How easy is it to go from one tap to two?

Hello,

I'm fairly new to homebrewing, but I already want to get myself a kegerator with two cornies and two taps.

I live in the DC area, and here's what came up on craigslist. It looks like there are some great deals $350 for everything minus the kegs:
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=kegerator

However, all of these are one tap only. I would like to have two taps, ideally. Is it easy to add more?

Thanks.

also remember that several of those are set up for commercial (sanke) kegs. not a big deal to convert them to corny, but it might involve an internet order or trip to the brew shop.

i'm in northeast and just finished my kegerator conversion. only one batch in and it's already paid for itself in time saved as far as i'm concerned.

Cool John. I'm in NE as well. Near Union Station. Perhaps sometime next week I can buy you a beer at Granville Moore's and you can help go over this stuff with me if you're interested. I'm a total noob when it comes to homebrewing and an even bigger noob when it comes to kegging.

sounds great, i'll pm my info. i'm still relatively new myself, but am happy to share my experiences and those which i've picked up from others. i'll let you buy the first round only if you let me return the favor.

one other word of caution. not all fridges that can fit a sanke keg will necessarily be able to fit a corny. cornies are 27 inches tall.

i got a fridge with a freezer inside, thinking i'd rip out the freezer and be good to go. the problem was that the freezer was the only source of cooling! so without it i just had a big box.

so i ended up having to detatch the freezer (but not take it out) and bend the coolant tube so that the unit sits against the rear of the fridge. long story short, i'd verify the dimensions before buying anything.

If you buy one of those "commercial" kegerators built for sankeys, you are going to need to 'convert' it for homebrew anyway.

You'll need the fittings that attach to corney kegs and, obviously, the corny kegs themselves (probably $50 for two at least). Plus, if you are looking to add another tap you will need the faucet, beer lines, etc. I'm guessing you'd probably spend an extra $100 to convert one of those commercial units, if not $150. You might want to consider replacing old beer-line, etc. So, with this work you are getting to around $500 or so for a "used" unit that may not even be proven to fit 2 corneys and a CO2 tank and/or look very good.

I looked into doing the same thing (converting a small sankey unit) and ended up building the Sanyo 4912 conversion...

While it probably ended up costing me about $550-600 roughly (and a few hours of my time), I had a lot of pros:

1) brand new unit
2) 2 flowings taps on a brand-new SS tower (flowing through nice forward-seal Perlick faucets none-the-less)
3) 2 corneys
4) CO2 tank with triple regulators
5) Everything else (quick-connects, brand new beer line, etc.) that was necessary for kegging

Plus
6) It looks much better than a 5-10 year old commercial unit and is guarenteed to fit 2 corneys and a co2 tank

Your approach would work, but for the $50-150 you might save by penny-pinching you could have 100% brand new setup that is proven (by the 20-50 pg of HBT testimonials) to serve good homebrew...

If I didn't just get a fridge for free that will hold two kegs, I'd be buying the Sanyo over a prebuilt unit for the reasons mentioned above.

BTW, that picture of Deathweed's Jesus figurine on the tap is sooo fitting. (page two of the link give above)

Its Buddy Christ!


Jesus turned water into wine, and for years I have been turning wine into water. Home brewing I figured was the closest I could get to being God

No seriously, I turned my one tap tower into a three tapper. I did it on a converted minfridge that held a sanke keg. it didn't take a whole lot to get it to hold 3 cornies and the CO2 bottle. looking back now, I wish i had not been so over zealous and just gone with two taps so that third spot could be chilling/carbonating the next keg to go on. Right now I usually have one tap thats out of order because I am having to cool and carbonate the next beer up...