diy 4 tap kegerator tower...

This was originally an idea built by a www.brewboard.com member (I'll add a link once the brewboard is back up and running)... and I couldnt pass it up... I used a different PVC fitting to create the bottom support piece that mount to the kegerator.... this was great idea and a lot less expensive than a comercial bought tower.... This tower was built with the following materials...

3" PVC pipe.... (I used about 13-14" of the pipe...)
4"x4" PVC fence post (I used about 18" of the post...)
(2) PVC fence post end caps
floor drain made to fit 3" PVC pipe...
attic insulation
toilet bowl rubber gasket

The 3" pipe goes through the bottom of the 4"x4" fence post and is glued to the inside top... I used jb-weld, people also have used PVC cement... on the inside of the 4"x4" post at the top of the 3" PVC pipe, I cut the sides out using a dremel to create space for the lines to run down the tower... drill the holes needed for your shanks and then basically you glue everything together, run all the lines, and you've got it running... shove as much insulation as you can in the tower and in the ends of the fence post... I also used a toilet bowl gasket to seal the tower to the top of the kegerator... I left the ends of the tower unglued, that way you can get in there for and maintenance... hope everyone like it...

Jester

(ignore the messy garage... thats where my kegerators ahve to live for now... )

thats way too advanced for a newer brewer! you MUST bottle at least 20 batches before you get a kegerator, youve gotta pay the dues!

Very cool. Great work!

I'm hoping to do something similar for my kegerator. I only need two taps though, so no fence post for me.

Very nice! I'm thinking of doing the same thing but with wood.

I wonder though, how teensy are those kegs to get 4 of them in that leetle fridge???

ian said:

Very nice! I'm thinking of doing the same thing but with wood.

I wonder though, how teensy are those kegs to get 4 of them in that leetle fridge???

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well I had a thread a little while back because I discovered its not as easy as shoving 4 ball-locks in there, due to the shape of the inside of the fridge... I have solved my probelm though, without having to modify the kegs or kegerator... by using two converted pin-lock kegs that will sit in the back of the kegerator and go under the small "drop-down" inside the firdge, I can easily fit 4 kegs in there... then the only other thing needed, is to plumb the co2 to the outside... its not that bad really...

Bjorn Borg said:

thats way too advanced for a newer brewer! you MUST bottle at least 20 batches before you get a kegerator, youve gotta pay the dues!

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I am definitely a newbie... I had the kegerators before I got into homebrew, so i figured, why not use them instead of bottling... I do have a beergun that I will bottle with once I start running out of empty kegs... I am always trying to build stuff, so I had to build this a soon as the idea got stuck in my head... heheheee...

Thanks for all the compliments...

Jester

Very nicely done .... I have plans for something very similar using two taps.
Jimi

Very nice piece of equipment. Be careful or you will soon have a garage full of important brewing toys!

Looks really slick...very well finished.

This is a really great idea. I might do it myself when the current kegger dies.

Nice job. However the wood grain fridges look dated. I think you should repaint.

AHammer16 said:

Nice job. However the wood grain fridges look dated. I think you should repaint.

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you guessed right... these things were passed down from family.... and are older than me.... heheheee.. I may have to think about painting.... I never thought about that before.... do you think I can just paint them with black spray paint...??

Jester said:

you guessed right... these things were passed down from family.... and are older than me.... heheheee.. I may have to think about painting.... I never thought about that before.... do you think I can just paint them with black spray paint...??

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i don't think they look bad... and i definitely don't think you should paint them...

I wouldn't worry about the wood grain fridge, I would worry about the Bud Light tap handle man. My Gawd, have a little repect for your brew! I mean a Barbie doll would be better then that.

Jester, THAT KICKS ROYAL ASS. Awesome!

One complaint though....how come you aren't over here in Hampton helping me build one right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, it looks great!

Hey Jester -
Nice work on that, would you mind taking a few pics of how you modified the kegs or the inside of the fridge to accomadate 4 kegs -

Thanks

Kilroy

kilroy said:

Hey Jester -
Nice work on that, would you mind taking a few pics of how you modified the kegs or the inside of the fridge to accomadate 4 kegs -

Thanks

Kilroy

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I ended up not modifying the kegs at all... After a little research, I found out that a pin lock keg would slide right under the small drop down in the back the kegerator... So I ordered 2 pin lock kegs that have been converted over to ball lock fittings... and hopefully those will fit... I'll take some pics once the kegs get here and I do a test fit... and I have a co2 manifold on the way too... things should be hooked up right soon...

Jester

That's EXACTLY what I want to build! Nice job...BTW, you didn't block that breaker panel did you?

I got 2 pin lock kegs converted to ball lock fittings in the mail this week and did a test fit tonight. I can fit my 2 converted pin locks, 2 ball locks and my co2 inside the kegerator. The co2 sits in the middle of all 4 kegs and fits with a little room, too. This was good to find out since I was about to plumb the co2 to the outside... I'll get some pics of the inside once I keg my third beer this weekend and put it in there...

Jester

What model fridge is that? A Kenmore elite? It fits 4 corny kegs + co2?

BeHoppy said:

What model fridge is that? A Kenmore elite? It fits 4 corny kegs + co2?

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It was a regular store bought kenmore kegerator.. I dont think its an elite, I doubt they even had elite models back in 80s when my family bought them... hehehee...

The ball locks are the ones that take the normal sankey taps right? Are they all 5 gallon? I have a Sears model and I barely get a 1/2 keg inside w/ my co2 tank.

That set-up rocks though. I can't wait to see the pics.

Torben Ulrich said:

thats way too advanced for a newer brewer! you MUST bottle at least 20 batches before you get a kegerator, youve gotta pay the dues!

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Hahaha, I guess I cheated then. I bottled one batch and said "the hell with this." I have been kegging ever since!!

delarob said:

The ball locks are the ones that take the normal sankey taps right? Are they all 5 gallon? I have a Sears model and I barely get a 1/2 keg inside w/ my co2 tank.

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Ball-lock kegs take ball-lock fittings... One for the beverage out side and one for the gas in side... you can use the lines that were already ran for the sankey tap, but you cut the beer line and add the ball lock fitting in place of the sanke... and cut the gas line near the sanke tap and replace with a ball lock gas fitting...

My kegs are five gallons... I could barely fit regular 1/2 kegs in there too, but since the ball-lock kegs are skinny and tall, it all kind of works out... I did have to get two shorter ball-lock kegs to fit in the back of the kegerator due to the shape of the inside of the kegerator...

anthrobe said:

Hahaha, I guess I cheated then. I bottled one batch and said "the hell with this." I have been kegging ever since!!

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I never bottled a batch... I may do one, just to try it one day... i think I'd still rather keg and bottle with the beergun off the keg...

Ball lock = Corny keg. Gotcha. I was thinking of the domestic ball 1/2 barrel type. I just ordered 4 Corny kegs and am anxious to see if they fit mine now.
Where you able to get black components or did you spray them?

those look like plastic tower shanks?
are those something you found at home depot or did you buy them from some brew shop. i have been putting off building my own draft tower because i cant find a reasonable price on tower shanks 22$ a pop i think is ridiculous.

does any one have any ideas where to get cheep tower shanks or something at ace hardware that will work.

jblewis said:

those look like plastic tower shanks?
are those something you found at home depot or did you buy them from some brew shop. i have been putting off building my own draft tower because i cant find a reasonable price on tower shanks 22$ a pop i think is ridiculous.

does any one have any ideas where to get cheep tower shanks or something at ace hardware that will work.

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You might try here.

http://www.superprod.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001

I have one locally in which the prices are pretty good. Most of the LHBS get their inventory from here.

Any pics of the inside yet?

That is really cool.

I'd really like to have something like that.

After I size out my fridge to see how many kegs I can fit I believe I might just do this. Thank you good sir, thank you. I found a used brass tower for cheap locally but this seems to fit my bill a bit better

I have a few questions for Jester, or anyone else who may have built their own PVC tower. I have a small fridge, like a Sanyo 4912, that I am converting to a kegerator. I'll have room for two cornies on the inside, and hopefully my CO2 tank, but I could always run a line to that out through the back.

I'd like to save a little $$$ and build my own tower.

1. How did you anchor the tower to the top of the fridge? It looks like some type of PVC joint/mount piece that has been bolted to the top.

2. What fittings did you need to get the faucets to operate? I don't plan on using a PVC box on top of my tower, since I won't be able to use four faucets. I just need to get two faucets sticking out of a PVC pipe. What size shanks should I use? Elbow fittings? Etc.

It looks relatively easy to accomplish, but I'm not sure what bits and pieces I need to put on my shopping/Christmas wish list.

I used jesters idea and came up with this:

Did you have to paint the PVC to get the silver/gray color? I am making the same thing right now but with red oak that will be stained..

Nice tower attitude! I really like the diamond plate.
(I also used to live in McKinney, years ago...left in '94)

Bumping from way back when to say thanks! I just bought all the parts to build this tower! Can't wait!

Ivan Lendl said:

thats way too advanced for a newer brewer! you MUST bottle at least 20 batches before you get a kegerator, youve gotta pay the dues!

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I beg to differ. I've bottled 5 batches of my own and 2 or 3 of a friends. I'm done dude. He (and I) just figured out quickly that when you bottle it's a big pain in the kiester and that when you bottle you share exponentially more than you drink. So kegging is the way to go!

Skrimpy said:

I beg to differ. I've bottled 5 batches of my own and 2 or 3 of a friends. I'm done dude. He (and I) just figured out quickly that when you bottle it's a big pain in the kiester and that when you bottle you share exponentially more than you drink. So kegging is the way to go!

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amen... now my free loading friends have to stick around to drink my beer not just grab and go.

Bumping an old thread- Can anyone tell me what typ of shanks to use on a tower like this? Not sure if Icwill have a box or try to just mount 2 taps directly on the 3" PVC. Can anyone help me figure out parts?

Flat surfaces (like the box) can use standard straight shanks, like this:
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/taps-faucets-pid-4331AS.html

To mount directly on round surfaces, use tower shanks:
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/taps-faucets-pid-4329AS-3E.html
I used these on 3" pvc and they fit perfectly.
http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Custom-Draft-Tower-and-Kegerator