This past weekend I brewed 4 beers, a hard cider and a batch of Sprecher root beer for my buddies graduation party. I was concerned that it would be difficult to chill all 6 kegs and properly label the beers without the lines getting all tangled up and confusing the guests.
My buddy's parents have a small beef ranch and had a spare stock tank for the cattle to drink from. After a good cleaning and sanitizing, I was easily able to fit my six kegs plus 20# CO2 tank in the stock tank with enough room for 2-3 more kegs (more if CO2 tank is placed outside). We filled the stock tank with kegs in it with cold well water over night to pre-chill the beer and drained some out and added about 60# of ice the next morning for the party; worked great!
Now what was I supposed to do about the picnic taps? We setup a banquet table over the kegs and had a front bar to the left making an 'L' shape with 2 half barrels of BMC with 1" holes drilled through the top for my sanke tower taps. It dawned on me that a scrap piece of 1"x3" could be drilled and made into a tap-tower of sorts.
Evenly spaced 1/2" holes with side legs on the 1"x3" would be perfect! Touched by Midas....a quick coat of gold spray paint made the crappy looking scrap wood look great. I disconnected the picnic taps and ran the tubing through the holes; I found that once the tap was reassembled, the bulge of the tubing was the right size for a press-fit into the 1/2" holes creating a perfect secure fit that the taps did not fall out. I wrote labels of the beers on top of the wood to identify the order and made custom beer labels made by <http://www.beerlabelizer.com> hung in front of the bar.
The party was a great success and everyone loved the homebrew, my personal Honey Wheat was the biggest hit and tapped out within a few hours. In the third picture you can kind of see the stock tank in the lower-right corner with the 6 Corny kegs and CO2 tank.
The second picture is the lineup...
1. Hard Apple Cider
2. Cream Ale
3. Honey Wheat
4. Red Ale
5. Cascadian Dark Ale
With a couple of my buddies and I with Manufacturing Engineering degrees, and a few hours we created a pretty nice bar setup that received many compliments. If any of you are having a party and need a somewhat professional setup, this was a very cheap and easy way to share great beer with friends and family.
And if anyone happens to like this idea and implement it, I would love to hear from you and see your setup along with a picture. Hopefully someone with more time and crafting skills can improve upon our idea and create something spectacular!
BTW, this was my first gig; I have been brewing since 2006 and have never made a beer for a party or anyone else, only personal consumption (and friends who come over). It was a lot of fun brewing all of these at once within the short 6 week notice I was given.
Cheers!
Phil
My buddy's parents have a small beef ranch and had a spare stock tank for the cattle to drink from. After a good cleaning and sanitizing, I was easily able to fit my six kegs plus 20# CO2 tank in the stock tank with enough room for 2-3 more kegs (more if CO2 tank is placed outside). We filled the stock tank with kegs in it with cold well water over night to pre-chill the beer and drained some out and added about 60# of ice the next morning for the party; worked great!
Now what was I supposed to do about the picnic taps? We setup a banquet table over the kegs and had a front bar to the left making an 'L' shape with 2 half barrels of BMC with 1" holes drilled through the top for my sanke tower taps. It dawned on me that a scrap piece of 1"x3" could be drilled and made into a tap-tower of sorts.
Evenly spaced 1/2" holes with side legs on the 1"x3" would be perfect! Touched by Midas....a quick coat of gold spray paint made the crappy looking scrap wood look great. I disconnected the picnic taps and ran the tubing through the holes; I found that once the tap was reassembled, the bulge of the tubing was the right size for a press-fit into the 1/2" holes creating a perfect secure fit that the taps did not fall out. I wrote labels of the beers on top of the wood to identify the order and made custom beer labels made by <http://www.beerlabelizer.com> hung in front of the bar.
The party was a great success and everyone loved the homebrew, my personal Honey Wheat was the biggest hit and tapped out within a few hours. In the third picture you can kind of see the stock tank in the lower-right corner with the 6 Corny kegs and CO2 tank.
The second picture is the lineup...
1. Hard Apple Cider
2. Cream Ale
3. Honey Wheat
4. Red Ale
5. Cascadian Dark Ale
With a couple of my buddies and I with Manufacturing Engineering degrees, and a few hours we created a pretty nice bar setup that received many compliments. If any of you are having a party and need a somewhat professional setup, this was a very cheap and easy way to share great beer with friends and family.
And if anyone happens to like this idea and implement it, I would love to hear from you and see your setup along with a picture. Hopefully someone with more time and crafting skills can improve upon our idea and create something spectacular!
BTW, this was my first gig; I have been brewing since 2006 and have never made a beer for a party or anyone else, only personal consumption (and friends who come over). It was a lot of fun brewing all of these at once within the short 6 week notice I was given.
Cheers!
Phil
