I've been brewing off and on for about fifteen years now. What turned me around a few of years ago, however, was a wonderful, thoughtful, endearing Christmas gift from my wife: a Kegerator conversion kit.

You see, what turned me off from brewing previously was all that damn bottling. I just hated the process and absolutely dreaded when the time came to bottle my beer. I tried bottling in 12 ouncers...once. Too damn many for each batch. Filling them made a dreadful mess on the kitchen floor - not that the dog was complaining after he staggered away. So, I graduated to bombers - you know, those 20 ounce jobbers. A bit better, but still could lead to a messy situation.

Actually, it was not so much that I dreaded filling the damn things as it was cleaning and sanitizing each one of the buggers that was the real issue. Seems like I always forgot to wash out the dregs after pouring a beer, which, if left unattended, later turned into something resembling snot with the consistency of concrete. Did I mention I hated bottling?

So, my lovely wife, after some well timed nudges from my good friend and me, purchased a Kegerator kit from the Beverage Factory. I swear that when I opened that box and realized what it was the heavens opened up and angels sang. I could finally brew beer and not have to bottle!

Unfortunately, bottling is a necessity when entering competitions. Thanks to a the Blichmann Beer Gun, I'm all set.

So, here I am, happily stinking up the garage most every weekend brewing. Racking to a keg is so much simpler than bottling. All I have to do is scrub, clean and sanitize one big bottle.

Beer on tap is a beautiful thing...and now, I have five - all encased in my kegerator - with room for more.

I am the main developer of BrewBlogger, a browser-based homebrew logging system – the system is the platform of this, my personal homebrew log. Its development has paralled my advancement in homebrewing over the last two years. As I've needed a gadget, calculator, widget, or other item, I have been adding them to BrewBlogger. The entire source code is available at SourceForge or Google Code.

Additionally, I'm the developer of another brewing-related web-based app: Brew Competition Online Entry, a web-based homebrew competition entry and tracking application.

If you need someone for some web design work, I shamelessly ask that you check out my digital portfolio page at zkdigital.com.