Tap Idea's

Having recently bought 2 kegs with probably another 1 on the way I plan on making a kegerator. New to this hobby what taps are available and would you recommend. Will be brewing stout, ales and lager. Are there different taps for each type of brew?

Thanks Niall

Look at some of the taps they have on some of the supply sites like AHS and Northern Brewer. I know a lot of guys also make their own taps from wooden chair legs or other found objects.

What do you mean by 'taps'? Are you referring to the tap handles, the faucets or maybe the connectors?

What do you mean by 'taps'? Are you referring to the tap handles, the faucets or maybe the connectors?

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Basically the full complete unit from the end of the pipe. The shank, faucet and tap for pulling your beer.

As far as handles go, make your own. Check mine out:

as far as faucets, it really comes down to how fancy you want to get and/or how much money you want to spend. If you are doing a fridge door install you just need standard shanks, and whatever kind of faucet you choose. If this is a mini-fridge you probably want a beer tower with elbow shanks.

Faucets range from plastic picnic (cobra) spickets, standard chrome faucets, perlick/shirron faucets, stout faucets, creamer faucets, german faucets. The photo above is the standard faucet. Perlick/Shirron faucets are an upgrade to those by design, and will fit on to the standard shank. Stout and creamer faucets are designed to give you more volume control... the creamer faucets will inject air into the beer maknig a frothy head. I'm not sure what the benefit of those super expensive german facuets are. They use special shanks, are massively expensive, but possibly pour beer faster than other faucets. I think shirrons are about the best thing you could be pouring beer out of in your place.

Handles are whatever you want... plastic ones are 3 bucks, wood ones range from 10-40 bucks each, tons of them on ebay, BMC handles, or custom ones you can make out of the threaded inserts. Really you could have ANYTHING on there.

Okay--- still not clear on what you are calling 'taps' in that list but I'll assume you mean 'handles'.

The beer doesn't care about the handle. Get what you like and fits in the sapce you have for your application.

A shank assembly is a shank shank assembly. There are differnet types but mostly the differences are about mounting--- either through the wall of a fridge or in a tower. The shank does not care about the beer (although you'll find some debate on the material your shank is made out of).

Generally for homebrewers the choice of faucets is one of 2. a) the plain old faucet. This is the one you've seen in teh bar, most likely. It seals to the rear, which means that it will stick more frequently, unless you use it daily. Cheap, easy to get parts for and found everywhere in a variety of colors and materials. b) Shirron/Ventmatic Forward seal. This faucet will not stick because you don't use it every day because teh valve is 'wet' when closed, meaning that there is beer in the valve when the faucet is off. Many homebrewers believe this type is the berst for home use and well worth the cost. It is more expensive and sometimes subject to supply problems.

There are other faucets but, for starters, these are the 2 to consider.

Hi Ilain,

I'm guessing that you're British from the use of the word 'Tap' rather than 'Faucet'.

I'd recommend that you get a couple of regular taps (there's an ebayer in the Midlands who can do these for you - 'normannumpa' is his ebay name) and one stout type (has a very tight creamer/sparkler built in for the creamy head - I'd look for 'guinness' type taps/faucets on ebay).

These should do for starters - I've also just put together a beer engine and cask breather set-up too... should be fun, once I have ale to serve through it!