HBar, Author at The Ultimate Home Bar

Don’t Be a Bottle Buying Fool!

I’m sure it is no surprise to you if I tell you that the number one question I probably get out of all the potential home bar questions out there is “what is the best way to stock your bar when starting out?” so I figured I’d share a little bit about that here in my blog.

First, just like everything else home bar related, there is no one way to do it. But that’s OK, that’s truly what I love about home bars. Everyone has their own take on it and the more you talk to people the more you pick up.

However, to answer this question, I’m going to put myself back in the shoes of someone who has no bartending experience, limited budget and no real general direction as to what type of drinks they will end up serving the most. This may go against what most people do, but the reason I am going to direct you this way is so you don’t make the mistake of buying things you don’t need and end up with bottles of whatever just taking up space and collecting dust.

The method that I’m referring to is what I call the “evolution method”. Assuming you don’t have any real drink making experience this will be the best foundation for you to build from. First go get yourself a good drink making guide so you can make sure you learn how to make drinks correctly. Next you’ll want to think about what mixed or liquor drinks, mixers, shooters etc. that you like if any and that your friends like. Whatever you see or find people drinking when hanging out at bars or wherever, just start thinking. You’ll want to write some of those down and lookup the ingredients. Try to find a few that contain the same basic ingredients so you don’t have to buy up a bunch of different stuff unless you want to but I’m talking starting small here. If you have a certain theme to your bar like Tiki for example, then of course you may want to learn some tropical drinks for starters.

So imagine this, you buy the ingredients to make just one or two drinks you want to start out with. This way you can practice making this drink and sort of make it your specialty (depending on it’s complexity). Find a way to make it good. Then start branching out to other drinks that use the same ingredients or maybe the same but +1 so you can slowly start branching out. Then just keep going from there. The result will be that you will only spend money on things you know exactly how to use and you become great at making drinks with them.

This is the most practical and efficient way I know to start growing your collection and mastering the art of drink making and growing your drink menu at your bar. I understand it may seem a bit limited to some people at first but that’s OK, it will grow. But until then you will have more of a specialty bar. You can take other peoples suggestions as to what they want and start branching out that way to. Hell, make your bar a BYOB bar in the beginning if they want something you don’t have and just ask to keep the bottle so you will have it for them next time. Before you know it, you’ll have mastered your bottle collection and you’ll have gone from looking like newbie to “alright this guy or gal knows what they’re doing!” FYI – If you’re interested I share several other great methods for stocking a home bar for different situations in my Ultimate Home Bar Setup Guide and Membership site!

Kegs, Parties and Problems

Parties & Entertaining

Nothing worse than having your boys over or even worse the ladies that love beer and your kegorator is dead set on spitting foam! Pour rest, pour rest, pour rest is what your life is turning into, and all of a sudden that old bottle of bud light is looking much more appealing!

Next, you check the pressure…same as before…you check the temperature – it’s good. What gives?? Who the hell knows, sometimes the beer gods just aren’t with you! All you can do is just make sure you have a backup plan in the form of beer in some other kind of container. Please never get caught with nothing! I don’t care if you have to keep a Heineken mini keg in the bottom of your fridge, you’ll be glad you did.

However, before you abandon ship, do your routine checks. You may need to just shut of the CO2 and let it chill for a min and try it again with a much lower pressure. You may get a slow pour out of your tap, but that may prove to be better than a crap load of foam which usually = wasting beer. Maybe try and cool the keg down a bit more with some ice or something if you suspect temperature may be the problem.

I also realize there’s a lot of DIYers out there and they may have constructed their own kegorator contraption of some sort and don’t really know if it’s setup right. A couple of things that help are to ensure you use tubing that’s 3/16 inside diameter which gives about 2psi per foot of pressure which is most ideal to prevent foaming.

If you’re having temperature problems make sure your cold plate or coils aren’t too iced up or anything because that actually acts like an insulator and your system is not working correctly or efficiently. Also if you are having cooling issues make sure everything is sealed properly. If needed put some kind of light inside of it and then inspect it in a dark room to see if there is light seeping out anywhere. If you do find gaps do what you can to seal them and see how it goes from there.

Lastly, just do your best to maintain everything properly and keep your lines and taps clean. Make sure you do some kind of routine checks if you’re not using it regularly and for the love of god make sure you know how its working at least a day or so before any big parties your planning. Last thing you want to be doing is screwing with your kegorator and struggling to pour a beer while the parties going on around you!

With a little bit of common sense, preventative maintenance and routine checks you will hopefully not end up being that guy or gal with a crappy keg…leave that to the amateurs!!

The Speaker Dilema

Audio, Home Bar Designs & Planning

OK, so as you probably realize, at any bar whether it’s public or your home bar, music is usually one of the main staples of entertainment besides drinks and people. One question that I hear come up a lot when people are in the planning stages of their home bar or even after the fact sometimes, is where is the best place to put my speakers and what kind should I get?? Well unfortunately there’s not one answer for everybody because, no person, home and bar combination are ever going to be exactly the same.

So you will have to evaluate what’s important to you and what kind of entertaining you plan to be doing. For example, if you picture that you’re likely going to be watching a lot of movies or sporting events where good surround sound is key or cranking up the music and getting down with your bad self, then you probably want to use find a receiver with some decent surround sound capabilities in the form of floor standing or bookshelf speakers etc. to strategically place them in your bar or entertainment area.

This may sound obvious, but a lot of people seem to want to get these built in speakers above the bar in the ceiling or in the walls etc, but the problem is that it’s more work, you often have to pay someone to install those, and once they’re in, they are a pain to deal with if they aren’t living up to your standards. In addition, they usually get placed in a place that is less than optimum for watching sports or dancing and people’s conversations start getting drowned out. Not to mention, I’ve heard from many people that once they are cranked up, they often sound like crap up in the ceiling for some reason.

I agree it’s cool to have built in sound, I’m not saying it’s not, but you just have to make sure you understand it’s limitations and better purpose. I think if you just want to have some lower level music playing in the background or just a bit of extra sound for watching sports at your bar, then it may be a perfect solution. Especially if space is a concern! You could also go with some kind of floor standing or bookshelf speakers in the front and then have the rear speakers in the ceiling. But still the ceiling speakers unless somewhat high end are likely to not perform as well.

So with all that being said, all I can really offer is the obvious…make sure you think through what you want and analyze your situation to the fullest, don’t be one of those people that just go with what you think is cool without really knowing how it will work!