Where is your Kegerator?

SWMBO and I are renting a house in MD (I have not seen said house yet because i am deployed, for 1 more week). I asked her the other day if i could put a cheap fridge in the basement to turn into a kegerator. She had no problems with that. I started thinking about it and came to the conclusion that i dont want to go to the basement everytime i need a beer. So, i figured i would test the waters and ask if it would be cool if i put a well built kegerator (like a sanyo) in the living room or dining room. The answer was a big no. She said it can only go in the basement or sunroom. The sunroom is a completley finished room off of the living room but there is no AC or heat in there. It would be an optimal location for the kegerator, due to its proximity to the couch and large TV, but i fear that in the summer it might get too hot and the thing might work itselt to death. Anyone ever been in a similiar situation? How did you win this? (IF you won)

My Sanyo conversion is right next to the fridge in the kitchen. Looks fine IMO, but I'm a lifelong bachelor.

You may be right that a mini-fridge conversion would work itself to an early death in a hot sunroom. However, I think a small chest freezer would not suffer this fate. I use one as a fermenter and crash cooler, and it just loafs along maintaining 38°F, seldom cycling on even in my very hot garage.

What's the problem with a fridge in the living room? Nothing. The problem lies elsewhere...

You = Basement.
Just suck it up.

I have my Sanyo in the kitchen and since I use picnic taps I made a counter that sits on top of it. Dual use since the microwave is on the counter and it fit nicely into the space.

I would go to the sunroom versus the basement id I had to make your choice.

Brett0424 said:

What's the problem with a fridge in the living room? Nothing. The problem lies elsewhere...

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I agree 100 %

Tell your old lady if she doesn't want to walk to the basement to get you beer every time you want one that you'll put your kegerator anywhere you damn well please.

"You = Basement.
Just suck it up. "

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Ha....I wanted to put my keggerator right next to MY chair...SWMBO said NO!..Then I figured I'd run some beer lines through the wall right next to my chair....again...a big no!.....Basement?...I'm not walking that far for a beer....

You = Garage.
Just suck it up.

Mutilated1 said:

I agree 100 %

Tell your old lady if she doesn't want to walk to the basement to get you beer every time you want one that you'll put your kegerator anywhere you damn well please.

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LMAO! Thats a good one. I am certainly going to pull that card. If her reaction is negative, then i will just play it out like its a joke. I can see if the living room was an actual living room with nice furniture and no TV, but this is a living room/ TV room. I think if will be able to talk her into it but i dont know. I know if i went over to someones house and they had a kegerator in the corner of thier dining room i would be like "Wow, thats awesome." I need to make the point across that people might be impressed with it!! If all else fails, it looks like its going in the sunroom.

I'm stuck with the garage. The chief downside is, there's no door from the garage to the house, you have to go out into the backyard. What's really tempting is that the garage backs up to the living room. my recliner is about 2 feet and 2 sheets of drywall away.

but there's no way my wife would let me run the lines through - it's her grandmother's house and we don't own it (my cousin in law owns it and we're just taking care of it for a while) I can hear it now - you want to do WHAT to my grandmother's house?

for your situation, I'd put it in the sunroom. as long as you run the tap through the door so you're not opening and closing it all the time, it should be fine. I've got mine in a 20 yr old fridge in a southern facing garage. Today we'll tie the all-time record for continuous days above 90f in Denver, and it's been fine.

I've got my Sanyo tucked a way in a corner of my home office. Close the French doors when there are non-drinking guests over and they don't even know it's there. Fortunately it's right off of the living room for when we have friends over that DO drink.

I have a sanyo in our finished basement. It's not bad at all going to the basement to refill (although we typically watch tv/movies in the basement home theater). Look on the bright side, you get some exercise each time you fill up. Another solution is to just get bigger glasses. Grab a 64 oz big gulp cup from your local 7-11 and you only need to go to the basement once per night.

Redskins838892 said:

SWMBO and I are renting a house in MD (I have not seen said house yet because i am deployed, for 1 more week). I asked her the other day if i could put a cheap fridge in the basement to turn into a kegerator. She had no problems with that. I started thinking about it and came to the conclusion that i dont want to go to the basement everytime i need a beer. So, i figured i would test the waters and ask if it would be cool if i put a well built kegerator (like a sanyo) in the living room or dining room. The answer was a big no. She said it can only go in the basement or sunroom. The sunroom is a completley finished room off of the living room but there is no AC or heat in there. It would be an optimal location for the kegerator, due to its proximity to the couch and large TV, but i fear that in the summer it might get too hot and the thing might work itselt to death. Anyone ever been in a similiar situation? How did you win this? (IF you won)

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"Okay, honey. I'll just move the good TV and my chair to the nice, cool, basement. Bring down some sandwiches when football season starts, OK?"

If you owned the home, I'd tell you that's your opportunity to lobby for a bar/entertainment room in the basement. Since you're renting, I'll just let you know that with a few growlers or a carb cap and 2l bottle, you can drastically reduce the number of trips downstairs and then back up.

Our sanyo-sized kegerator lives next to the liquor cabinet in our living room. SWMBO was totally supportive of that. Of course, SWMBO is also my brewing partner and favorite drinking buddy, so I guess it's no surprise. Also, we aren't exactly home decorator types with fancy furniture, either, so it doesn't look out of place. A big, white chest freezer in the living room might have been a different story, though.

Also, for the sunroom placement (which sounds like your best bet), positioning a boxfan to blow on the coils (sides of the minifridge) on particularly hot day can really help it remove heat more effeciently, so the compressor doesn't have to work as hard.

Does your SWMBO drink homebrew? At first my SWMBO wanted the kegerator in the basement. I explained what a pain it'd be to run downstairs to fetch a pint, and that we should just try having the kegerator in the kitchen. It only took a few pours before she realized the beauty of having beer on draft that was readily available.

Worst case, could you set up a chest freezer in the basement, then run tap lines to the ground floor?

I keep mine in the basement, but that is also my mancave with the big screen.

Mine is tucked against the wall in what was once the dining room. We kinda turned it into open space behind the living room....so it's not a big deal. If you do a Keezer and do a nice job...they look nice enough to fit in.

You just have to explain to her nicely that you're really concerned about her having to go all the way down to the basement to get you a beer. Don't want her to get tuckered out.

I'm a female, and in our small apartment, the only logical place for it to go was right next to the sofa.

Ha.

Mine is in the garage and yes, it does suck to have to go to the garage everytime I want to pull a pint. My wife had actually given me the suggestion to put it in the kitchen and I actually declined. Reasons were it's a huge chest freezer and not that big a kitchen. In other words, it would clutter the kitchen. Another more important reason is that it would make it more accessible to 2 year old hands that like to pull levers.

Perhaps the day will come when I have my very own "man cave" but for now I deal with it in the garage. BTW, it has no direct sunlight but it's not a conditioned space and gets into the low 100's in the hottest of summer days.

I have my keezer with 4 taps in the small room just off the living room, now that's easy access from the old boob tube.

basement. i'm not allowed upstairs that much, only when something needs fixed.

Thanks for of the tips and suggestions. I like the one about her getting tired running up and down the steps to get me a beer. I need to scope out the kitchen and see if thats a possibility. She is not a big fan of homebrew or craft beer at all, and it totally sucks. She sticks to miller lite and wine. SHe claims good beer has a bad aftertaste. She tries it every now and then but does not seem to budge. She says some of the beers i make are 'OK' (they are friggin GREAT to me). She would take a nasty miller lite over a homebrew any day of the week. I need to figure out a way to fix that problem too!

Redskins838892 said:

Thanks for of the tips and suggestions. I like the one about her getting tired running up and down the steps to get me a beer. I need to scope out the kitchen and see if thats a possibility. She is not a big fan of homebrew or craft beer at all, and it totally sucks. She sticks to miller lite and wine. SHe claims good beer has a bad aftertaste. She tries it every now and then but does not seem to budge. She says some of the beers i make are 'OK' (they are friggin GREAT to me). She would take a nasty miller lite over a homebrew any day of the week. I need to figure out a way to fix that problem too!

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If thats the case, man, you might prefer it out of her sight (and nose). If you're a typical dude, you're going to neglect that drip tray and she'll complain about it all the time.

You don't want your baby perma-banned.

Mine is in the kitchen, behind some bi-fold doors that we use as our pantry.

Right now mine is stuck in my wildest dreams...

Redskins838892 said:

She is not a big fan of homebrew or craft beer at all, and it totally sucks. She sticks to miller lite and wine. SHe claims good beer has a bad aftertaste. She tries it every now and then but does not seem to budge. She says some of the beers i make are 'OK' (they are friggin GREAT to me). She would take a nasty miller lite over a homebrew any day of the week. I need to figure out a way to fix that problem too!

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How about finding a homebrew recipe she likes, and keeping that on one tap? I bet she'd be far more tolerant of a kegerator in the kitchen if she can enjoy it as well.

Biermuncher's Centennial blonde might be a good choice, or maybe a light cream ale. To ring my own bell a bit, the ladies seem to love my own lemon summer blonde, recipe available under my avatar.

I put mine on the porch, right next to the sofa. That way, when me and the old lady are sitting on the porch watching traffic, I can keep my drunk going all day long.




j/k I actually have my fridge in my hobby room, right behind my computer chair. So I can pull a glass (when it's done) while playing WoW, or Guitar.

I will certainly try one of those receipes, especially now that i have a ton more options because i have the gear to do effective all grain. I made Edworts Haus pale ale and due to it being my first PM i messed up and it came out really light (SG 1.035). It was the lightest beer i had made and figured she would like it, but she would only sample it and say it was OK. What a bummer

I went over to the house I am moving into next month and was talking to my new roommate about this spair room. Well he and the previous roommate had turned it into a total bar room. 8' x 8' L shaped bar. TV on the wall. BIG stereo and a small chest freezer. about 2x2. Well he was going to throw that freezer out but I told him I could convert it into a single tap kegerator. He was sold instantly. And I even get to put my kegerator in the corner of the family room.!!!!!!

Right now mine is in my head. In about two months I hope to have it in the garage. My head version is far to big with too many shiny taps to fit inside the house

I'm in a 3 bedroom apartment with swmbo, and our rooms are as follows. Bedroom, computer room, beer room

My kegger is out in the old garage. I used a freezer for it & even when it's 95F out there, it doesn't run much.

Mine is in my dining/pool room. I don't have to get a SWMBO seal of approval, but I made the keezer look like a piece of furniture anyway.

Mine is in the basement but I have the OK to run lines up to the kitchen and put taps (and soda wand) under the cabinet with a cold box right below.

If I were you I'd get a 1/6th barrel of miller lite, a sanke tap and hook that up and show her how much fun it is running down to the basement to get her beer.

I have a 3/4 size fridge that only holds two kegs. It is directly behind me in the home office, next to the fax machine and the file cabinets. We have two phone lines (one is my work), three computers (mine, his, work's), a very small TV for watching sports, and the kegger. It sounds crazy, but we spend most of our time in here, listening to music, surfing the web, and talking to each other. Usually beer is involved. He didn't want it in the dining room or in the living room, but when I had a friend help me put it in here, he liked that!

ohiobrewtus said:

Close the French doors when there are non-drinking guests over.......

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Why do you have non-drinking guests over? You can't trust people that don't drink. They're probably planning on a way to steal all your knick-knacks.

Mine Sanyo is in the living room....SWMBO approves

Put it in the basement, and then just fill up growlers to bring upstairs

So, upon further review, i am probably going to go with trying to get a small chest freezer and putting it in said sunroom, but i really need to get back and scope out this place in person. Who knows, maybe with a fan the sunroom wont get too hot. You cant even really call it a sunroom. Its basically a small addition with a sliding glass door and a few regular size windows. Its not like the ceiling is glass panes or anything. I am pretty sure the walls are insulated and so is the ceiling. I live right near DC and i have been browsing craigslist and i have found a good number of cheap freezers and fridges. The basement will still be my space and its pretty optimal for brewing down there. There is a huge commerical sink with a kitchen counter ( i think at one point they were going to make the basement an apartment), bathroom, and a door that opens to a stone patio in the yard. I cant really mancave it out too much because this is a rental. I have a feeling that the office will become somewhat of a man cave where i can hang all of my redskins stuff and various other articles i have aquired in my many travels. Regardless of where the kegerator goes, i cant wait to live in this house and get the hell out of my apartment!!