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milldoggy · 03-16-2009, 11:58 PM

All,
I currently have a kegerator with a three tap tower. I am about to build a bar with a granite counter top around my kegerator to hide it. I want to mount the tap tower on the granite. Currently my tap tower is a 2 tap perlick and I drilled the third hole in it for the third tap, not to professional looking. I want to upgrade to something nice, but it looks like my choices are limited without going to glycol. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or things I should be concerned about. Like the space between the granite and the top of the kegerator. I was planning and doing some kind of insulation from teh hole in the kegerator to the granite.

here are the choices I found, any thoughts?

Bright Polished Chrome or Brass Plated Corrugated Draft Towers
Single 4 inch Column Draft Beer Tower

Mini Mushroom
Mini Mushroom Tower - Chrome - Air Cooled - 3 Faucets

Zues
Beer Tower (Zeus) - Black - Chrome - Air Cooled - 3 Faucets

3 tap tower, close to what I have
Beer Tower - 3" Column - Polished Stainless Steel - 3 Faucets

is there an option I am missing, I love the cobra taps, but I think I will need glycol, unless something thinks it will work without it.

Thanks everyone!

**Jipper** · 03-17-2009, 12:51 AM

What is the space between the bottom of the tower and the point that the lines go inside the chest freezer? If you are talking like 4 inches or something, you can probably get away with insulating the hoses that are exposed and not worrying about it. If we are talking more than that, you may have to get a larger tube - like 4" diameter - and run your lines through that and set up some sort of small fan to blow the cold air up there to cool the thing down.

In general, glycol is used for runs of 25 feet or more. Most towers say they come with glycol tubes, but you don't need glycol to actually use the thing.

homebrewer_99 · 03-17-2009, 02:06 AM

How many kegs will you have on tap at the same time? Will they be in a fridge under the bar?

Most of us can only control 2 taps with a minifridge. What are you using?

If you're running 3 then go for whatever you think looks best.

milldoggy · 03-17-2009, 03:03 AM

i have a sanyo kegerator, like a dorm fridge. It can fit four kegs in it, with one handle cut off and the bottle outside. I leave the bottle in and can have three on tap at the same time. The space between the tower bottom/grantite bottom and the kegerator hole will be 2-3 inchs.

So if i hear you correctly, I could use a three tap glycol cooled tower and just not use the glcyol? I guess I would have a little warm beer in the line, but it would be minimal since the lines would be 5-6 ft at the most, probably 2-4 ft.

MoRoToRiUm · 03-17-2009, 08:42 AM

Your warm beer in the line would be minimal; If you're concerned I would add some PVC with insulation, a blower fan, or copper lines from fridge into it around your lines. Almost any tower will work just fine for you, just make sure it's properly insulated.

**Denny's Evil Concoctions** · 03-17-2009, 09:13 AM

Small computer fan blowing air up to the tower.

milldoggy · 03-17-2009, 11:25 AM

cool, should be fairly easy to wire up a CPU fan. Thanks everyone!!!

**bad coffee** · 03-18-2009, 12:08 AM

Two of these, and a small piece of pvc between the fridge and the bottom of the counter. Wrap with insulation and you're good to go.

http://www.castlewholesalers.com/media/119888P

B

TrojanMan · 03-18-2009, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milldoggy

cool, should be fairly easy to wire up a CPU fan. Thanks everyone!!!

Get an old cell phone charger or other DC adapter and wire that to the fan. Just wire it in parallel with your fridge control and you're good to go, no batteries.

I was just going to say that granite can be tough to work with to get fine holes in, like a circle for the tap penetration. You might want to go with a counter-front type stainless mounting unit that also includes a drip pan, etc. It'll elevate the taps a bit off the bar itself so you won't have that perfectly sleek look, but it'll let you bolt the tower directly to the mounting unit (whereas you can't really bolt anything to granite).

Be sure to put up pics when you're done! Good luck.

milldoggy · 03-18-2009, 01:22 AM

I am a little worried about how to mount the tap. but I want to go for a nice seemless look if possible. I talked to the sales person at the local granite shop and she had no idea how I would mount it, but she assured me her installers and fabricators have done this before. I think I might follow the link in the keg sticky and build my tower. Get a nice stainless steel tower and some forward seal perlicks.

Edit: I just looked that link from bad coffee, those look perfect, i owe you a homebrew!!!

what a great idea, I guessing you are saying mount one on the under side of the granite and one on the top and lock them together?
then mount the tower to the top one. or you just talking about the pvc between the fridge and granite.

I think I could use these to mount the tap a little more securely

Could not find much info on mounting to granite, but it looks like machine screws all the way through the counter top is the best options
http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-en/trouble-shooting-beer-quality-home/761-beer-tower-mounting.html