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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. I’ve made taplist boards for my own keezer and for homebrewing friends ranging from a simple hand-lettered chalkboard to a Raspberry Pi-driven digital display, and the amount of effort you put in scales with how seriously you take your home bar setup.
DIY taplist boards: chalkboard, digital, and printed options
Chalkboard taplist (simplest, most traditional): A chalkboard taplist is the pub standard. Materials: chalkboard paint (applied to any smooth surface, MDF, wood board, or directly to the keezer collar), chalk markers (liquid chalk pens, not traditional chalk, much easier to write neatly and reads clearly), ruler and chalk marker for layout lines. Construction: cut an MDF or plywood board to the desired size (typical: 40cm × 60cm for a two-tap setup). Sand edges smooth. Apply 2–3 coats of chalkboard paint (available at art supply and hardware shops in India, ₹200–400 per can). Allow full cure (48 hours minimum). “Season” the board by covering the entire surface with chalk and erasing, this prevents ghost marks on the first use. Design: use chalk markers to write beer names, styles, ABV, and any tasting notes. Liquid chalk in white against black chalkboard is clean and readable. Use a level and chalk ruler lines for neat alignment. Erase and update each time you put a new keg on. Mount on the wall above or beside the keezer with small picture hooks. Printed taplist (more polished, less flexible): Design in Canva or Google Slides, create a poster-format taplist with your brewery name, beer names, styles, and ABV. Print at a local print shop on A3 paper (₹50–150 per print). Place in a simple poster frame. Update the design and print a new sheet when kegs change. Digital taplist (for the tech homebrewer): A Raspberry Pi (₹2,500–4,000) connected to a small HDMI screen (24-inch monitor or a repurposed tablet mounted near the keezer) displays a full-color digital taplist. Software options: BreweryDB taplist integrations, a simple Google Slides presentation set to auto-refresh, or dedicated taplist software like DigitalPour (subscription) or self-hosted Taplist.io. The digital taplist allows real-time updates from your phone and can show keg levels if connected to a keg weight system. Over-engineered for most home setups but genuinely impressive at homebrewing events and parties. What information to include: Beer name (most visible). Beer style. ABV. IBU (optional but brewer-information-forward). Short tasting note (1 line). Batch date or keg number (for your own tracking).
Common Questions
What format makes a taplist most readable for guests?
Taplist readability is a practical question that professional bar designers have answered definitively, the same principles apply to a home taplist. Font size: the beer name should be large enough to read from across the room (minimum 48pt equivalent on a 60cm board, or 72pt for maximum readability). ABV, style, and tasting notes should be noticeably smaller (24–36pt), secondary information that guests step closer to read. Color contrast: white text on black (chalkboard) has the highest contrast and is the most readable. Dark text on light backgrounds also works. Avoid colored text on colored backgrounds, the contrast is too low in dim lighting. Number of beers: a taplist that tries to list 8 beers on one board becomes cluttered and hard to read. A taplist with 2–4 beers can give each beer adequate space and visual weight. If you serve 6+ beers, consider a multi-panel board or a vertical list with smaller fonts. Hierarchy: the most important information is the beer name and ABV. Style is secondary. IBU and tasting notes are tertiary. Visual hierarchy guides the eye from most to least important, size down each level of information. Consistency: all entries in the same format (same order, same information per beer, same fonts) look intentional and professional. Mixed formats (some beers have tasting notes, some don’t; inconsistent capitalization) look amateur. For a chalkboard: chalk guidelines help maintain consistent line spacing. For digital or printed: align all text to a grid. For Indian homebrewing spaces: Hindi or regional language brewery names and beer names add a distinctive local character, mixing Devanagari script for the brewery name with English for beer details creates a visual identity that is immediately recognizable as Indian craft brewing.
