Getting your wife to beg you to buy a kegging system...and what I should get...

Last week I was pleasantly surprised when, without prompting, my wife said "you can keg your beer rather than bottle it right...? why don't we start doing that?" In hopes that others may share the opportunity to pause, contemplate and then reply "well, the equipment does cost a bit initially, but I suppose you're right that it would be more convenient..." I thought I'd share my technique... leave bottles everywhere... A have a couple 12ers of empties in the laundry room, a couple more in the guest bathroom / fermentation area and a few more in the garage. My wife isn't a fan of clutter, and is now really pushing this kegging idea...

So...what should I get? I've read the threads on this forum pointing out the pros and cons of midwest's brew logic 2 keg system and reached the conclusion that it would probably work well for me, but to keep my wife happy, I need to store these things in a generally streamlined fashion and would love to have a self contained tap in the kitchen...is there a pre-packaged kegerator system compatible with the aforementioned kegging rig that won't totally break the bank? neither of my LHBSs have kegerators...any chance to cut a deal with a merchant that sells both kegging and refrigeration gear? If I can get this whole project done right inside of a $5-600 budget everybody will be happy...anyone have a shopping list for me? Thanks in advance...

In the lower 48 you should be able to buy used 5 gallon soda kegs that hold pressure for under $40 each.

You are going to need a CO2 regulator, you will have to buy one.

Before you buy a system, you need to figure out about getting CO2 into a CO2 tank. Generally the local to you place that does CO2 fills will be happy to sell you a used tank and then when it is empty you bring the empty tank and they trade you out a full one for a few bucks. You can buy an empty tank and pay for shipping, but you need to figure out how you are going to get it filled before you do that.

You are going to need some tubing and some hose clamps and some hose barbs and some threaded bits.

If you keep reading here you will find most of us use 10 feet of 3/16" inside diameter tubing from the beer out connector on the keg to the tap. Most of the online kits use shorter fatter tubes. For general run of the mill beers carbed from 10-15psi, 10 feet of 3/16" inside diameter tubing lets us store our kegs at serving pressure and we get a good pour without too much foam. It works good. Slow maybe, but good. You can get 20 feet of 3/16" ID tubing at Lowe's-Depot for about three dollars.

So two kegs, $80. regulator all you need is the single gage, the second gage is useless, call it $75. 5 lbs of CO@ ~$10. Tank to hold it in, unknown. Tubing and hose clamps from Lowe's-Depot $30.

Besides kegs you are going to need grey posts, black posts, taps and hose barbs from a HBS. I use the threaded posts with seperate hose barb and collar, about $10 per keg post, there is another $40-50.

So $250 plus a CO2 tank leaves you $300 for a dorm fridge and tap tower hardware.

You are in like Flynn. At my house I just stick a keg and the CO2 tank right in the main fridge with the rest of the food.