I'm not actually brewing at home just yet, but I've been using a local U-Brew service instead (West Coast U-Brew)... Kinda nice to have someone else to clean up after you!
Anyhow, I've gotten sick and tired of having bottles all over the place. The whole spend-hours-bleaching-your-bottles-out thing has gotten pretty old so the next natural progression is a home draft system!
I started looking around online and found that pretty much all the cheap units are just that - cheap. I figured if I was going to end up replacing taps, regulators, lines, temperature controls and everything else anyhow I might as well just build my own! I decided I'd be happy with something that could handle 2 1/4 barrels and the search was on...
Well, this popped up on Craigslist at exactly the right time:
It's a Silver King commercial under-counter fridge. It's zero-clearance on the top, back and sides so it can be completely sealed in to a countertop or something in the future and it's BEEFY - this thing will survive just about anything.
I've got all my lines/draft tower/drip tray/taps/etc on order, but in the meantime I decided to keep my cans cold:
You know, gotta make sure the fridge is working properly!! Nice thing with this Silver King is the stock temperature controls seem to be able to take care of getting the liquid temp down where I want it. I haven't done anything to it yet and it's holding quite happily at about 36-38 degrees F. Perfect!!
Picked up a hole saw that should be able to handle the stainless so that's been sitting here eagerly waiting. A friend (who owns a bar) gave me this stout tap and the handle too! :rockin:
This thing will hold a regular half barrel, 2 1/4 barrels or 3 cornies no problem along with a 10 lb gas cylinder. Had to get low profile Sankey couplers (my U-brew place can deal with Sankey just fine and has everything there to clean them properly), also got a dual regulator and dual tap tower.
I'll update the thread as I get the rest of my bits and get my build done, but this is what I've got so far!
Anyhow, I've gotten sick and tired of having bottles all over the place. The whole spend-hours-bleaching-your-bottles-out thing has gotten pretty old so the next natural progression is a home draft system!
I started looking around online and found that pretty much all the cheap units are just that - cheap. I figured if I was going to end up replacing taps, regulators, lines, temperature controls and everything else anyhow I might as well just build my own! I decided I'd be happy with something that could handle 2 1/4 barrels and the search was on...
Well, this popped up on Craigslist at exactly the right time:
It's a Silver King commercial under-counter fridge. It's zero-clearance on the top, back and sides so it can be completely sealed in to a countertop or something in the future and it's BEEFY - this thing will survive just about anything.
I've got all my lines/draft tower/drip tray/taps/etc on order, but in the meantime I decided to keep my cans cold:
You know, gotta make sure the fridge is working properly!! Nice thing with this Silver King is the stock temperature controls seem to be able to take care of getting the liquid temp down where I want it. I haven't done anything to it yet and it's holding quite happily at about 36-38 degrees F. Perfect!!
Picked up a hole saw that should be able to handle the stainless so that's been sitting here eagerly waiting. A friend (who owns a bar) gave me this stout tap and the handle too! :rockin:
This thing will hold a regular half barrel, 2 1/4 barrels or 3 cornies no problem along with a 10 lb gas cylinder. Had to get low profile Sankey couplers (my U-brew place can deal with Sankey just fine and has everything there to clean them properly), also got a dual regulator and dual tap tower.
I'll update the thread as I get the rest of my bits and get my build done, but this is what I've got so far!