostalgia and cultural flair that is usually displayed on March 16th. It is somewhat difficult to feel anything but drunk when one has been drinking since 5:30 AM, I suppose. But green beer is a beer tradition that manifests in more places than just Oxford, Ohio.

Green Beer Recipe
Most recipes for green beer involve simply doctoring each pint with 5-6 drops of green food dye. For a bigger batch, say, a pitcher of beer, one would use between 20-24 drops, or about a tablespoon worth. If you are hosting a party, and seek to color the beer in a 6 gallon Cornelius keg, I would recommend 10 Tablespoons worth of dye.

But the brewers of Dogfish Head Brewery, of Delaware, have some different ideas regarding how to turn your beer green: a health food algae called spirulina. In 2005, Dogfish Head sold a draft only release - their “Verdi Verdi Good”, a green beer that was made without food coloring, but with the green spirulina algae as an all natural ingredient in the brew. The basis of the beer was a pale lager beer in the Dortmunder style, which is a somewhat bitter lager reminiscent of a pilsner. According to the Dogfish Head website, their inspiration actually came from an unusual place:

“The idea for the Dogfish Head version actually was born of beers already being produced in Southeast Asia, namely Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Thailand. The main type of beer made in that area of the world is akin to the Dortmunder/Export type lagers of Germany. Both Myanmar and Thailand have breweries producing a beer which is their regular production lager with spirulina added. Hence, Verdi Verdi Good was born.”

Although popular in some parts of the U.S. and Canada, and, apparently Myanmar, you won’t be finding green beer in Ireland, or any of the British Isles. Most beer fans in Europe find the notion of putting dye into their ale abominable – and I can’t say I blame them for that. What most people don’t realize is that most brands of food coloring, even though non-toxic, are still petroleum products. I try to avoid unnecessary coloring in all foods, including beer. One of the biggest problems facing the green beer phenomenon is that the most Irish of drinks, Guinness, cannot be made to look green. Only very lightly colored ales can be given the treatment. Any amount of darkness in the ale, and the green makes it look like pond scum – not very appetizing for most humans. I say take a hint from the Irish and enjoy your beer the way it was intended. But if you really want the experience of pissing green, there is no better way to enjoy it than by quaffing down a couple of green beers.

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For those hunting for last minute Christmas gifts, we have just uncovered a great online deal from EdgeStar, one of our trusted partners. The EdgeStar Mini Keg Dispenser is a mini kegerator that dispenses mini kegs (5L). You know, the little beer barrels you see in the supermarket like Heineken, Warsteiner, Paulaner and many more.

Today ONLY you can get one of these babies for $139.00, normally $175.00. To get this deal you have to use the promo code: MINIKEG when you checkout. See the screenshot of the shopping cart below to see the mini keg dispenser deal.

Buy Now or Get More Details

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A Comparative Analysis of Black Lagers

Lagers are clearly one of, if not THE most popular beer style in the world. Lagers have become popular enough that many sub varieties have developed. Around the world, you will find beer fans that prefer their favorite style, be that the American-style lager, the Bock, the Dunkel, the Helles, Märzen, Pilsner, Schwarzbier, or Vienna lager. Of the lagers commercially available, I have always preferred the darker varieties including the Bock, Dunkel, and especially Schwarzbier, or black lager in United States parlance. Here I’ll take you through a tasty comparison of my two favorite commercially produced black lagers, or Schwartzbiers, Dixie Brewing Company’s Blackened Voodoo Lager and Shiner’s Bohemian Black Lager.

Dixie Brewing Company’s Blackened Voodoo Lager was a rare treat I enjoyed with falafel dinners when I was living in Berkeley, CA. This lager was a long way from it’s home brewery in New Orleans, LA, and didn’t suffer from it. It was even more rare after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans hard, but now Dixie brewing company is back at it, although the company has subcontracted out some of its brews while recovering and rebuilding from Katrina.

The Blackened Voodoo lager is light and crisp, with a distinct flavor of the chocolaty elements of its dark-roasted barley malts. The hops add what I would call a medium bittering element to the beer, with subtly musky flavorful aftertastes that arise from the mix of the dark roasted malts and the hops mingling. The hops used in this beer’s production are Mt. Hood and Cascade hops. The yeast flavor is very sublte in this beer, just adding the slightest of fruity accents on the aftertaste, which I consider to be a mark of patience in brewing and proper lagering. The body qualifies as on the heavier side of the medium range, which to me seems a bit light for a black lager. 

For some reason, I always find myself remembering how well this beer went with the Mediterranean food that accompanied my first experience with it. The Blackened Voodoo lager was especially effective at clearing the palate with its somewhat dry yet solid flavors and crisp carbonation. The alcohol level is 4.7%, a level at which the taste of the alcohol is easily overcome by the flavorful nature of the brew. A fine brew to cool off with after a long days work in the hot sun (or even the hot shade, in Louisiana!).

Shiner’s Bohemian Black is a fairly recent addition onto the Texas beer scene, and a welcome one. Shiner’s Bohemian Black was originally a limited edition produced in honor of the Spoetzl Brewery’s 97^th anniversary, but it’s popularity earned it a continued production run as a permanent part of the Shiner line of beers in 2007. This Black lager is very refreshing on a hot day, much like the Blackened Voodoo Lager. Shiner’s Schwarzbier has a sweeter taste, even with it’s slightly elevated alcohol level (4.9%). The darkly roasted grains seem to impart more body into the Bohemian Black without so much of the chocolaty taste that I found in the Blackened Voodoo Lager. The hop character, once again, seems meant to embolden the bitter aspects of the malts rather than hit you over the head with hoppy dankness. I would call the Bohemian Black a smoother lager, with more body than the Blackened Voodoo. Less carbonation is evident in this beer as well.

One aspect of the Bohemian Black which is clearly enhanced over the Blackened Voodoo Lager is consistency. I have never heard of a complaint about the Bohemian Black, but it seems that the Blackened Voodoo Lager can have some variety regarding carbonation and flavor. My guess would be that the lager may be subject to alteration depending on temperature changes. Also, with the advent of hurricane Katrina, the Dixie Brewing Company has contracted out some of their brewing, including Blackened Voodoo Lager, to Minhaus Craft Brewery of Wisconsin. This might cause some problems, as the new brewery must adjust its apparatus to attain the same results as the New Orleans brewery.

If you are a lager fan, I recommend trying both for yourself. Shiner’s Bohemian Black will most likely be much easier to find. If you should stumble upon the Blackened Voodoo Lager, you should definitely pick up a six pack, because you never know where or when you might see it next!

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In the wondrous age of the interweb, we have seen many strange, amazing, and annoying trends. One trend that encompasses all of these traits is the concept of social networking websites. Sites like myspace, verb, tribe.net, facebook, hi-5, the list goes on and on.

It becomes so hard to choose with hundreds of websites trying hard get your whole life listed in their database. It makes me wonder, sometimes- why would ANYONE want EVERYONE on the web to be able to know EVERYTHING about their self? It seems as though too many people don’t take the time to consider this. I’ve just got to put this out there before I encourage anyone to join yet another social networking website. I am a fan of disclaimers.

Social networking on beer gives me more hope than social networking just for social networking’s sake (gah!). With a highly focused topic, it is clear that a social networking site about beer can be a good thing. This is true of the many beer forums as well. Such sites can help a lot of beer fans to better understand the craft of brewing and the wide spectrum of flavors accessible in the beer universe. I still wouldn’t suggest that you sign up for anything with your actual email address, unless you just luuuuv spam. And I’m not suggesting you use your grandma’s email address either. Just make one up that you will never use again except to get confirmed at the beer social networking website you are checking out.

One site that strikes me right off the bat as a good resource is the homebrew wiki (reachable at http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki). This site and wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) are both veritable treasure troves of information regarding beer, wine, mead, and basically any fermented or distilled beverage. You can find info about virtually every type of beer as well as the history of beer. Before entering the forums and social networking sites about beer, I suggest taking a surf through the wikipedia or homebrew wiki search engines.

Now, as far as actual social networking sites, I must say that I was initially attracted to brewpoll.com through their affiliate website beersmith.com. Beersmith.com offers a free trial of their Beersmith software, a program that helps homebrewers to determine what ingredients to use for their recipes, accounting for price and amount of beer to be made, among other factors, and offers a brew calendar and reminders, too. Brewpoll.com is itself a "Digg-Like" news site where home brewers and craft beer fans can share and gather news. A voting system allows members to catapult relevant and useful articles to the top of the lists. Since this site links to "news" stories from other sites, it offers a chance to search a wide array of topics and beer making tutorials.

This site will probably be quite useful if you are a home brewer with some specific questions, like this one: Should I put olive oil in my beer? I had never thought of that on my own, but some brewers at New Belgium brewery have tried it and I found their results on brewpoll via fermentarium.com!

Another social networking site on beer is mustlovebeer.com. Although it is a fairly young site with few members, it is equipped with many myspace-like features, such as extensive profile information, profile pictures, room for uploading pictures, messages, and friends. This site seems somewhat desolate at this time, but if you have friends a long way away that you want to keep in touch with, it might be a good way to do so while also meeting other beer fans with similar interests… in time. The site only seems to have 200 members or less, from what I have seen poking around on it.

Although it is not, in the strictest sense, a social networking site, realbeer.com is a fun site for information about beer. I recommend visiting this site if you are just "surfing the web" to find out interesting news flying about in the beer world, funny stories, and the like. I discovered three great stories just on one visit: a "Bones & Brew" Zoo benefit in Oregon put on by Rogue brewery, 2,000 pints of ale mis-delivered to Windsor Castle, and a historical mis-quote attributed to Ben Franklin. These were just some of the top stories on this site.

Homebrewtalk.com is a very active site which has social networking applications. This site is full of articles, recipes, updates on new equipment, and many stories about home built beer making set-ups, kegerators, and beer interest stories too. The site is funded by its members and some advertising, so they ask all members to consider upgrading accounts to either yearly or lifetime memberships ($25 a year or flat $100). Basic memberships are offered for free, however.

Homebrewtalk.com is a very active site which has social networking applications. This site is full of articles, recipes, updates on new equipment, and many stories about home built beer making set-ups, kegerators, and beer interest stories too. The site is funded by its members and some advertising, so they ask all members to consider upgrading accounts to either yearly or lifetime memberships ($25 a year or flat $100). Basic memberships are offered for free, however.

BeerJunction.com is a new social networking site for beer lovers that seems to focus more on sharing the love of home brewing. You can create a profile and log all of your brewing in a personal blog. One cool feature is the ability to add pictures, video and create your own groups. This community is handy for home brewers, or home brew clubs, or someone who really loves beer and wants to create a network of friends that love the same.

With this basic overview of sites, you should be able to have most of you questions and queries answered. By gaining membership with these social networking sites on beer, you can certainly find more people who may be able to answer any questions you have about beer.

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Many are amazed at the head of steam the trend of good, quality beer has built up in recent years.  For many home brew entrepreneurs, the increasing demand for microbrews and quality beers has made their dreams come true.  The market seems to show little sign of slowing down.  More and more breweries are opening every year at the craft and microbrew level, and even the big companies are trying to compete and keep their formidable chunk of the beer market.  Well, there will always be those who want the cheapest of schwill.  But more and more people want something more out of their beer: nutrition, flavor, and real tradition.

Let’s start with some definitions.  Microbreweries are considered those breweries that produce less than 15,000 barrels a year.  Microbrews also tend to focus on producing the highest quality beer, and in the U.S., this also qualifies most of them as craft breweries.  Unlike bigger breweries, the eye towards quality means that beer is actually made with real barley, hops, and yeast.  The addition of rice and corn found in the cheapest schwill are not found in microbrews.  Although this means an increased cost of up to 60% that of mainstream beers, microbrews manage to do quite well in a consistently shrinking beer market.  Microbrew sales consistently have risen 40% in recent years, with new breweries popping up with regionally-based fans all over the country.  In order to study the methods of the micro breweries success, lets look at one of the biggest success stories.

One beer manufacturer that has risen above the qualifier for microbrews while still maintaining its craft brewery status is New Belgium.  With its very popular flagship beer, Fat Tire, New Belgium has continued in the tradition of craft brewing excellence, even while exponentially increasing its production.  For those interested in the business of beer, New Belgium is a great company to study.  With well-studied brewing expertise they have managed time and time again to upgrade their brewery production without sacrificing quality.

One undeniable aspect of New Belgium’s success is ingenuity and green production techniques.  With a commitment to sustainable production methods, New Belgium has merged ideology with efficiency and some crackin’ good outside the box thinking.  Since 1999, the New Belgium brewery has been powered from 100% renewable energy sources.  30% of the energy that is used to manufacture is harvested from the biodegradation of their own spent grains, and the rest comes from wind power, bought off the grid of the power company with specific earmarking for wind farms.  With other companies scrambling to attain the reputation of being “green”, New Belgium is an example of authentic green thinking and how well green marketing can work if it isn’t just all talk.

Perhaps one reason why New Belgium has been able to achieve such success is that the company is, in a large part, owned by its operators.  After only one year working for New Belgium, employees are given part ownership of the company and a brand new shiny red bicycle.  One aspect of their business which struck me as phenomenal, was their transparent finances policy.  According to their website:

“And, like all responsible business owners, it’s important to know your bottom line, barrels, and books. Meet New Belgium’s practice of open-book management: a policy of fiscal transparency throughout the company that encourages a community of trust and mutual responsibility.”

It seems that finally, there is a precedent for honesty, ingenuity, and integrity in successful business.

In an ever expanding market, it only makes sense that microbreweries are a good investment choice, even in the troubling times of today’s economy.  Even in the toughest of times, people of all economic strata seldom give up the solace of a fine beer.  But more than that, craft brewing is part of a culture that honors fair dealing, hard work, and cultural tradition.  All of this is evident in the policies of one of the most successful craft breweries of the last 20 years – and it can happen again, maybe for you.

Related article: Kegerators.com’s Top 5 Names in Domestic Beer

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With the advent of the golden age of microbrews, we are constantly seeing new and inventive beers. One of these beer combinations is the mixture of beer with peppers, especially Chipotle chilis. Rogue brewery’s Mexicali or Chipotle beer, and Cave Creek’s Chili Beer are two examples of commercially produced “beers of fire”. Looking online, you can see that home brewers have been eager to take up the challenge of brewing with Chipotle and other peppers, peppering discussion forums with chat and recipes for beer of fire. Here is a new frontier for beer brewers around the world.

The best of the new chili beers that is commercially available, in my opinion, is Rogue brewery’s concoction. A delightful spiciness is added onto an already solid beer. This is the perfect example of a well crafted beer of fire. The beer was originally called Mexicali, but now the name is the more descriptive Chipotle Beer. The base of the beer is Rogue’s Amber Ale. The Amber Ale comes out a rich amber color with a medium amount of carbonation. The flavor normally has a nice maltiness to it, somewhat sweet, but in the Chipotle beer, the malt and hop flavors seem subdued. The result is your ability to really taste the Chipotle as the smoky flavor of the pepper mixes with the flavors of the malt.

Rogue’s Chipotle beer was inspired and remains dedicated to Spanish author Juan de la Cueva. La Cueva wrote in 1575 of a Mexican dish that combined seedless chipotles with beer. Rogue recommends a tasty combination on their website: blend the Chipotle beer with Rogue Chocolate Stout to create a Mole black and tan!

Cave Creek’s Chili Beer is a far lighter offering from the state of Arizona. This beer is the invention of “Crazy Ed” who claims his inspiration comes from being annoyed by yuppies. According to Cave Creek’s website:

“…in 1989, he started brewing his own beer. The town was suspicious. And became even more so when an entire brewery arrived in crates at the foot of Black Mountain, along with a German named Arnold. But after the first batch the people began to come around. The beer was good, damn good, So good in fact, the yuppies started driving in from all over to try it.  Something had to be done, So , whenever one of them whined for a "wedge of lime" Ed started putting a hot Serrano chili pepper into the beer instead. Amazingly, about 2 out of ten actually liked the stuff.”

Cave Creek’s Chili Beer is made in the small town of Tecate, Mexico, where it seems that Crazy Ed and his pals drop a jalapeno into a beer bottle and then fill it with “a fine Mexican lager beer”. The way the wording is displayed, I wonder if it is the same beer that Crazy Ed used to make….

One place where beer with chilis is not new is Mexico. For a long time, beer fans in Mexico have enjoyed a beer cocktail called the michelada. This is another way to enjoy the mix of barley and peppers. Lime juice and chili powder are added to a regular beer of your choosing to make the michelada. If you have been wondering about micheladas, and the new beers coming out with lime juice or chili and lime, now you know! Although brewing with chilis has been a successful prospect so far, I hazard to state that fresh lime juice must surpass any manufactured lime juice substitute that may be coming out in beers like Miller’s Lime and Salt beer and Anheiser-Busch’s Lime flavored beer.

BREW YOUR OWN

1. For the home brewer interested in experimenting with Chipotle beer, I recommend first brewing a fine chocolate stout.
2. After racking, take the stout and fill three one gallon jars halfway with your stout.!
3. Now, prepare your chipotles. You should put them into a strainer, be sure to remove the seeds (the spiciest part), and pour boiling water over them to soften them up and sanitize them a little. Add one, two, and three chipotles to the three separate bottles.!
4. After two weeks, strain out the peppers, bottle, and label.!
5. You now have one, two, and three pepper rating Chipotle Chocolate Stout! See how much spice you can handle!

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The U.S. beer industry is in a constant state of flux. New ideas and innovations are changing the face of beer every year, especially in the micro brew market. As the primary field of growth in the brewing industry, kegerators.com will name the top ten names in domestic craft beer production. These are names to look out for. These are brewers associated with quality, ingenuity, tradition, social responsibility, and most of all, good tasting beer. For these qualities, we name New Belgium Brewing Company (Fort Collins, Colorado), Dogfish Head Brewing Company (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware), Spoetzl Brewery (Shiner, Texas), Rogue Ales (Newport, Oregon) and St. Arnolds Brewery (Houston, Texas).

New Belgium Brewery of Fort Collin, Colorado, is here honored for the company’s integrity, ingenuity, and the amazing quality of its high production level brewery. A forward thinking, 100% green company which shares its profits with its workers, New Belgium has consistently contributed innovative brewery techniques, while at the same time maintaining ancient and venerated beer traditions, such as its 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. Kudos to the first beer company to recycle its waste grain and harvest methane from it! This full circle renewable energy source now contributes 30% of the energy required to produce over 450,000 barrels of beer annually.

Dogfish Head Brewing Company, a smaller brewer located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is here honored for ingenuity and fearless experimentation in the realm of brewing. These brewers have gone where few dare to go, preparing beers of up to 18% A.P.V.! Using admixtures such as raspberries, raisins, blueberries, chicory, and coffee, Dogfish Head has prepared some mighty interesting and mighty tasty concoctions. Brewers of the Midas Touch, Dogfish Head has even created a facsimile of a brew scientists discovered only traces of on urns in King Midas’ tomb. A true blend of tradition and experimentation. But you’ll have to go to Delaware to sample some of their latest innovations: small scale craft spirits!

Spoetzl Brewery, of Shiner, Texas, is a middle-sized brewery (much bigger than a microbrewery at 300,000+ barrels per year) that has, just in recent years, ventured into the craft beer market. Spoetzl is here honored for returning to the craft beer traditions from the precipice of the homogenized U.S. beer fad. For many years, the Spoetzl Brewery kept mainly their Shiner beer going, but now has distribution for many craft beers, in addition to their rather main-stream tasting Shiner and Shiner light. All of this is, in part, to Shiner’s centennial beer program, which started in 2005. The centennial program began producing one special edition beer in small batches at the end of each quarter. With this foray into the realm of experimentation, the brewers at the Spoetzl Brewery found flavors that were received quite favorably. Spoetzl’s Shiner 96 Märzen Ale, Shiner 97 Bohemian Black Lager, Shiner 98 Bavarian Style Amber, and Shiner 99 Munich Style Helles Lager, are all high quality craft beers worthy of recognition along-side the best microbrews of the day.

Rogue Ales, of Newport, Oregon is a brewery which has maintained an exacting level of perfection with its recipes while keeping an open mind toward new innovations in brewing. With brews as diverse as Soba, Hazelnut Brown Nectar, and the Juniper Pale Ale, Rogue has demonstrated it’s willingness to live up to its namesake. Yet still, for all this invention, Rogue beers are remarkably reliable – one bottle will always taste like the next, even with such extreme different flavors. Here’s another great thing about Rogue Ales: they are all without preservatives or pasteurization.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company, of Houston, Texas, is here honored for their dedication to serving their community with traditional, well made craft beers. You may not have heard of St. Arnolds unless you have visited central or east Texas. This is because St. Arnolds is more devoted to serving their immediate community than they are in expanding their distribution. St. Arnolds certainly stands a part from the other breweries in this list, being a straight-forward craft brewery with an honorable dedication to traditional beer styles. St. Arnolds has had quite a time dealing with the destruction of Hurricane Ike, but they are moving into a new location and will surely be up and running again soon.

These have been Kegerators.com’s five most distinguished domestic brewers of 2008.

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When discussing mini kegerators, it is important to make the distinction between which type you are talking about. There is the kegerator that is made from a mini refrigerator, and then there is the mini kegerator gadget. The mini kegerator that is made from a mini fridge is a compact, but still largely immobile device that is usually home made, using half sized or even smaller fridges. The mini kegerator that is a gadget is a new appliance on the market. It is quite portable, and a good way to enjoy draft beer while on the go – that is what we are talking about here.

"Gadget" Mini kegerators are a new retail item that helps you to enjoy cold beer without the expense of owning a full-on kegerator. Mini kegerators are becoming a more and more affordable way to ensure that you have draft beer on the go. Most brands come with a variety of options, such as DC power, cleaning kits, and temperature control. Mini kegerators that dispense 5 liter mini kegs are made by Krups, Heineken, Avanti, EdgeStar, Vinotemp, and other companies as well, so there are a variety of models to choose from.

These gadgets are currently priced right around $200 - $300. For all practical purposes, the less expensive units do just as good a job as the more expensive ones. For example, the Avanti Mini-Pub Kegerator retails for about $230, and the Vinotemp Mini Keg Beer Dispenser retails for about $100 more - $330. The Avanti has the benefit of being more compact, and the Vinotemp has a better temperature regulator. So, unless you have really exacting temperature requirements for your beer, you might as well get the more inexpensive brand – it is more likely to fit in the trunk or boat, or whatever you are traveling in. General compact-ability is a feature of most mini kegerator gadgets – at least, compared to the mini fridge kegerator or a full-blown kegerator. For this reason, these compact mini kegerators have enjoyed popularity among the draft beer fan crowd.

One of the great advantages of the mini kegerator is that they come with AC and DC power supplies. This allows you to run the mini kegerator off of your car, RV, or boat battery, even solar systems can power these mini kegerators. This makes it easy to take a small amount of beer (standard mini kegs hold 5 liters) out for a picnic, boating, or car camping trip. Mini kegerators can also be easily installed into your RV or boat as a semi-permanent appliance.

New advances in refrigeration technology may see a whole revolution in the way we cool all manner of things, including beer. Researchers at Penn. State have made headway in electromagnetic cooling devices. These devices operate without the use of a compressor or of Freon, and, if commercially viable, will produce machines that are much more compact than the bulky fridges we are used to. On top of this, Ben and Jerry’s, the famous ice cream men, have developed a way to cool their dessert via sound waves. By using a machine that employs pressurized helium gas and ethyl alcohol as a cooling medium, they keep their ice creams at a delightfully cold level.

The increased popularity and availability of kegerators is likely to create an industry that is capable of harnessing these new technologies and putting them to good use. It seems clear that, with this latest invention of the mini kegerator, the kegerator industry is willing and capable of incorporating new, inventive ideas into its arsenal of products. In short, we are sure to see more and more interesting forms of kegerators in the coming years.

The new options that these mini kegerators provide give fans of draft beer an excellent opportunity to enjoy draft beer in a variety of settings. While in the past, draft beer fans have gone to great lengths to install kegerator systems in their R.V.s, now it as simple as shopping around for a convenient new appliance. Some day, we may see mini kegerators replacing coffee makers in the office (certain offices, anyways), or at least be seen side-by-side with them. As it is, we will see them on the beach, the mountain retreat campsite, at sea, and at the omnipresent tailgate party. Draft beer to-go has become a reality at last.

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