How many taps do you have or

how many is too many

As it stands now, I have a 4 tap kegorator. Essentially what stops me from brewing is that I can only have (and store) basically 4 kegs. I just bought a huge chest freezer I'm going to convert to a keezer/kegorator. I'm debating on how many taps to go with. Originally I was thinking 6, now I'm thinking 8. That would easily give me enough spares/room for growth and allow me to brew something if I had an open tap.

One of my concerns with an 8 tap tower is that they all seem to be glycol chilled. If I'm not running a glycol system I'm afraid any beer in the tower might get warm/ruined from sitting around for any period of time.

What's your experience?

i got 6 coming out of a fridge unit !! now, only 4 when pic was taken.

I have 3 and 3 ordered so I said 6.

The answer is: You can never have enough.....unless you are a raging alcoholic.

I have 3 and would love to at least double that if not more. If I were you, instead of a tower I would build an insulated collar for your taps to come through. Inexpensive and no need for glycol to chill anything since you already have the keezer doing that....

Eight, but a bit of a cheat. Four taps in my house in the country and four in my wife's place in the metroburb.

I've got four in a small chest freezer and two more in a dorm fridge, but the dorm fridge is more of a floater. To make up only having four full-time taps, I've started brewing and bottling in champaign bottles. Those are typically reserved for saisons, but I plan to unleash a fury of higher gravity Belgian love with hopes of aging for long periods of time without tying up my precious four taps. The other thing I've been doing is kegging/carbing a beer to get it just right, then bottling from the keg. I haven't keg bottled a full batch yet, but even a 12pk here and there definitely helps free up kegs quicker. I like that option as it gives me a wide variety of beers that I have available to drink/give out at any one time.

Yeah, if you go the collar route, you can start with 6 and move to 8 down the road if you need to. I did that with my keezer... It'll hold 6 kegs (I keep the CO2 on the hump) but I only started with 5 taps, and had trouble even keeping 5 taps populated with my limited pipeline at the start. Now I just upgraded and added the 6th tap...

The nice thing about a collar setup is that it's easy to build, and should you want to upgrade down the road to a tower, you'll know more about whether you *actually* need 8 taps after you've had experience with the collar first.

I have 6, but I've never been able to have more than 4 on tap at any one time.

I have six...but really seven (wasn't an option). A 4 tap keezer, a kegerator with a dual tower, and another kegerator in the man room with a single tap.

I'm going to guess (before I vote) that 6 will be the most popular answer..... I have 6 also.

i have 3, i like to keep a variety in the house, and seeing as i'm the only beer drinker (wife is preggers right now) i like to keep it fun

I only have one because i'm in an apartment and dont have much room. Looking to upgrade to a two faucet tower soon.

cheezydemon3 said:

I have 3 and 3 ordered so I said 6.

The answer is: You can never have enough.....Especially if you are a raging alcoholic.

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Fixed it for you.

Poll fail. Where's the choice for 0? You're not being very inclusive of us bottlers

I have 3, would love to have more, but I'm not going to sink money into that just yet. I had a Summit kegerator for about 10 years that I converted to a 3 tap tower for the homebrew. It fits perfectly with the bar I built for it. The plan is to eventually move from this house, so at that point, I'll probably expand.

Poll fail not enough options 12 taps +4 kegs conditioning .

Four taps, but room and gas hookups for a fifth keg to carb while waiting for a spot. As a bonus, I have a bulkhead on the side connected to lines inside to allow me to fill with the beergun from any of the kegs. I'd like to go to six but that is unlikely.

Currently 3 with a planned expansion to 6.

I have 3 and an additional keg that I fill and let be until one kicks.

My fridge is just big enough for 3 and the air tank so it works for me. But I always have a batch waiting to go in. Would love more taps but we make due with 15 gallons. Jeez that probably sounds horrible to a non brewer.

cheezydemon3 said:

I have 3 and 3 ordered so I said 6.

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the_trout said:

Currently 3 with a planned expansion to 6.

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Like these, I have 3, with 3 more ordered, so answered 6. One of the new ones will be a stout faucet. One faucet will routinely be soda (root and/or birch beer). Also, once I get a beer gas tank/regulator for the stout faucet, I may also start keeping a mead on tap and push it (through a longer line) with the beer gas.

I used to have 3, but I have switched back to picnic taps.... Got tired of cleaning taps and lines. Picnic taps are just easier. I have a fridge that holds 6 kegs and a small chest freezer that holds 4 + a 2.5 or 3 gallon keg on the hump. Generally serves as temp. control and chamber for lagering.
I have about 8 picnic taps that I can put on whatever kegs I want. Generally, I would say I have about 6 beers at a time that I am "serving."

I have three but I should probably add one more and dedicate it to sours.

Three, two in my DIY Danby kegerator and a picnic tap on a keg in the conditioning freezer in the garage.

I have three at home and 10 at the brewery (9+stout faucet).

Braufessor said:

I used to have 3, but I have switched back to picnic taps.... Got tired of cleaning taps and lines. Picnic taps are just easier. I have a fridge that holds 6 kegs and a small chest freezer that holds 4 + a 2.5 or 3 gallon keg on the hump. Generally serves as temp. control and chamber for lagering.
I have about 8 picnic taps that I can put on whatever kegs I want. Generally, I would say I have about 6 beers at a time that I am "serving."

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How are picnic taps easier? You still have to clean them, no?

I use a picnic tap to fill growlers/bottles, and it broke after 3 months. That would be a huge PITA to me if I had to replace them constantly.

Poll too small for me too, i have 14 from the coffin box off the walk in cooler.

I had 7. 3 in the house and 4 in the carport. When I updated the kegerator in the carport I only installed 1 tap as I found I wasn't using them all. So only 4 for me now.

12 here (8 on one keezer, 4 on another). When I had 4, I thought the variety was great. Then I wanted more. Now I have 12, and I think the variety is great.

But I want more.

10 on my Kegerator .. at 22 cu foot converted chest freezer. Pic on the forum page at Brewcommune dot com

Dan

I've got two towers with three taps each for a total of six taps. I've remodeled a room in my shop into an 1880's saloon. I'll have to post pics soon.

Currently on tap: Deschutes Jubelale Clone, Cherry Cream Weissbier, Cana Special Ale

3 - but one is nitro, so I need to order another soon as I tend to brew in 3's - every 2 weeks.

I clicked 8 but I lie. I have 10, one is reserved for the wife's root beer though.

Converted chest freezer with 7 kegs and 6 picnic taps.

I have five, four normal and one nitro. I have never had all five active at once, maximum was four (nitro + three others).

I have six w/ room for two to condition.

I put myself down for one.

I don't have the space for the set-ups a lot of the others here seem to enjoy, but I did manage to squeak out enough room for one of these:

http://www.avantiproducts.com/products/id/466

It is a mini kegerator that holds and dispenses those little 5 liter mini kegs. I recycle the mini kegs I've bought by refilling them with homebrew.

For the space-challenged, neither the kegerator nor the kegs take up a whole lot of room, and I can 'bottle' a 5 gallon batch in 4 recycled mini-kegs which are small enough to be more easily stored.

Mozart said:

I put myself down for one.

I don't have the space for the set-ups a lot of the others here seem to enjoy, but I did manage to squeak out enough room for one of these:

http://www.avantiproducts.com/products/id/466

It is a mini kegerator that holds and dispenses those little 5 liter mini kegs. I recycle the mini kegs I've bought by refilling them with homebrew.

For the space-challenged, neither the kegerator nor the kegs take up a whole lot of room, and I can 'bottle' a 5 gallon batch in 4 recycled mini-kegs which are small enough to be more easily stored.

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That is a pretty cool setup. Do you carb the beer with co2 or priming sugar? I never thought to save those kegs

Moterbiker said:

That is a pretty cool setup. Do you carb the beer with co2 or priming sugar? I never thought to save those kegs

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The little regulator and 9 oz CO2 canisters it takes (bought online from a paintball supply company) are geared toward dispensing, so I don't think they're adequate for force-carbing. At least not quickly.

Not only do I save the kegs, I also save the rubber stoppers (they're called bungs I think? Still learning the lingo) and reuse those. I actually take care to buy beer that has the rubber instead of the plastic bung for this purpose, though I believe replacement bungs are sold separately at my LHBS.

When I brew, I batch prime as normal with priming sugar. Some of my batch goes into bottles (for easier transportation, sharing with friends, etc.), and the rest goes into the mini-kegs.

It is tough to get any kind of a bottle brush down in them, so one of the keys to recycling them, for me, is to thoroughly rinse each one the moment it's empty.

I have 3. That's all that fits in my kegerator. Actually installing the third set of hardware tonight! One Sankey hookup and two Cornies.

I have 8,two of which are set up on Nitro. Also have 3 refrigerators for back up. Only problem I've never had enough time to fill all the taps but I'm working on it...