First rule of your home bar: No fancy digital equipment. You'll look like an idiot.

One key to throwing a great event—from the bartending aspect of things—is to have all your gear in order. The difference between having a well stocked bar and a gimmicky bar is making sure you don’t have ALL the gear, just the RIGHT gear.

First of all—nothing digital. Plenty of people have all sorts of digital pouring equipment, triple-beam balances, automatic pouring robots… just… don’t. It maybe make for a great Engadget post, but if you put it in your house and throw a party, somebody who knows better is going to laugh at you. Here’s a good rule of thumb: if the tool didn’t exist when your grandparents were your age, you probably don’t need it. Okay, maybe a blender; you need one of those.

(coming up next: part 2 - equipment checklist)