Hello!
I've been brewing about a year and have been bottling all along with dreams of kegging. I am getting fairly sick of sanitizing and cleaning bottles at this point!
I knew right away that I wanted to do something retro. I have a 1944 Bridgeport milling machine down in my basement shop and have always loved the look of older machinery and devices.
I started my craigslist search for antique fridges and found one of two things:
-Broken down rustboxes at bargain prices
-Insanely overpriced fridges
Eventually I struck gold, finding a fridge within 30 miles of my house for $100 and I was the first to contact the seller. I arrived at the house and the fridge was down in the basement. It was covered in dust, but was up on a wooden pallet with a cloth over it so it seemed well cared-for otherwise. It had been in the house since its original owner purchased it. I had an "oh sh*t" moment realizing that its size was quite a bit larger than I expected. It took me, my help and the owner to move it up the stairs and out.
I was worried about laying the fridge down but it was my only option. Into my truck it went and the trip home was uneventful. I worried the entire time about this being the first real move the old fridge had taken and how many things could go wrong.
I installed the fridge in my shop but did not turn it on for about 6 hours to allow the liquids to settle inside. I took this time to give it a good cleaning. To my amazement, it cleaned up nearly perfect. Only a few tiny nicks! Even my wife thought it looked great.
Here's a few pics:
Door Emblem:
Awesome door handle:
6 hours later i turned it on and held my breath. It kicked right on and i set the dial to "4". The dial itself for temperature is very odd. It reads (in this order) Defrost-->C-->B-->A-->1-->2-->3-->4-->5-->6-->7. Why they didnt just use 1-9 is beyond me but if anyone knows the significance of the letters let me know.
4 hours later I opened the fridge and to my astonishment the thermometer read 23 degrees in the fridge. Uh oh! Too cold. I turned it down to "1"...26 degrees. I turned it to "C"...30 degrees. Getting close! In the end, i had to turn the dial about millimeter above "defrost" and the fridge settled right in at 37.5 degrees. It seems to hold this temp steady with almost no variation. Unfortunately due to the icebox freezer setup, I cannot actually get frosty mugs since the icebox temp is just barely at freezing. The icebox cools the rest of the fridge.
The fridge so far seems to run for 3 minutes then stays off for about 17 minutes. Its running about 9-10 minutes an hour. I'm hoping that as i add more beer/kegs inside, it will retian its temp a bit longer between running. I measured and I can fit three kegs plus the 5# tank in there at once. Awesome!
This has been long-winded so I'll end here. Next steps will be to install a Perlick faucet in the door. I have a keg of IPA carbonating in there right now so it will be ready to go.
Components for the faucets and shank/fittings arrive mid-week next week.
I've been brewing about a year and have been bottling all along with dreams of kegging. I am getting fairly sick of sanitizing and cleaning bottles at this point!
I knew right away that I wanted to do something retro. I have a 1944 Bridgeport milling machine down in my basement shop and have always loved the look of older machinery and devices.
I started my craigslist search for antique fridges and found one of two things:
-Broken down rustboxes at bargain prices
-Insanely overpriced fridges
Eventually I struck gold, finding a fridge within 30 miles of my house for $100 and I was the first to contact the seller. I arrived at the house and the fridge was down in the basement. It was covered in dust, but was up on a wooden pallet with a cloth over it so it seemed well cared-for otherwise. It had been in the house since its original owner purchased it. I had an "oh sh*t" moment realizing that its size was quite a bit larger than I expected. It took me, my help and the owner to move it up the stairs and out.
I was worried about laying the fridge down but it was my only option. Into my truck it went and the trip home was uneventful. I worried the entire time about this being the first real move the old fridge had taken and how many things could go wrong.
I installed the fridge in my shop but did not turn it on for about 6 hours to allow the liquids to settle inside. I took this time to give it a good cleaning. To my amazement, it cleaned up nearly perfect. Only a few tiny nicks! Even my wife thought it looked great.
Here's a few pics:
Door Emblem:
Awesome door handle:
6 hours later i turned it on and held my breath. It kicked right on and i set the dial to "4". The dial itself for temperature is very odd. It reads (in this order) Defrost-->C-->B-->A-->1-->2-->3-->4-->5-->6-->7. Why they didnt just use 1-9 is beyond me but if anyone knows the significance of the letters let me know.
4 hours later I opened the fridge and to my astonishment the thermometer read 23 degrees in the fridge. Uh oh! Too cold. I turned it down to "1"...26 degrees. I turned it to "C"...30 degrees. Getting close! In the end, i had to turn the dial about millimeter above "defrost" and the fridge settled right in at 37.5 degrees. It seems to hold this temp steady with almost no variation. Unfortunately due to the icebox freezer setup, I cannot actually get frosty mugs since the icebox temp is just barely at freezing. The icebox cools the rest of the fridge.
The fridge so far seems to run for 3 minutes then stays off for about 17 minutes. Its running about 9-10 minutes an hour. I'm hoping that as i add more beer/kegs inside, it will retian its temp a bit longer between running. I measured and I can fit three kegs plus the 5# tank in there at once. Awesome!
This has been long-winded so I'll end here. Next steps will be to install a Perlick faucet in the door. I have a keg of IPA carbonating in there right now so it will be ready to go.
Components for the faucets and shank/fittings arrive mid-week next week.
