The Session is a monthly beer blogging topic. This month's topic comes from Kendall Jones at Washington Beer Blog.

The first time I homebrewed the friend who walked me through the process told me he would pick up a couple growlers beforehand. WTF s a growler, I asked. He replied simply, it's just a glass jug for beer. Oh. Well that's simple enough. And, if homebrew isn't available, there's nothing quite like a fresh beer from a local brewery to ...

Santa kindly gave me a Refractometer for Christmas this year, which rocked because it was on my list of gifts for your favorite homebrewer. And just a couple of weeks ago I brewed up a doppelbock and got to try my new toy out. It was everything I dreamed it would be. Geeky. Easy to read. Rather badass looking. I was happy. Then I went to take a reading after fermentation had slowed down and got a sky-high reading. Wait? Did I under-pitch? Was the ...

These bottom filling tap machines have been around for a little while now, but last night was the first time I've seen one in action. If you've been to any arena and watched in horror as the concession staff struggle to fill a 20 oz. cup, this bottom filling tap will cure your beer pouring woes. I mean look how awesome that thing is and how little work it takes to operate! A perfect pour in under 15 seconds. I didn't actually ...

I’ll start out by saying this is probably one of the least exciting aspects of homebrews. Bottling will never rank as exciting and so the process of getting ready to bottle? Yeah, not a lot of fun here. None the less this is a key part in sharing and enjoying homebrew and I guess it does have a kind of meditative quality. Meditative? Is that the word?

Anyway, let’s start with what bottles do you want: brown ones! Don’t even bother with ...

If your not a homebrewer and you want to get a gift for a homebrew you might have no idea where to start. So start here! Here is a list of a few things that most hombrewers would enjoy getting under the Christmas tree. Well, at least, these are gifts I would like to see under the Christmas tree. All of these gifts are fairly universal and would be great for everyone from the beginner to the advanced homebrewer. Unless of course they already have ...

Here's a rather interesting use of used Red Stripe beer cans: a sound sculpture. It's worth watching the whole video, thought it does run a little long, to see the creation of this crazy collection of beer cans. It looks like they did a pretty good job cleaning out the cans before putting them to use here. Good thing, I suppose. This might be the start of several other creations of Red Stripe beer can sculptures from the looks of their facebook page. 

This bad ass Mobile Beer Bar from Alpina Grills has about all you really need to survive: a beer tap and fire to make food. Do you need anything else? Described by the manufacture as "perfect for the hardened drinkers amongst us who like nothing more than a nice piece of barbecued meat and an ice-cold beer." Wow, that's me! I want one. Oh wait, this grill rings in at $11,000? I will go ahead and file this under shit-I-can't-afford-ever.