Building a kegerator!!

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.

Great idea with the decoy heads for tap handles! I just may have to steal that idea from you. Did you source them locally, or could you share a link? Maybe some goose necks and heads would be cool too.

Great looking start you have there. You made the correct decision going with kegging in my opinion.Takes a lot of work out of the equation, plus it's awesome to have fresh beer on tap.

whoneedsabeer said:

Great idea with the decoy heads for tap handles! I just may have to steal that idea from you. Did you source them locally, or could you share a link? Maybe some goose necks and heads would be cool too.

Great looking start you have there. You made the correct decision going with kegging in my opinion.Takes a lot of work out of the equation, plus it's awesome to have fresh beer on tap.

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http://autumnwings.com/store/head_wood.html


That's where I ordered mine from. Cheap, painted, wood, easy. I ordered a woodie, a mallard, and a goose.

I love the "addictive personality" confession front-loaded. I'm exactly the same way and am in a similar ballpark with money spent on a brand-new hobby. I'll definitely be looking forward to seeing your progress!

NewBrewB said:

I love the "addictive personality" confession front-loaded. I'm exactly the same way and am in a similar ballpark with money spent on a brand-new hobby. I'll definitely be looking forward to seeing your progress!

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I should be getting more parts this week sometime and then I plan on finishing it up and putting my first batch into a keg. Hopefully it all works out and there's beer on tap next weekend!

I just checked track and confirm on usps.com and it's telling me that my order will be delivered today. That means I should be able to put everything, except the tap handles, together tonight. More pictures to come.

Quick question, you can see the fridge I used to convert into a kegerator is highly suspect. It was filthy inside. Before I connect all the tubing and get it all set up, does anyone have any tricks for removing a foul smell? I don't know that it would, but I'd hate for it to permeate my equipment and taint the beer. Thanks in advance, updates shortly.

P.S., it's snowing here.

Boomer said:

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.

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I'd love to hear THAT story...i too have said addictive personality and am interested in what you've invested in. (conical fermenter?)

nice build. try baking soda in the fridge to absorb the smell. just leave a box in there open.

Yeah boomer baking soda should do the trick. That thing is still stinking? Use caution with the bleach and other household cleaners before you poison yourself and die. Id hate to inheret a half finished kegerator. Finish it then play with all the bleach and household cleaners youd like.

surferdrew said:

I'd love to hear THAT story...i too have said addictive personality and am interested in what you've invested in. (conical fermenter?)

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Not as much as you'd think, but prices in AK are usually higher than most other states. I've got 5 glass carboys, a 32 qt stainless brew pot, a 'Deluxe Starter Equipment Set', an auto siphon, wort chiller, several extract kits, 3 cornys, co2 tank, regulator, tubing/connectors for all of them, a 3 way manifold, 3 Perlick 525SS's, 3 SS 4" shanks, custom tap handles, 13" SS drip tray, some o rings, a wireless thermometer, and some other stuff that I can't come up with off the top of my head right now.

Needless to say, the wife said, "I should have known this was going to get out of control." Hopefully it'll pay off this weekend once my first batch is carbonated and ready to try.



Oh yeah, some memberships to local clubs and here. SWMBO's rock!

Boomer, I'm right there with ya. I brewed 7 batches within my first month of home brewing in January. Now I'm sitting on... all the regular equipment, 2 primaries, 2 secondaries, a 10 gallon Aluminum pot, a 10 gallon Stainless Pot with valve and thermometer built in, and a mash tun (I have yet to do an all grain batch, though).

I'd say you did it the right way, though... going straight to kegging. I wasted alot of money by going from bottling and quickly upgrading to kegging. I went and bought all the capping equipment and even upgraded to a bench capper and did two batches in bottles before I decided I needed a kegging system. I then built this thing.

Then that thing broke from a power surge. But of course... I went and upgraded and built this thing.

My full (and ongoing) build can be found here if ya wanna take a look.

So yeah... it's good to hear there are other people out there like me. =P I don't even want to add up how much I've spent... welcome to home brewing! Cheers!

looks good. i would consider putting a wood false floor in there to make sure everything is nice and stable. welcome to the wonderful world of keggerating!

NewBrewB said:

I love the "addictive personality" confession front-loaded.

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:subscribed: as soon as I read that!

I think the refrigerator I got from craigslist used to be a fallout shelter. I've gotta go back to Lowes tonight and pick up another drill bit. The 1" hole saw I was using ended up with no teeth after the fridge melted them off. I'm a little pissed because it threw my center hole to the left about 1/2". I'm hoping that'll get covered up with the skirt from the shank, and since it didn't penetrate, other than the actual drill bit in the middle of the hole saw, moving it over shouldn't change anything cosmetically.

Since I was out a drill bit, I couldn't really work on the faucet/shank situation so I started clamping tubing to parts and have everything done from CO2 to keg, into the 3 way manifold and out to the connectors for each keg. I actually kegged a brew last night after I pressure tested the first line and changed out the O-rings and sanitized the keg. I should have most of everything finished up tonight (hopefully). I forgot to order the tailpieces for the shanks so those shipped out this morning. Hopefully they'll get here by saturday. I'm still waiting for the custom tap handles for it to be all the way finished (Never going to be done, I'm sure I'll always be tweaking it). More updates later with pictures, headed to Lowes now.

Ok, I think I'm about 85% done, and that's assuming I don't add anything to it, which is asinine.

Anyways, I went and picked up the drill bit and it was a breeze. Turns out another HBT member who grabbed the ill-fated first hole saw for me got wood only and not wood/metal. I won't say any names, but his initials are doogiesbrew. Regardless, things went pretty quickly this afternoon. I punched out the other 2 holes, mounted the shanks and faucets, installed the "Weather Station," and all I've got to do is cut some tubing for the beer side. I'm still waiting on handles. It turns out, one of the shanks I got has something wrong on the faucet side. I can't get any of my faucets to fit on it. I know it's not the faucets, because I tried all 3 on the other 2 shanks and they went on without an issue. I think there's something wrong with the grooves that fit inside the grooves inside the faucet. Either way, here are some photos of phase 2 and/or 3.

All I could do last night was hook up the CO2 to the manifold and I went ahead and ran a line to the keg that I filled last night with an Irish Stout.



Here's the first picture of the outside after I drilled the holes and put in 2 of the 3 taps. This is without any further work. I ran into a problem when drilling straight into the foam. I remedied it, and I'll show that here in a bit.



The problem I was having was when I drilled through the metal of the door, it was making a much bigger hole in the foam. I wouldn't have been able to screw the nut all the way on the shank because of the hole in the foam, so I took a piece of wood and drilled the same pattern as the shank holes and used it as a spacer between the nut and the foam.



Here's a shot of the inside, I put all 3 kegs inside to make sure everything would still work.



Next, I added my "Weather Station" so I can monitor the temperature inside the kegerator to make sure it's always where I want it or so I'll notice if this old POS fridge dies without my knowing.





The last thing I did was put the drip tray on the front under the taps. For some reason, even though everything is level, I can't get a picture to look straight, it looks like my drip tray is leaning.



Probably one of my favorite parts, so far, is the addition of goose leg bands to the handle of the door. It gives it a little of that waterfowl hunter touch I want it to have. Some of you may have caught it in earlier pictures, but if not, here's a closeup.





So, I'm almost finished, I just need another shank, my tap handles with inserts, and to finish up the tubing. I want to wait until I get the last shank in before I turn it on, there's no reason to try to keep it cold with a 1" hole cut in the door. Hopefully by the time all the stuff gets here and set up, my next 2 brews will be ready to go into kegs and force carbed so all three taps will be up and running!!



Now, I have 2 stouts, how's a fella get into nitrogenating beer? Also, I read a thread on a hand pump for "Real Ale," I'm wondering if that's something that could be mounted to the side and drilled through and into the freezer with a cask beside the fridge. I guess I'll save those projects for next week

HOLY CRAP that's a lot of Jewelery!

Oh - And great looking kegerator too!

whoneedsabeer said:

HOLY CRAP that's a lot of Jewelery!

Oh - And great looking kegerator too!

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You should see my lanyard.



ALSO - After I wrote the last post, I went to check the mail. The custom handles are here. I'm just waiting on the inserts to turn these decoy heads into handles and then it's done. Because of the head on the back of the wood duck, I need to move that tap out a bit from the door. Are 1" washers the best method? I only need about 1/2" more room.

Thanks!


Whoneedsabeer, if you want NICE handles for the price of ONE good one, you've gotta check out those sites. These heads are going to make GREAT tap handles. They look amazing, and for $37 all 3 were shipped to AK. I've got about $10 tied up in the inserts and that's just because I bought 6 or 8, I think. I'll post a picture here in a minute of them, you'll wish you'd thought of it first! Plus, that site has several different ones to choose from.

Here they are, just came out of the box today. As soon as I get the inserts, drill the holes, and get a new shank, they'll all 3 be on the kegerator!

Looks good!

$1500, huh. I'm sitting next to my second chest freezer for this hobby, and waiting for my Perlicks, shanks, a second CO2 regulator, and a bunch of other stuff to arrive. Puts me well past $2K in total without counting grains, hops, or the hops rhizomes I just planted.

However, I prefer to use the term "obsessed", as saying addicted has a bit of a nasty ring to it in this context. And to be fair, I have a lot more $ sunk into saws, planers, routers, and so on.

Back on topic, what is the internal thread for the inserts?

Damn - Maybe I need to take a trip up to Alaska next year for a duck hunting trip. You'll have to show me around. Delaware hunting is pretty weak. I usually have to drive over to New Jersey if I want a chance at some birds.

I've already checked out that site you sent me to. I'm seriously considering them. I'm designing my coffin now for the top of my keezer, and trying to decide on dimensions based with them vs. standard tap handles. I could immediately see from the pics that the heads would need to be mounted far back and the need for spacers.

I was thinking about the green head, black, and woody. Either that or all sentry position goose heads - for the long tap handle look.

Can't wait to see pics of yours!

Jay

Sold. That's awesome!

whoneedsabeer said:

Damn - Maybe I need to take a trip up to Alaska next year for a duck hunting trip. You'll have to show me around. Delaware hunting is pretty weak. I usually have to drive over to New Jersey if I want a chance at some birds.

I've already checked out that site you sent me to. I'm seriously considering them. I'm designing my coffin now for the top of my keezer, and trying to decide on dimensions based with them vs. standard tap handles. I could immediately see from the pics that the heads would need to be mounted far back and the need for spacers.

I was thinking about the green head, black, and woody. Either that or all sentry position goose heads - for the long tap handle look.

Can't wait to see pics of yours!

Jay

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The woody is the only one that I have any problem with. The mallard and honker will fit on fine without any spacing. I can't wait for my inserts to get here, then I'll be done.

ThreeDogsNE said:

Looks good!

$1500, huh. I'm sitting next to my second chest freezer for this hobby, and waiting for my Perlicks, shanks, a second CO2 regulator, and a bunch of other stuff to arrive. Puts me well past $2K in total without counting grains, hops, or the hops rhizomes I just planted.

However, I prefer to use the term "obsessed", as saying addicted has a bit of a nasty ring to it in this context. And to be fair, I have a lot more $ sunk into saws, planers, routers, and so on.

Back on topic, what is the internal thread for the inserts?

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I used these...

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/TAPHANDLE_THREADED_INSERT_P1152.cfm

The inserts got here today and I also solved the spacing issue. Remember the bands I had around the handle? I took a few more and opened them to where they'd fit around the shank between the faucet and the skirt. More of a waterfowl theme and problem was solved. I'm going to put the inserts in the decoy heads here in the next few minutes, cut some tubing, and then I'll be done. I'm waiting on the tailpieces to get here and then the entire setup will be done and operational. I've got an Irish Stout kegged right now and once the temperature gets down where I want it, I'm going to try my hand at force carbing.

I'll post some pictures of the final rig here in a little while.

I also built my own kegerator. It turned out great. It is a double tap. I have step by step instruction if anyone is thinking about doing this. I show how I did it and how much it set me back.

Jake
http://missionarybrewer.wordpress.com/how-to-build-your-own-kegerator/

I love the fact you have enough bands to use them as washers! Great idea, though.

Force carbing isn't too difficult. Don't watch those youtube videos of guys who shake the hell out of the keg. I would recommend letting it carb at least a week while in the keg. The flavors of the beer are still coming together as well. I kegged and finished my first beer in a little over a week. (What? I was sampling!) The last beers I pulled off were the best by far. I was pissed I didn't listen to advice on here about waiting a week or two before starting to drink it.

Here's a good carbonation table if you don't already have one.

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

I think they ended up looking really good. I'll take a picture of the entire setup once I get the tail pieces for the shanks and get the lines run.

Can I get some comments/critiques on this build? If it were yours, what would you do differently? Do you like it? Do you not like it? I won't take offense, I'm open to ideas. I'm already trying to figure out how to put a nitrogen system in it!

Nobody has anything?

I think it looks great, the ducks are a great touch.

The only thing I would have done differently, if it was mine, was mount the taps a little lower. Since you used the duck heads, your tap handles aren't very tall. If you mount them a few inches down, you can open the freezer separately without having to open up the fridge too. But that's not really a big deal. And maybe the lower taps would make it awkward to pour a beer, it's hard to tell without actually being there to pour one, and I don't make it up to Alaska very often!

I would like to come over and see how it works, by the way do you need a 15.5 gal keg?

whalenutz said:

I would like to come over and see how it works, by the way do you need a 15.5 gal keg?

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I was thinking about switchin to all grain and using kegs for my setup, but don't know just yet.

As for the handles, they'd be too low. That's why I put the handle on to open both at the same time.

I got the tailpieces in the mail today. When I connected them and then connected to the keg, there was a leak where the nut from the tailpiece met the shank and beer was dripping out of the faucet. HELP!!! Should I just tighten the hell out of it? Also, why would it be dripping from the faucet? With the Perlick 525 wouldn't the pressure in the line keep the faucet closed? Could the leak/lack of pressure be what's causing the faucet to stay open a little? I applied manual pressure to the faucet and it quit dripping, but I don't want to lose a keg to a drip. Just trying to get this sorted out, should be the last question about the build...

Thanks.

Boomer said:

Quick question, you can see the fridge I used to convert into a kegerator is highly suspect. It was filthy inside. Before I connect all the tubing and get it all set up, does anyone have any tricks for removing a foul smell? I don't know that it would, but I'd hate for it to permeate my equipment and taint the beer.

Click to expand...

Great build Boomer. Suhweet setup!! Regarding the odor in your fridge you can try baking soda as suggested in one of the replies, but I have also heard of using charcoal to get rid of foul odors. If your SWMBO has some old stockings or an old nylon steeping bag, I'd drop 3-4 charcoal briquettes and hang it in your fridge. Hopefully this'll work.

axr