Making a keggerator or keg fridge at home is rather simple as long as you have a spare fridge to play with. There are a number of people selling fridges in classified ads and at garage sales for $40 or $50 so look there first.
I purchased a keg fridge kit off of a seller on eBay. In total it cost me $350 and as you can see from the pictures below it included two kegs, a 5lb CO2 tank, 2 taps, and all the hoses and clamps.
Once you’ve picked the kit that you want and you have a fridge to use you simply have to drill two holes through the front of the door using a hole saw drill bit. You should make sure before you drill the holes that your fridge does not have any cooling coils running through the door or your fridge will end up being a piece of junk. However, most fridge doors are just filled with insulation so you should be fine. Another thing to note is the placement of the tap holes. If the holes are too low you will be on your knees pouring the pint. If it is too high and you try to open the freezer door it will hit your tap handles and all your precious beer will be on the floor. You can see that I no longer use tap handles because of this problem.
Now that the tap handles in you can screw on the hoses which connect to the kegs. The kegs are actually old Pepsi canisters that used to be used to for fountain pop. Today pop companies use plastic bags so all of these kegs are useless to the pop industry and are being snatched up by home brewers. The kegs hold about 20L and have an In and Out valve. The CO2 attaches to the In valve which carbonates the beer and helps push it out the taps. The hose to the taps is connected to the Out valve and when the tap is opened out comes the beer!
The disadvantage of this system is if you do not make your own beer then it might not be worth your while. You could not order a keg from the Beer Store and set it up in your fridge because “real” kegs have different attachments so you wouldn’t be able to connect it to your taps. However if you are a home brewer then this system is great. I originally wanted to have two flavours of beer at any time, but found I was drinking far too much. So now I only make one keg and put lemon water in the other keg. The CO2 carbonates the water so I have a tap of sparkling lemon water and a tap of beer.
Now if you are not interested in all this do it yourself home beer stuff then check out Barfly for some absolutely stunning retro beer fridges.
A local Brew Pub is having a beer festival in February and I thought I would share the details for those that might be in the area.
The Pepperwood Bistro and Brewery will be celebrating its 14th annual Beer Festival on February 24th, 2008 from 2:30 till 5:00 p.m. The cost is $30 per person, and tickets will be available in advance. Located at 1455 Lakeshore Road in Burlington Ontario, the Pepperwood is one of a handful of brew pubs in the province. This event has been a favourite of both the participants and the breweries over the years. The chef pulls out all the stops and puts on a great spread to enjoy as you sample beer from many of Ontario’s premier micro breweries. Of course the Pepperwood offers its own products for sampling as well as offering a selection not normally on tap. I intend to bring back the Chipotle beer again this year as well as a cask of something special. Last years breweries included Better Bitters, Black Oak, Brick, Creemore, Denison’s, Great Lakes, King, Labatt-Stella, Lakeport, McAuslan, Mill Street, Niagara, Pepperwood, Taps, and Trafalgar.
There is always a lot of fun, voting for the best all round beer, a 50/50 draw, and, of course, the proceeds go to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Association.
I have never been to Pepperwood’s and didn’t even know it was a brew pub, but now that I do I expect I will be making frequent visits.
It’s getting into the dog days of the winter here in Ontario. It’s dark and cold when I get up to go to work and it’s dark and cold when I leave work to go home. During the day I look out my window and it is grey and dreary. Pretty depressing, I know.
So to cheer myself up I started looking for vacation deals. I was looking for somewhere other then the Caribbean and I have always wanted to go to Egypt. I think I would be in total awe if I was standing at the base of one of the great pyramids. I found a site that has cheap hotel rates. I was able to quickly and easily look up Egypt. They listed all the Egyptian hotels with their star rating and average price per person in each of the next 6 months. I was quickly able to compare ratings and prices, which was nice.
Since I like to golf I thought why not do some sight seeing and golfing on the same vacation so I selected the link to Steigenberger Golf Resort Hotel. It looks fantastic! The rate for February is approximately $44 CAD, which seems pretty darn good if you ask me. Even though I really don’t have the time to go to Egypt right now I wanted to see how easy it was to book a flight and hotel. Since this is a UK site, 2006 winner of the British Travel Awards by the way, I had to choose a UK airport so I selected Manchester. I was going to stay for 7 days and depart on March 22. I easily entered my info and in no time the site returned flight options and room accommodations. It was a breeze.
So if you really are planning a trip or are just tired of the crummy Canadian weather take a look at some of these amazing hotel deals to cheer you up.
This is a sponsored post
One of the main reasons why I want a cottage is so that my family can get together there and enjoy swimming, fishing, playing, and eating. However my mother is not much of an outdoors type of person. Even though cottages have all the amenities of an urban home it tends to have more bugs then in the city and my Mom hates bugs. She hates seeing them and hates killing them. Even I’m not all that fond of squishing a giant spider or earwig in a piece of tissue. There is no need to get squeamish about bugs anymore because the Keep Your Distance Bug Vacuum has been invented.
The cordless vacuum quickly captures bugs from up to 2 feet away. The insects are sucked down a tube into the handle where they are instantly killed. The extension tube can be removed so that the dead bugs can be dumped into the garbage. It’s quick, easy, clean and there is no need to get up on any stools or chairs to reach the ceiling.
For $49.95 US it would be well worth it to have my mom enjoy herself at the cottage with the rest of us.
Niagara Wine Route – Grimsby & Beamsville
A day trip that my wife and I take a few times each year is a tour of the Niagara Wine Route. The Niagara region of Ontario produces some of the best wines from Canada and I am lucky enough to be only minutes from these vineyards.
The Niagara Wine Route is made of three different sections:
Grimsby & Beamsville
Jordan & Vineland
Niagara-on-the-Lake
Grimsby is the northern most part of the region and the start of the Niagara Wine Route.
The two most popular wineries, because of marketing, in this area are Kittling Ridge and Magnotta, who also produce Festa Brew from their brewery. I’m not really a fan of either of these wineries. They seem to mass produce wine just to get it on the shelves and in front of customers faces rather then concern themselves with quality.
Peninsula Ridge Estates on the other hand is a fantastic winery producing vintages a little more expensive then the other two mentioned, but produce some excellent Cabernet Francs and Cabernet Sauvignon. The restaurant on the property is an old Victorian home over 100 years old that was recently restored and is the branding image for all their wines.
A little further along HWY 81 (King St.) you will come to Thirty Bench Wines. This is a nice little winery for someone just starting to drink wine. In general you will find the wines here are sweet and relatively cheap. It is also a good place to ask questions. Thirty bench is a casual place where nobody will feel out of place.
Moving into Beamsville you will come across De Sousa Wine Cellars. This is a Portugese family run winery that sells port and other red wines common to the region. The wine wasn’t the greatest, but the lady behind the tasting bar was a true salesman and very entertaining. She sold us on some clay bowls to drink a Marechal Foch. We were told the unfinished clay would absorb the tannins in the wine producing a different taste and prevent headaches. It did produce a different taste and we bought the bowls.
Finally at the end of this region you will come to Thomas & Vaughan. I enjoy the wines here and always make a point to stop in. They often have season ending sales where you can pick up a $12 bottle for $6. They also have a very nice patio out front with a fountain so that you can enjoy lunch with a bottle of their wine outdoors.
In the next article I will discuss some of the wineries in the Jordan & Vineland area of the Niagara Wine Route.
I went to my first NFL football game a couple of weeks ago in Buffalo. We went to see the Bills “squish the fish” and I had a great time. As we were tailgating the temperature consistently dropped until freezing rain and then snow started falling. It was actually the perfect atmosphere for a football game in Buffalo. I wouldn’t have it any other way. What I would have enjoyed, however, would be a pair of far infrared heated pants.
The cargo pants offer 4 hours of heat through low power infrared energy powered by a rechargeable lithium battery. The heating elements are located in the front thighs and waist and envelope the entire lower body as energy is transferred through a flexible lightweight carbon mesh. The pants are made of 65% cotton and 35% polyester with a fleece lining and are machine washable. If you are in dire need of heated pants like I was in Buffalo then you won’t mind spending the $139.95 US.
This is the year I’m going to take up a winter sport instead of hibernating inside! Sounds weird from a Canadian eh? I know. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t play hockey.
This year I’ve decided to take up snow boarding. I’m not in an area where there are huge mountains like in BC and Alberta, but there are some ski hills that I can hit right after work so it will be worth my while to buy a board rather then renting all the time.
I’m a huge fan of the Burton snowboards. I mean aside from looking cool and aside from them being the most popular board, the reason I love them so much is because… well.. I guess they look cool and are the most popular. 
I don’t know anything about snow boards other then whats sold to me via advertisement, magazines, or professional athlete sponsorship. Do any of you know anything that could help me select a board?
Well it’s almost Christmas and people are scrambling for last minute deals…at least I know I am. So I went to do some searching on the internet to see if I could find some smaller sites that are offering deals. I can go to any of the big box stores any day of the year and find pretty much the same product in each of them, but I look forward to shopping at smaller stores and up-and-coming web sites that offer deals on unique items. I happened to be looking for home décor items for myself and as a gift for some friends and came across FlowDécor.
FlowDécor’s site is very elegant and impressive right from the home page. The menu system and choice are simple and straight forward. If you are looking for lighting then click on lighting…nothing complicated about that. Contact information, subscription, account login is all right there in front of you. I also appreciated the Next Day Shipping Guaranteed link on the home page letting me instantly know these guys are organized and I will receive my order on time.
The selection isn’t huge right now, but there is a Coming Soon section, letting customers know that this is just the beginning and to come back often to see what new merchandise they have added. I decided I would get an Outdoor Wall Lantern for the front and back of the house. I still have the ugly builder’s lights on my house and it’s time for a change. I also picked up a set of Cosmo Martini Glasses for a friend of mine.
I wrote the owners of the site telling them how much I liked it and that I was going to put a review up on my site. They told me to post this coupon code 836317 on the Everyday Weekender so that my readers could get a 20% discount on their purchases! The coupon is good until February 3, 2008. I thought that was fantastic! I love dealing with budding entrepreneurs! So check out their site www.flowdecor.com and if you’re not sure what to buy for a Christmas gift you can get a gift certificate.
Enjoy.
The 5L Heineken keg that has been recently advertised caught my eye and I was thinking of picking it up. It’s $35 CAD which isn’t unreasonable, but I thought I would compare it to the .5L tallboy cans that I often pick up from the local LCBO. Each tallboy costs $2.35 therefore 5L of Heineken from the tallboy cans is $23.50 or $11.50 cheaper then the keg.
Packaging and marketability obviously plays a part in the price difference. But then I got to wondering if there is a price difference between 24 bottles of Heineken and the tallboy cans. 24 bottles of Heineken costs $45 CAD and is roughly 7.9L. To purchase the equal amount in tallboys you would have to buy 16 cans. At $2.35 the equivalent of a two-four equals $37.60 when buying tallboys. That’s a savings of $7.40!
Think about this, most beer companies advertise a $4 savings on 24 beers during the summer on a long weekend in Canada. This is almost twice the savings for a premium beer!
So during the holiday season when we have spent way too much money consider going to the LCBO and pick up some fantastic beer from around the world and keep some of that hard earned cash in your pocket.
Today is one of the happiest days of my life because I was able to listen to the radio in my car for the first time in a year. I have a 1999 Saturn SC2 that I bought used 5 years ago. Everything has been great with my Saturn up until a year ago when I had to replace my battery. The battery switch went fine, but when I got into my car to drive to work the stereo display showed LOC. When I bought the car the user manual didn’t come with it so I did some research on the internet and found out that the Anti Theft system kicks in anytime the stereo is disconnected from the power.
I figured this wasn’t all that big a deal I would just call up the famously friendly Saturn customer service and they would have my stereo fixed in a jiffy with a smile on their face. However that was not the case. They told me that they do not have that information and the only way to unlock my radio was to go to a Saturn dealer and take it in for service. I thought that was an odd way of doing things since all that needed to be done was enter a 4 digit code in the stereo and it would unlock. Regardless, I called my local Saturn dealer and said I needed my stereo unlocked. They told me that it would cost 1 hour of labour $80 CAD and they would still not provide me with the code so I would have to go back to them next time it happened! I was furious! There was no way I was about to agree to that kind of extortion and I decided I would rather not have a radio then pay those crooks.
Yesterday I found the best website I’ve seen in a long time www.radiounlock.com. They will provide you with a working unlock code guaranteed or your money back. How much does this cost? $2.49US! I figured for that price if these guys were flat our lying and just stealing my money it was only $2.49. But they did exactly what they promised to do. I sent them the money via PayPal along with the stereo code and the make and model of my car and within 3 hours they responded with a code that worked. It was a great joy for me to drive to work today listening to the radio. Thank you very much to guys and gals at www.radiounlock.com.
