A taplist board — a chalkboard, whiteboard, or digital display showing what’s currently on draft — is the finishing touch that makes a home kegerator feel like a proper bar.
John Brewster
John Brewster
John Brewster is the homebrewer and writer behind BrewMyBeer — over a decade of all-grain brewing, 80+ BIAB batches, and 1,000+ guides on fermentation science, water chemistry, hops, yeast, and homebrewing equipment. Every guide is written from genuine hands-on experience.
Etching glass beer mugs with cream-style glass etching compound creates a permanent, frosted design that looks professional and makes a distinctive personalized gift for homebrew enthusiasts.
Custom beer labels transform a homebrew from a plain brown bottle into a shareable, gift-worthy product with genuine personal character.
A glycol chiller uses refrigerated propylene glycol solution to provide consistent, pump-circulated cold fluid for chilling multiple fermenters or a jacketed fermenter to precise temperatures — it’s the professional-grade fermentation temperature con
A bottle washer station is a small but high-impact DIY project that solves the most tedious bottling task — rinsing 40–50 bottles between sanitizing and filling.
Wiring a PID controller panel for brewing gives you precise, automatic temperature control for fermentation chambers, mash temperature, and kettle heating elements — and the wiring project, while requiring care with mains voltage, is manageable for a
A Unistrut brew stand gives a homebrewing system a professional, rack-mounted appearance and provides sturdy, adjustable support for multiple-kettle gravity-fed or pumped brewing setups.
A hop spider is a cylindrical mesh basket that hangs inside the kettle during the boil, containing whole hops or pellet hops and preventing them from clogging the wort outlet or getting transferred to the fermenter.
Custom tap handles are one of the most satisfying ways to personalize a keezer — a distinctive, hand-crafted tap handle identifies your homebrew on draft and transforms a utilitarian kegerator into a personal bar.
- Beer Brewing
DIY: Building a Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System (HERMS)
by John Brewster 4 minutes readA HERMS (Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System) uses a heat exchanger coil submerged in the hot liquor tank to gently heat recirculating wort — the coil never exceeds the HLT water temperature, eliminating scorching risk while providing precise, PI