Picking a Draft Beer Tower

I've got a 4.9 kenmore (no freezer) that i've been using and I can fit 2 corny's and a co2 5#. Right now i'm using picnic taps...looking to buy a draft beer tower to mount on top.

I've used Midwest Supplies for most of my homebrewing equipment, but i see on ebay that the towers are about $35 cheaper. Am I going to be sorry for not going with a specific homebrew company on this? I can't tell the difference just by reading the descriptions.

You probably won't risk too much by buying on eBay. However, I would clarify with the seller that whatever you're buying is new. Also, cheap taps tend to wear quickly and/or leak slightly. Perlick makes a great forward sealed tap for roughly $35 new.

This site tends to be good for draft beer equipment. Unfortunately, it appears that they stopped carrying those Perlick faucets.

I bought my tower from this guy:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ceramic-Beer-To...9QQihZ019QQcategoryZ67135QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

He usually has several for sale at any time and the prices are the cheapest I've ever seen for a ceramic tower.

I got mine on Ebay. Works fine, but eventually I am going to go with the Perlick faucets.

Does anyone sell just the tower w/o faucets? I plan to use Shirrons and don't want to buy the junky ones that come with most towers.

I got the 4.9 ft Kenmore for the holidays. I'll be using cobra taps for the time being but have researched the towers in anticipation of an upcoming birthday. I think the www.beveragefactory.com probably has about the best prices for a complete tower but it will come with the inexpensive faucets. The other way to go is to build your own with the nice forward sealing Shirron or Perlick faucets. You need a tower from A.C.U (can't seem to find the website right now), elbow shanks from micromatic.com, tubing and clamps and faucets of your choice from anyplace that has the shirron/perlicks (around $35/each). This ends up being around $200 for the tower with nice faucets. What is I'd like to know if I bought a tower from beveragefactory, would the elbow shanks work with the Perlick type faucets? It seems you could buy a tower set up and upgrade the faucets when ready for about the same price as building your own.

chillHayze said:

Does anyone sell just the tower w/o faucets? I plan to use Shirrons and don't want to buy the junky ones that come with most towers.

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Here is a picture of my tower and drip tray that I got from ACU. They are great to deal with and have really good prices. They will drill the towers however you like and then you can get your own shanks and faucets.

John

Awesome - just what I was looking for. Thanks bud!

anojones said:

What is I'd like to know if I bought a tower from beveragefactory, would the elbow shanks work with the Perlick type faucets? It seems you could buy a tower set up and upgrade the faucets when ready for about the same price as building your own.

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Yes, the shanks that The BeverageFactory use for their towers will accomodate a forward sealing faucet, like the Perlick's or Shirron's. As far as it being the same price as building your own, I'll concede on that point, but when it comes to quality, a tower from ACU assembled with the parts of your choice will blow a pre-assembled one out of the water!

John

That's a really nice looking set-up- with the three taps do you have two 5 gallons and a 3 gallon in there or is it a larger compact fridge?


Ajones

anojones said:

That's a really nice looking set-up- with the three taps do you have two 5 gallons and a 3 gallon in there or is it a larger compact fridge?


Ajones

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It is a larger compact fridge. Sanyo BC-1206 Kegerator from The Beverage Factory. I took the cheesy plastic tower that came with it and sold it on ebay. It fits three 5 gallon kegs along with a 10 lb CO2 tank inside. One note though; because of the compressor hump in the upper back, the two kegs in the back have to be of the older single handle design. Double handle ball lock kegs would also fit if you cut off one of the handles with a sawzall. I lucked out and found a bunch of the single handle type on the cheap!

I also had a piece of stainless steel plate fabricated locally to make a more level and sturdy base. I stole that idea from a Haier kegerator that I saw.

John

johnsma22 said:

Here is a picture of my tower and drip tray that I got from ACU. They are great to deal with and have really good prices. They will drill the towers however you like and then you can get your own shanks and faucets.

John

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What did that thing run - roughly??

I paid $49 for the just unassembled brushed stainless tower with three holes drilled in it. From what I have heard, ACU has had to bump up their prices since I bought mine from them in May '06 due to the rising cost of stainless steel. I'm not sure what they are charging now. I also got the drip tray from ACU for $56.

Then I purchased three stainless steel elbow shanks from Micromatic for $25 each and three Perlicks from Williams Brewing for $35 each. Add to that three tap handles from Williams for $7 each and probably about another $20 for misc. supplies such as stainless steel mounting screws, beverage tubing and clamps, etc.

So the total comes to around $270, not including the drip tray. If you compare that to MoreBeer's price of $180 for their chrome plated 3 tap tower with chrome plated brass standard faucets and only 4' of 3/16" beverage tubing per tap I think it is clear where the value comes from when building your own.

John

ACU just quoted me a 3" 2 hole tower for 49 and the drip tray for 75.

I have decided to use front-mount shanks on mine due to cost and room on top of the kegerator. I ordered everything from AHBS except my 4 kegs come from the ebay guy selling them for $16. This kegerator so far has cost almost $500. Starting to wish I had just bought one!

johnsma22 - How did you mount your secondary regulator inside the kegerator? Did you just drill pilot holes and use stainless steel screws?