Homebrewing is enjoyed most when it’s shared with friends and one of the coolest ways to do this is with a draft system and menu board. A beer display board will make your home draft system just like your local bar and all your friends can see what beers you have on tap along with the important details like ABV and IBUs. We currently use a beer display board in our office with our own draft system, maybe you’ve seen it in some of our videos. Follow this tutorial to make a beer display board just like ours.

In the tutorial below, we’ll be giving you width and height measurements, but length measurements will vary depending on the size of display board you want to make.

Full Video Tutorial

Here is a video that illustrates the steps listed below

Items Needed

• Ultra-premium pre-primed plywood
• Black chalkboard paint

We used Valspar brand black chalkboard paint

• White oak or any other type of wood for trimming
• Sandpaper or Electric Sander
• Foam Roller
• Nail gun or hammer and nails
• 1 ¼ inch (31.75 mm) nails
• ¾ inch nails (19.05 mm)
• Safety Glasses

Follow These Steps

1. Put 1 coat of chalkboard paint onto your sheet of plywood

Applying the first coat of chalkboard paint

2. Sand this first coat down to remove bumps and unevenness

Sanding first coat of chalkboard paint down

3. Apply a second coat of chalkboard paint

4. Cut your trim pieces while the paint dries - the measurements below are width and height, cut the length based off of the sheet of plywood you have.

- We made our edge trim pieces 1.5 inches wide x .5 inch tall (3.8 cm x 1.27 cm) - we want these pieces to be flush with the interior trim as well as have some reveal on the back for mounting

- For the interior trim pieces cut twelve .5 inch wide x .5 inch tall pieces (1.27 cm x 1.27 cm)

We used a table saw to cut our interior trim pieces

5. Install your edge trim pieces - use 1 ¼ inch (3.18 cm) nails

- To make these pieces flush with the .5 inch (1.27 cm) interior pieces we placed an interior piece onto the edge of the top of the board to use as a guide

- Nail the edge trim pieces onto the side of your plywood board using a hammer or nail gun

You can see Kyle holding an interior trim piece to line up the outer trim piece

6. Install the interior horizontal trim - use ¾ inch (1.9 cm) nails

- Create 9 rows using 8 of the .5 inch x .5 inch (1.27 cm x 1.27 cm) wooden pieces

- We installed our rows with 3 3/4 inches (9.5 cm) spacing - for whatever spacing you choose, we recommend cutting a piece of wood to help guide your spacing

7. Install the interior vertical trim - use ¾ inch (1.9 cm) nails

- We made ours with 5 columns in order to list the tap #, beer name, beer style, IBUs, and ABV

Use a piece of wood to guarantee even spacing

8. Sand the trim pieces for a smooth finish

9. Install above your taps!