Garage—The Beer-mobile
Our Beer-mobile is a fantasy, we’ll admit, a joint project we’d have to commission from custom refrigerator genius Craig “Craigerator” Jones (www.craigerator.com) and hot rod custom king Boyd Coddington of the Discovery Channel’s American Hot Rod (www.boydsshop.com). We envision a 1959 Chevy Impala convertible with fins out to there on a golden amber body with a snow-white rag-top. The trunk is a coldbox with flip-up taps; chill is provided by a propane-powered refrigeration unit (it works for the Amish!) built into the back seat. Estimated cost: somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000, plus $110 for a half of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
Not as much fun, but more practical: Don’t carry the kegs and sacks of malt to the basement, you’ll ruin your back. Get a ThyssenKrupp Minivator from your local old-folks store. With a capacity of 450 lbs., you can take kegs downstairs two at a time. NEED PRICE.
The beers in the trunk? That’s right, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Samuel Adams Boston Lager. If you’ve got an American classic car, you better have American classic beers.
Deck/shed combo—The Tiki Bar is Open
We put a small shed on the deck: it’s storage for our outdoor drinking equipment.
Tiki it up: decorate that shed and deck for fun outdoor drinking with Polynesian pop culture from BarTiki.com. Tiki bars, tiki music, tiki mugs, tiki torches…and if that’s not rum punch in your mugs, who’s to know?
If you’re drinking outside, you need coolers. Get the Coleman XTreme 70 qt. cooler: it will keep an iced sixtel keg cold for five days in 90 degree heat, and a sixtel fits in this cooler like it was made for it.
Bottles go in coolers, too: get a wall-mount opener at Cymba.com; heck, you can get any kind of opener you want at Cymba, even solid bronze personalized openers ($55 setup fee plus $20 each piece). If you want to get real special, the guys at Franklin Ironworks (www.franklinironworks.com) can custom smithy a nifty hand-hammered model for you; e-mail for estimates.
Get more mileage out of that keg with Ubertap: a regular Cerberus of taps, Ubertap has three heads for multiple pouring, and a foot-pump for more efficient pumping. (www.ubertap.com, $100 for a standard Sankey head) For your really big parties.
Deck beer is lawnmower beer…but we pay our kids to mow the lawn, so our lawnmower beer is Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. Hey, Billy, you missed a spot!
