I guess this is more of the location for this thread, so I'm going to combine all of my other ones into this one. I'll start off by saying I have a horribly addictive personality. I just got into home brewing 2-3 weeks ago and I've already spent close to $1,500. That's another story altogether. I have 3 brews fermenting right now and they should all be done about the same time.
I got to thinking, that's gonna be right around 150 bottles. I don't have the room in the refrigerator for that, so 5 gallon kegs were the best decision, right? Well, what better way to serve beer from kegs at home than out of a kegerator? I checked out craigslist for a refrigerator and found a freebie that worked. It was in TERRIBLE condition, but it worked. I ordered a kegging kit, three 5 gallon kegs, and all the hoses and such and it's in progress. My last issue was that I wanted to find custom made tap handles. I found the inserts that you can use to make anything a tap handle, so now that's solved. Sorry for the quality, taken with phone. Anyways, here's what I started with...
I'm not even sure what was inside this thing, but it smelled awful. I spent about 2 hours alone just scrubbing it out. Then I coated the inside with bleach, closed it up, took off the old handles and started spray painting it black. Once I was done with the first few coats, I opened it up, wiped out all the bleach, and then hit it with some 409 just for good measure. I figured I wouldn't be able to open the freezer portion without opening the refrigerator portion because of the tap handles, so I put the new handle on and bolted one side to the freezer and one side to the refrigerator so the same handle opens both doors. Added some LHBS stickers, and moved it inside.
I had to cut away most of the inside molding that made the shelves on the door because I couldn't close the door with the three kegs in it. Once I cut away the molding, it holds three cornys, my CO2 canister, and there's plenty of room for all of the tubing, manifold, etc. Here's a shot of the inside of the setup, not connected, yet.
I'm waiting on the rest of the supplies to get here this week so I can drill out the holes for the taps and connect everything and hopefully get it up and running. As for the tap handles, like I'd mentioned, I'm an avid duck hunter so I found a place where I can buy hand carved decoy heads already painted so I'm going to turn them into tap handles. Also, the space between the fridge and the wall will fit 2 5 gallon carboys and I'm going to put a piece of carpet on top and put my 2 6.5 gallon carboys up there. I should be able to consolidate all of my brewing equipment to that one little room. I'll have more pictures once the stuff gets here and the project continues.
I got to thinking, that's gonna be right around 150 bottles. I don't have the room in the refrigerator for that, so 5 gallon kegs were the best decision, right? Well, what better way to serve beer from kegs at home than out of a kegerator? I checked out craigslist for a refrigerator and found a freebie that worked. It was in TERRIBLE condition, but it worked. I ordered a kegging kit, three 5 gallon kegs, and all the hoses and such and it's in progress. My last issue was that I wanted to find custom made tap handles. I found the inserts that you can use to make anything a tap handle, so now that's solved. Sorry for the quality, taken with phone. Anyways, here's what I started with...
I'm not even sure what was inside this thing, but it smelled awful. I spent about 2 hours alone just scrubbing it out. Then I coated the inside with bleach, closed it up, took off the old handles and started spray painting it black. Once I was done with the first few coats, I opened it up, wiped out all the bleach, and then hit it with some 409 just for good measure. I figured I wouldn't be able to open the freezer portion without opening the refrigerator portion because of the tap handles, so I put the new handle on and bolted one side to the freezer and one side to the refrigerator so the same handle opens both doors. Added some LHBS stickers, and moved it inside.
I had to cut away most of the inside molding that made the shelves on the door because I couldn't close the door with the three kegs in it. Once I cut away the molding, it holds three cornys, my CO2 canister, and there's plenty of room for all of the tubing, manifold, etc. Here's a shot of the inside of the setup, not connected, yet.
I'm waiting on the rest of the supplies to get here this week so I can drill out the holes for the taps and connect everything and hopefully get it up and running. As for the tap handles, like I'd mentioned, I'm an avid duck hunter so I found a place where I can buy hand carved decoy heads already painted so I'm going to turn them into tap handles. Also, the space between the fridge and the wall will fit 2 5 gallon carboys and I'm going to put a piece of carpet on top and put my 2 6.5 gallon carboys up there. I should be able to consolidate all of my brewing equipment to that one little room. I'll have more pictures once the stuff gets here and the project continues.