Kegerator tour!

I've posted various pix of my kegerator around and someone asked for them all in one thread. So here it is. It'll be a few posts, so if you've got comments please give me a chance to get all of my posts in.

First the overview. I put it up on a platform with 4 swivel casters. Besides making it very easy to move around, this has the added advantage of bringing the taps up to a more comfortable level. It also gives me a place to put my 20# CO2 tank and a little shelf for things like my Starsan spray bottle.



Closeup of the 20# Al CO2 tank with dual primary regulator. The tank holder is just two heavy duty shelf brackets connected to one another with an old cutting board. Big fat Velcro straps hold the tank in place.



Here's a closeup of those taps. Spalted beech, bigleaf maple burl, spalted beech.



Next we'll start on the guts...

-Joe

Now I needed a way to get the CO2 into the fridge. I wanted each regulator feed to be split in two, but I wanted as few holes in the fridge as possible. So I made this bulkhead out of 1/4" NPT plumbing fittings.



Another piece of that cutting board provided a little reinforcement and a place to drive screws.



The bulkheads go through holes drilled through the side of the fridge.



The bulkheads are held in place with copper clips that are screwed into the cutting board.



-Joe

Time to make holes for the Perlicks! After I decided on spacing and marked them out, I drilled a 1/4" pilot hole.



Then the 7/8" hole for the shank.



And a larger hole on the inside. I believe it was 1 1/4" or 1 3/8".



The larger hole is to accept the 1" ID PVC sleeves that give the shank nut something solid to bear against. I also added some 1/8" thick neoprene washers that I found at the hardware store.



-Joe

Here are the 3 shanks installed with the rubber washers.



Now it's time for the drip tray! I decided to make a cool "floating" drip tray that looks like it's hanging out in midair. I used two pieces of walnut for the sides.





I drilled a hole in the bottom of the drip tray and used JB Weld to attach a push-lock (John Guest style) fitting to the bottom.



-Joe

Rubber grommets seal the hose going through the door and more push-lock fittings on the inside lead to the drool bucket. I'm going to eventually replace it with a larger tub.



Here's the inside. 4 kegs fit pretty comfortably in there. I had to add a little reinforcement to the bottom shelf, but I still have use of both the freezer and drawers underneath.



And I think I'm out of pictures. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I'm open to all of 'em.

-Joe

Awesome....

Love the CO2 splitters that's a really good idea

Great job Nostalgia!! I love the drip tray drain and bottle inside the fridge. I have not seen anybody do that before.

You've got a pretty great setup there. The "drool bottle" is great and having it inside the fridge is brilliant.

Great job!

I do have one question though... I notice you have 4 leads and only 3 taps is the 4th left open for force carbonating or future expansion? I ask because I was thinking of doing similar when I get around to building my unit.

Nice set up. What did you decide on for tap spacing?

Mike

Wow!

I am going to steal ideas from you left and right!

How much "floor space" do you have in your fridge? Mine works out to about 18.5" x 27". I think I can squeeze 6 kegs in, or 4 kegs and a better bottle.

Morning, all. Thanks for the kudos! This was a really fun project, and a lot easier than I'd expected. Let me try to answer some questions.

Rottnme said:

Great job!

I do have one question though... I notice you have 4 leads and only 3 taps is the 4th left open for force carbonating or future expansion? I ask because I was thinking of doing similar when I get around to building my unit.

Click to expand...

Both. I wanted to be able to carb n' serve at different pressures for one thing. I also left enough room on the door for a 4th tap.

Which brings me to the spacing question. I'll have to get down there with a ruler, but what I did is take the drip tray and just tried to get the 4 taps evenly spaced along it, like this:



-Joe

Thank you! I have been trying to figure out a good way to secure my CO2 tank and put the thing on casters for a couple weeks now!

Cpt_Kirks said:

How much "floor space" do you have in your fridge? Mine works out to about 18.5" x 27". I think I can squeeze 6 kegs in, or 4 kegs and a better bottle.

Click to expand...

I've got just about 18x23 inside. 4 kegs fit pretty comfortably in there.



And how could I forget a shot with some beer!



-Joe

Just wanted to update the thread with my latest changes. I added a 2-port manifold on the *outside* of the fridge to make force carbing, keg/line cleaning and whatnot easier. I also added two wet-boards for recording what's inside, and a fourth tap.



-Joe

awesome... this is what i give up for living in the city and not having a garage... love the wet board too