Portable igloo cooler kegerator

I didn't replace the lids - my pin locks had the built-in pressure relief gadget, like this:

You need to replace the lids when you convert?

You sure do if you want to have the ability to easily release pressure for transferring or purging tanks.

Can't you just use a pin lock pressure relief tool for that? I know it won't attach to the valve but it will depress the valve and relieve the pressure, no?

You can... Or you can use your finger to press the poppet.

But say you're purging your keg with liquid in it. You have to add the gas, remove the coupler, then depressurize via the post... Or say you have the keg all connected but your pressure was too high. You adjust the knob, but you still have to disconnect the coupler and depressurize. it's just less convenient.

I see what you mean - just ordered new lids.

Here's my new project! A single 3 gal portable kegerator using this bad boy!



I just scored it off CL for a few bucks. I know they're rare and worth some money, but I didn't pay much for it. I think it'll make an awesome novelty kegerator.

It'll take some modifying, but it will work.

Very cool, and i wouldn't sweat using it for a kegerator. They sell for $40-50 so that's about the same as a regular cooler people cut up for one..

wantonsoup said:

Very cool, and i wouldn't sweat using it for a kegerator. They sell for $40-50 so that's about the same as a regular cooler people cut up for one..

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Ya I paid way less, so I'm not worried. It'll increase value in my opinion. I just saw one sell two weeks ago for 178 shipped on ebay. It's in the "sold" part.

Yowza. Very cool cooler though, can't wait to see your finished project.

My finished product. Took on vacation and a neighborhood picnic and it worked very well. I used the Lowes 70 quart cooler, 2 (2.5 gal kegs) with the 20oz co2 and pinvalve regulator. Plenty of room for ice and some cups. I will mount the co2 on the outside at some point or at least a shield/holder for it inside if possible. Definite cool factor and spawned a lot of conversations.

Cooler rolls easy and even rolled it across a field (slowly as I had a full and a partial keg and wanted to reduce foam though I had no real issue amazingly so). Low drain is nice touch so all but a few ounces will drain when cleaning.

Please note I already smacked my regulator getting it setup so it is near toast but works for now. Get a guard or mount the co2/regulator.

Thanks for posting, looks great!

dsdr said:

Get a guard or mount the co2/regulator.

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Good advice, I will heed it!

I'm still working on my portable Grolsch cooler (the size has caused some set-backs, but I think I got a plan of action. I just need to order the parts)

I also just scored 3 of these little guys (1 gallon Taylor ice cream syrup kegs) They're 2 growlers each. They hold 8 pints a piece (or just under a 12 pack)



Now the question is what to do with them... Small 3 tap portable? Maybe a portable back pack kegerator?

I've found the real cost of this project is decent taps and shanks. I spent more on those than I expected, but then again I bought all stainless stuff because I'm cuckoo about chemicals and didn't want the beer touching brass or whatever else.

My wife just found these at Costco for me. Only 60 Qt., but one 3 gallon keg (pin lock converted to ball lock) fits perfectly with lots of room to spare for the CO2 tank and ice! While a two keg/tap system looks nice, I doubt I would ever use both taps, so I decided to go with this one. Now, I am just waiting on my perlick faucet and shank, hose, clamps, etc. to put it all together.

Finally received all the gear I ordered and found the time to assemble my new USC portable kegerator!
Pic. 1 -- gear and tools ready for assembly including 3 gallon pin lock keg converted to ball lock with new pressure relief lid; 24 oz. paint ball CO2 can; Williams Brewing mini regulator; 4" shank (could have used a 3" and maybe even a 2"; Perlick 525 faucet; 10' Ultra Barrier Silver beer hose; gas hose; ball lock disconnects and clamps, etc.

Pic. 2 Close up of CO2 tank with regulator.

Pic. 3 Exterior after tap installation

Pic 4 Interior after instalation. Note the regulator has a bracket attached to it which hangs perfectly from the shank. One other note, I originally used threaded ball lock disconnects, but those were too tall and the cooler lid would not close. I went to barbed ball lock disconnects with hose clamps and it works perfectly.

Bracket is a great idea. Did you make it?

What is everyone doing to label the beer on their cooler? I'm not sure the best way to do it cleanly.

The Williams Brewing mini regulator comes with the bracket already attached. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/MINI-DUAL-C02-REGULATOR-P2650.aspx It can be used for the large sized 45 gram threaded C02 cartirdges which they sell and also comes with an adapter to fit paintball CO2 tanks.

Here's a pic of mine in action. Still a work-in-progress. (I'd like to put the tank outside in the back like some have done and install a drip tray which I've ordered recently from Ritebrew.com)

Currently in tap: Morebeer.com's M-80 IPA(7.1%) and a Cherry, bourbon oak'd cider(9.3%).

Looks great. I've been reading about beer lines and Howe long they should be, etc. Is anyone sing like 10-15´ beer lines? Or just doing what fits

I used a 10 foot beer line to keep foaming problems to a minimum. I coiled it up and put zip ties on it so it is manageable.
Submerged in ice/water, I also thought it might give a little bit of a jockeybox effect.

I bought a 50' spool of 3/16 Tygon B-44-4X for both my portable kegerator and my fridge kegerator. Thinking I could use 20' for the portable like you did (10' x 2) and the other 30 (15' x 2) for the regular one.. Thanks.

First off - thank you to the OP for putting this out there... w/o you I would never have had the idea.

Found the igloo 65 qt cooler at Costco for $43 then finally sucked it up and went and bought the 2.5 gallon coolers from morebeer which fit like a champ. I had to cut the rubber off of one little part of the second cooler so that it fit snuggly on the left side and viola here I am serving my newcaslte clone and pliny clone at two parties this weekend! Wahoooo!

I put a brass inlet thru the back to be able to use my 5g co2 setup as external, used two ss 3" shafts then bought the two perlick taps and was able to get this working in hours. Not only does it look good - it pours like a dream and stays cold.

Here are a few pics

Don't know why I just can't edit/add the posts, but what ever...
Thank you for all the ideas!

Here's mine.... Ready for football season! And with the way the Cowboys have played the last few years, the beer will come in handy.

Looks awesome. I especially love the tap handle (even though I'm a Raider's fan). Where did you get the handle? Do you know if they carry other sport's teams, too? I've been looking for a USC handle, but haven't found one I like.

I bought the tap handle on eBay, but it was just a long metal tube/bolt with a mini helmet glued on. I then took a piece of wood and drilled a 5/8" hole through it. I slid the tap handle into to wood. Next I took a Cowboys koozie and slid it over the wood and stapled it underneath to hold it in place.

I pretty much just used the wood to fill up the koozie jersey.

wantonsoup said:

Looks great. I've been reading about beer lines and Howe long they should be, etc. Is anyone sing like 10-15´ beer lines? Or just doing what fits

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The lines I have in the picture above are maybe 5' at most. Foaming isn't too bad... it depends on how far I've wheeled it around I guess

Just christened my cooler tailgating at the USC game this weekend. Worked like a charm. I had a lot of people stop me on my way to the party wondering why there was a tap coming out of my cooler. They couldn't believe there was a 3 gallon keg inside. Worth the cost and effort. Fight On!

P.S. Don't connect the beer out until you are ready to use it. It is very, very easy to accidentally bump the tap handle and start the beer flowing when you're not ready. For that matter, don't hook up the gas either, just in case you have a slight leak.

One of my recent discoveries is that with the box not getting used as often as i like is that the lines get cruddy pretty quickly. One of my recent tricks is to fill them with carbon filtered water to hold them - anyone else do something like this? or should i not do this...

maierhof said:

One of my recent discoveries is that with the box not getting used as often as i like is that the lines get cruddy pretty quickly. One of my recent tricks is to fill them with carbon filtered water to hold them - anyone else do something like this? or should i not do this...

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I usually follow-up my use up with a run/flow of BLC through the lines.

Forgive my ignorance but how do you do that? Full a spare keg with BLC or water or whatever? The systems are all plumbed up with ball lock connectors so I can't think of how else to do that.

wantonsoup said:

Forgive my ignorance but how do you do that? Full a spare keg with BLC or water or whatever? The systems are all plumbed up with ball lock connectors so I can't think of how else to do that.

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I simply built myself one of these: http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2012/11/recirculating-draft-line-cleaning-build.html. I use it with a small little pail along with 2 gallons of water (and the appropriate amount of BLC in it) and let it circulate for 10-15 min for each line. I also use it for my draft lines in my kegerator(s). If you plan things out right, you can move from line to line as part of a periodical line cleaning routine!

Good luck!
-Ben

Awesome, thanks for the info! And another project

benducklow said:

I simply built myself one of these: http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2012/11/recirculating-draft-line-cleaning-build.html. I use it with a small little pail along with 2 gallons of water (and the appropriate amount of BLC in it) and let it circulate for 10-15 min for each line. I also use it for my draft lines in my kegerator(s). If you plan things out right, you can move from line to line as part of a periodical line cleaning routine!

Good luck!
-Ben

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Yeaup - i converted a 3g poison(new btw)/garden sprayer and add the pressure myself - the unfortunate truth is that i have to redo it at least twice to do one line... which sux but it works...

BLC gets expensive after a while imho - which is why i just hold the lines in carbon filtered water until the day of the party and only do the BLC every fourth keg run. havent had a problem yet - but this is expected - and can clean them pretty easily using the same tool...

ty for the answer - anyone else do this too?

I do something like it, just using a 2-liter with a carbonator cap and a gas QD and running PBW then starsan/saniclean.

I'm in the process of building out my portable kegerator and came across this website that sells brand new kegs and saw their "belmished" section: https://bvrgelements.com/product/Ball-Lock-New-3-Gallon-Blemished/

Brand new 3 gallon ball lock kegs with either some discoloration or dents for $49 a piece. No one is going to be looking at the kegs inside of an ice filled cooler and for $49 for new ball locks, it sure beats buying the used $29 pin lock kegs with loose handles, plus ball lock conversions and new lid, you would easily be at $50 going that route.

dmcman73 said:

I'm in the process of building out my portable kegerator and came across this website that sells brand new kegs and saw their "belmished" section: https://bvrgelements.com/product/Ball-Lock-New-3-Gallon-Blemished/

Brand new 3 gallon ball lock kegs with either some discoloration or dents for $49 a piece. No one is going to be looking at the kegs inside of an ice filled cooler and for $49 for new ball locks, it sure beats buying the used $29 pin lock kegs with loose handles, plus ball lock conversions and new lid, you would easily be at $50 going that route.

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They would be too tall for my cooler... Its a great option as long as the cooler will hold it.

Great (long lived) thread and builds. I read through the 40 pages but couldn't see an answer to this question.

For the 5g keg builds where you cut the top off of the 70qt coolers, do you remove the cooler lid hinge? It doesn't look like the lid would slide over with the keg in there if the hinge was still attached?

Since It looks like I can not afford a kegarator, I have started looking into the jockey boxs.

In all seriousness, how difficult is it to build one of these?
Especially for someone who is only mildly mechanically inclined. ( I cut twice, measure once)

Very easy. But these aren't Jockey Boxes - these are portable kegerators. Jockey Boxes are basically heat transfer devices where you run lots of copper tubing in the cooler and fill it with ice, the kegs stay outside the box. The setups in this thread actually contain the kegs themselves.