Project Research: Kegerator

[russ_h]

After a long day of wrenching, woodworking, gardening (blame my wife!) one needs to relax with a properly cooled adult bevy. Just so happens we've retired a refrigerator from regular residential use. So, rather than cause an environmental disaster by hauling this vintage unit off to the dump, I thought it may make a great candidate for a "kegerator".

Any of the forum members have experience building one of these? One of the issues I may have to deal with is carbon dioxide availability, is there an easy workaround for this?

 

[kbs2244]

Around here the places that can sell you a keg will also sell you a CO2 bottle.
As to how to do it there is a ton on youtube.

 

[EOC_Jason]

After a long day of wrenching, woodworking, gardening (blame my wife!) one needs to relax with a properly cooled adult bevy. Just so happens we've retired a refrigerator from regular residential use. So, rather than cause an environmental disaster by hauling this vintage unit off to the dump, I thought it may make a great candidate for a "kegerator".

Any of the forum members have experience building one of these? One of the issues I may have to deal with is carbon dioxide availability, is there an easy workaround for this?

Check your local liquor stores that sell kegs, they have so many different shapes & sizes of kegs now depending on the beer you like. Depending on how big / crafty the place is, they might also fill CO2 tanks too. Or at the very least they would know a place close by to recommend. After that your best bet is a welding supply place, but I read some sporting goods places (paintball use CO2) will too.

 

[coljar]

After a long day of wrenching, woodworking, gardening (blame my wife!) one needs to relax with a properly cooled adult bevy. Just so happens we've retired a refrigerator from regular residential use. So, rather than cause an environmental disaster by hauling this vintage unit off to the dump, I thought it may make a great candidate for a "kegerator".

Any of the forum members have experience building one of these? One of the issues I may have to deal with is carbon dioxide availability, is there an easy workaround for this?

You can buy or rent them at your local welding gas supplier. I suggest renting at first until you know if you want to continue, because having it on tap tends to make one drink more.

 

[matt_i]

A friend bought a chest freezer. He controls the temp with a temp switch that ultimately controls a relay to allow the incoming power to be switched on and the refrigeration process to run or not (it would run a lot more with the internal controls). He made some kind of a nice hardwood strip all around the chest to space the entire top and hinges higher. He drilled the wooden spacer for 4 taps (i recall he was unsure of drilling the sidewall of the freezer itself). Then insulated that with pink foam inside. Im not sure where he gets his gas bottle but I would get it from a welding supply for lack of other knowledge. Basic 2 stage inert gas regulator like you'd have on a tig welder.

its all I know about it other than it pours free beers when I go over

 

[roscoe2000]

Why not use a pump tap, no need for C02.....great for low volume dispensing. Now if you are planning to run thur a full keg or better a night.....then the C02 tank will save your arm.

 

[EOC_Jason]

Unless you & your buds drink a lot of beer, might be better just to stick the fridge in the garage and buy bottles. That way you can also store other drinks & food in there too.

 

[engineer2]

Why not use a pump tap, no need for C02

Fine if you are going to finish the keg quickly. My experience in college was the pumping air into the keg would cause the beer to spoil in a day or two.

 

[jdieter]

A typical keg is a half-barrel or 15.5 gallons. 1/4 and 1/6 barrels are also common sizes, however as the volume size goes down the price/glass goes up. By the time you've bought everything you'll have a couple hundred bucks into a kegerator. I guess it's all about the convenience of dispensing when and how you want vs. everything involved with bottles or cans.

 

[38Chevy454]

Easiest solution is just buy a kegerator kit, has the keg taps, regulator, beer taps and lines; that also has the CO2 bottle as part of the kit. I did that, got a two tap system, and converted an old frig. Get the internal seal Peerless taps, an upgrade from the cheaper ones that have external seal. Lots of the kegerator kits on ebay and online. Just search and buy what fits your intended use. I get the 5 gal "corny kegs" from local microbrew here.

It is not really that much lower cost than buying bottles, but the convenience and the draft beer vs bottles is why I do it. A keg on CO2 will last several months. An air pump will let oxygen in and the beer will go bad. Stick with CO2. I get my CO2 bottle filled at welding supply.

Edit: the internal seal faucet taps are "Perlick" brand

 

[jd_1138]

Easiest solution is just buy a kegerator kit, has the keg taps, regulator, beer taps and lines; that also has the CO2 bottle as part of the kit. I did that, got a two tap system, and converted an old frig. Get the internal seal Peerless taps, an upgrade from the cheaper ones that have external seal. Lots of the kegerator kits on ebay and online. Just search and buy what fits your intended use. I get the 5 gal "corny kegs" from local microbrew here.

It is not really that much lower cost than buying bottles, but the convenience and the draft beer vs bottles is why I do it. A keg on CO2 will last several months. An air pump will let oxygen in and the beer will go bad. Stick with CO2. I get my CO2 bottle filled at welding supply.

Another attraction of draft beer is that it is fresher and has more CO^2 in it. A properly ice cold draft beer served in a cold proper beer glass is delicious.

And there's the environmental benefits of not constantly buying cans/bottles that have to be recycled (or worse tossed in the landfill). And the convenience of not having to constantly schlep cases of beer home from the store.

If I have to drink a beer out of a can or bottle, I pour it into a proper beer glass. There are styles for lagers, ales, pilsners. Tastes much better from a glass. A can especially is a lousy way to enjoy a beer.

 

[EOC_Jason]

^^^ Downside is you might start drinking a lot more beer if you have such a large quantity on hand... I know I would...

 

[engineer2]

Downside is you might start drinking a lot more beer if you have such a large quantity on hand... I know I would.

A Kegerator would be too dangerous for me to own!

 

[LX-Markham]

I had dreams of putting a set of taps in the basement when it gets finished. I've abandoned that for sticking with cans and bottles. Nothing to clean or maintain. Can switch up the variety as much as I like. Plus the selection at our beer and liquor stores is much better in cans.

Totally agree though: gotta pour it in a proper glass regardless.

Also agree on the consumption rate: I tend to take a step back when I see the collection of empties piling up.

 

[rattle_snake]

A c02 bottle for a kegerator should last a long time, years between refills. One advantage to turning an old fridge into a kegerator is that you also get the rest of the fridge and it's freezer space.
Another benefit to a keg setup it the 1/2 beer. Only have time for a 1/2 a beer? Don't want all the calories? plus you can mix different types if you have multiple kegs.
Besides, 4 half beers is not the same as 2 beers.
The downside it that you (or your buddies) can just keep topping off and you have no idea how much beer you've had other than 'just this glass'.

 

[rlitman]

Why not use a pump tap, no need for C02.....great for low volume dispensing. Now if you are planning to run thur a full keg or better a night.....then the C02 tank will save your arm.

Fine if you are going to finish the keg quickly. My experience in college was the pumping air into the keg would cause the beer to spoil in a day or two.

THIS!

The only exception I can think of is for beers that CO2 would overcarbonate. Guinness comes to mind. They use a special gas that's a blend of CO2 and N2. But my local welding shop stocks that too. CO2 is EASY to find.

 

[akpingel]

I have a converted 7 gallon chest freezer with 3 taps. To convert an upright, you really just need to drill for taps through the door (do not attempt to go through the sides because you could hit a coolant line!) and probably add a drip tray.

If you're new to it all, check out kegconnection.com and see how a kit is built out.

Refilling a CO2 tank is cheap and easy. You either take it to a local homebrew shop for exchange, or you find a local welder's supply and exchange with them.

Alex

 

[bzinsky]

I have a kegerator and I love beer.

It seems like its the greatest thing ever when you don't have one but there are a few problems.

Any buddies you might have over just assume your beer costs you almost nothing and you have an unlimited source. It's just a beer fountain, it's not like they are drinking a piece of your inventory in your fridge. So they no longer bring beer over. You can't charge them for it, because that would just be lame. You alternative is to hide it from them, but then you realize that a Keg is A LOT of beer for one man to drink. Yeah we all have stories of draining kegs with a few buddies over a weekend, but unless you're an alcoholic, it will take you longer to finish the beer than it will last. Then you have to buy good microbrews with high ABV's because they last longer, then you're spending $150+ for 1/4 barrels but you don't really want to drink the same microbrew for that long.

The best thing you can do is have a fridge that fits multiple 5 gallon cornelius kegs and obviously have multiple taps. That way you can finish something before it goes bad if need be, have variety, give your friends the cheap beer by turning off the taps to the good beer.

 

[polizei1]

https://www.kegerator.com/kegerator-conversion-kits

I plan on getting a dual tap setup, one with a 1/6 barrel of micro and the other a 1/4 of generic for the guest.

Note that domestics are usually good for ~6-8 weeks, imports are good for ~12 weeks. Depending on what you want to drink, it may not be available in a small enough size (1/6 are still ~56 beers and 1/4 is ~82).

The real problem is that micro's don't (generally) produce mini/cornelius kegs which would be perfect.

 

[mike in tucson]

A couple of tips not mentioned. I did a setup with a keg in an old ref. There are about 162 draws at 12 oz each in a keg. After you unload the keg, it takes a few hours for it to stabilize for a good draw. DIFFERENT BEERS REQUIRE DIFFERENT PRESSURES. Coors is a lower pressure than Bud, for instance. Not to say that we drank a lot of beer but I had a Coors tech stop on his tap maintenance route and service my tap every couple of weeks. There are line cleaners to kill the bacteria that grow in the lines and tap head...keep it clean. We used the freezer to get mason jars cold....made the beer experience even better with a frosted glass. I would buy a keg on Friday afternoon and if it lasted until Sunday night, we considered it a slow-drinking weekend.

 

[Lassen Forge]

As long as there's room for the keg and the tap on top, not just yeah, but HELL yeah. A bud of mine had an old double door fridge, it's now a double tap kegerator.

I applaud you on your desire to save the planet and reduce the pollution and ecological footprint - one pint (or more) at a time!

BTW - you can get all the parts you need for the conversion on line - just make sure there's room IN the fridge for the keg to fit, realizing there are different heights and diameters of keg out there. You can make a bracket on the outside to hold all the CO2 r Nitrogen gear, and pipe it into the keg, just like piping the outlet to the side or front of the newly-revived kegerator.

 

[Silly Rabbit]

I have a kegerator, it's a must do if you brew your own beer or cider. I have 2 5 gallon kegs in my small keezer with a canister of CO2 on the inside. Only because there isn't much room in that space to mount it on the outside. I use a small freezer with a temp controller to keep it slightly above freezing. Super easy to build, I haven't yet extended the top to add the taps but it's on the list so currently I just use the picnic taps and open the keezer to draw some cider.

 

[EOC_Jason]

Even better, just plumb it into the water lines...

This is classic but always fun to watch

 

[kylerohde]

I have a kegerator and I love beer.

It seems like its the greatest thing ever when you don't have one but there are a few problems.

Any buddies you might have over just assume your beer costs you almost nothing and you have an unlimited source. It's just a beer fountain, it's not like they are drinking a piece of your inventory in your fridge. So they no longer bring beer over. You can't charge them for it, because that would just be lame. You alternative is to hide it from them, but then you realize that a Keg is A LOT of beer for one man to drink. Yeah we all have stories of draining kegs with a few buddies over a weekend, but unless you're an alcoholic, it will take you longer to finish the beer than it will last. Then you have to buy good microbrews with high ABV's because they last longer, then you're spending $150+ for 1/4 barrels but you don't really want to drink the same microbrew for that long.

The best thing you can do is have a fridge that fits multiple 5 gallon cornelius kegs and obviously have multiple taps. That way you can finish something before it goes bad if need be, have variety, give your friends the cheap beer by turning off the taps to the good beer.

Agree. I am a beer fanatic but have zero desire to get a kegerator because I never want to have to drink the same beer that much. I don't even particularly like buying a six pack of the same beer when there's so many new beers always available to try!