Welcome to BrewHacks.com

BrewHacks.com is a site for home brewers. But we don't talk about how to brew beer. We show you how to build simple projects that will make the home brewing process easier.

What's New at BrewHacks.com?

Today I gave the Instruction Sheet Builder a much needed upgrade. It now supports All Grain brewing using a traditional three vessel system. Please let me know if you see any problems with the new "All Grain" option.

It took a lot longer than I planned, but I finally added the Tower Cooler project. If you're tired of getting a warm, foamy first beer from your Kegerator, this project is for you!

I got tired of the plain black plastic tap handles on my kegerator, and I wanted something that could be customized so my guests and I would know what beer I had in each keg. I didn't like the chalkboard style and couldn't find anything else that I liked. So, I designed my own. This tap handle is available for sale and can be 3D printed in a variety of materials and colors. To find out more about my tap handle and maybe buy one for yourself, please click here, or on the banner.

Who doesn't enjoy a cold, frosty mug of draft beer? I know I do. And that was something I was missing by bottling my beer. So I decided to start kegging. It's a lot faster and easier than bottling, plus you can pour as much or as little as you want and are not limited to a 12 oz. or 22 oz. portion. My latest project is a Kegerator built from a Danby DAR125SLDD refrigerator.

I've added a new project to the site showing you how to make a Fermentation Monitor. Now you can keep an eye on your bubbling airlock without lifting the lid to your Temperature Controlled Fermentation Chamber. The Arizona Summer heat makes my garage very hot, so this allows me to check on my brew while keeping the cool air in and the hot air out!

As I promised last month, I've added A Brew In A Bag (BIAB) section in Tips. This is a great way to do All Grain brewing. It's inexpensive, simple to do and the beer tastes great!

Over the past 6 months I've been trying to perfect a recipe for Cream Ale. The first three batches were Extract and the last two were All Grain. My first All Grain batch was not very good, so I did some research on alternative techniques to standard All Grain brewing. I discovered Brew In A Bag (BIAB) and that sounded perfect for me. My last batch was BIAB and it came out great! I'm a big BIAB fan. It's a very easy way to make the transition from Extract to All Grain. I'll be doing a project on how to do BIAB in the future. In the mean time, I've added a BIAB option to my Instruction Sheet Builder. This is based on how I brewed my first BIAB batch, which I am very happy with.

Background:

I began brewing ale and lager in February of 2011 and I have over 85 batches of beer under my belt. Pun intended. I don't profess to be an expert, but I have learned a few tricks that I will share with you. But mainly, I'm a tinkerer. I like solving problems and building things.

I live in Arizona where it gets really hot in the summer. I didn't want to give up brewing ale during the summer months, so I designed a gadget that would keep my fermenting bucket cool in the middle of the summer. That was my first project. I call it the Hot Weather Brew Buddy. You can see how to build it in the Projects section.

Don't leave without checking out the Tips & Tricks section. There you'll find, among other things, my free Instruction Sheet Builder tool. A must have tool for anyone who brews from a recipe. Just enter the basic data into the form, and it will generate a PDF instruction sheet that rivals those found in ingredient kits. Give it a try!

This web site is a work in progress. It will take time to properly document all of my projects, plus I'll be adding new tips, tools and projects as time goes by. So please be patient and come back often to check on our progress.

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