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TheGeek

TheGeek

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I just finished my keezer a month or so ago, working on my 3rd keg to put through it when tonight I had every homebrewers worst nightmare in my garage.

The faucets that came with my kit were generic something-or-others that were gumming up on my Double Chocolate Stout because I dont drink from them every night. Well when I tried to pull a glass of it this evening, they were set like concrete and I couldnt get them to budge. Not wanting them to break, I got a glass of ruination clone instead off the 2nd tap. When I returned to the garage for glass #2, to my horror the remaining gallon and a half or so of Double Chocolate Stout (THE most expensive brew I've done to date and one I was very much wanting to sample with some age on it) was pooled all over my garage floor.

Take my advice. Upgrade your faucets. I'm ordering Perlicks as I'm writing this.

RIP Double Chocolate Stout. You were ****in' tasty.
 
I just started kegging, I love my Perlick 525SS faucets. I saw Austin Homebrew Supply has them on sale for like $24 or so.
 
Frodo said:
I just started kegging, I love my Perlick 525SS faucets. I saw Austin Homebrew Supply has them on sale for like $24 or so.
Click to expand...

Wow. Thanks. I was about to drop $45 per on the creamer taps (a feature I'm not particularly wanting to pay for) The standard forward sealing faucet is $22.99
 
I think I saw the creamer version for $29 on there too... I'm sure you saw that as well. I don't know what the difference would be, but I'm really happy with the 525SS ones. The stainless is really something to admire.
 
I just got my Perlick 525SS installed and wow it seems so much better. I haven't used it enough to see about the sticking issue, but I really hope so. My generic brand would stick like CRAZY. No more hollow pours. After getting the warm beer out this thing pours the perfect beer. less drips also. I too have been wanting to start a post about get better faucets but Ill just add my 2 cents here!
 
I don't know if this will be taken as mental illness or devotion, but when I saw that huge pool of beer on the floor of the garage, I felt like I had lost a member of the family. Don't let this happen to you! Get quality faucets!
 
It might be a good idea to get one of those water leak alarms and put it on the floor in front of the kegerator. Of course you'd need to be at home to hear the alarm go off.

I used one of these alarms and hacked it to put sensors all over my house. Continuity on any one of the (homemade) sensors via water on the floor sounds the alarm. Now I'm considering running a sensor to the kegerator...
 
TheBroonery said:
It might be a good idea to get one of those water leak alarms and put it on the floor in front of the kegerator. Of course you'd need to be at home to hear the alarm go off.

I used one of these alarms and hacked it to put sensors all over my house. Continuity on any one of the (homemade) sensors via water on the floor sounds the alarm. Now I'm considering running a sensor to the kegerator...
Click to expand...

You can ususally configure those to send a txt message if the device has an active internet connection, in which case you'd get the alarm anywhere. Thats our modus opperendi for our data centers. Sure by the time you got home to fix the issue the beer would likely be gone, but an option nonetheless.
 
TheGeek said:
I just finished my keezer a month or so ago, working on my 3rd keg to put through it when tonight I had every homebrewers worst nightmare in my garage.

The faucets that came with my kit were generic something-or-others that were gumming up on my Double Chocolate Stout because I dont drink from them every night. Well when I tried to pull a glass of it this evening, they were set like concrete and I couldnt get them to budge. Not wanting them to break, I got a glass of ruination clone instead off the 2nd tap. When I returned to the garage for glass #2, to my horror the remaining gallon and a half or so of Double Chocolate Stout (THE most expensive brew I've done to date and one I was very much wanting to sample with some age on it) was pooled all over my garage floor.

Take my advice. Upgrade your faucets. I'm ordering Perlicks as I'm writing this.

RIP Double Chocolate Stout. You were ****in' tasty.
Click to expand...


Sorry for your loss; I too brewed a double chocolate stout lately so I feel your pain. It's good to know about the lower quality faucets, though. I just purchased a Perlick keg cooler and a Perlick 3-tap tower (from the classified section on here) and I ordered 3 brand new 525ss to replace the cheap ones that came on it. I did't even want to mess around with old, cheap faucets.

Hopefully your loss will prevent others from ever having to live through that type of tragedy. :(
 
The perlicks were a great upgrade. Not only do they not stick but they drip much less.
 
I am really starting to get sick of spraying up into my faucets every time I pull a pint, wishing I'd spent the extra few bucks up front for the real deal.
 
Waunabeer said:
Hopefully your loss will prevent others from ever having to live through that type of tragedy. :(
Click to expand...

Waunabeer your avatar beats Wildwest's IMHO. I think they should all wrestle to see who can claim "best". :D
 
This is something I just learned about my faucets; I've had a couple pints so maybe this is obvious to everyone else... apparently I got it right the first time without leaks, but this time I had a leak at the faucet/shank attachment point. So, here's what I learned: when you connect the faucet to the shaft, make sure to line up the teeth on the faucet with the teeth on the shaft, push the faucet onto the shaft with the teeth lined up, THEN tighten the hand-tighten nut thinghy. I didn't see the that the teeth needed to be lined up prior to tightening the hand-tighten nut.
 
I glad my friend had a cheap keggerator with a cheap faucet that we kegged my first in. I realized how bad they stuck, so when I made mine I got some nice Perlicks. Otherwise I probably would have went the cheap route and regretted it.
 
FrewBrew said:
You can ususally configure those to send a txt message if the device has an active internet connection, in which case you'd get the alarm anywhere. Thats our modus opperendi for our data centers. Sure by the time you got home to fix the issue the beer would likely be gone, but an option nonetheless.
Click to expand...

The device I used is this:
318LqAWgcSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

It runs off a 9 volt battery and sounds the alarm if there's continuity between the 2 sensor wires. I removed the circuit board and ditched the plastic casing, and used twisted pair telephone wire to run to my own sensors, which are nothing more than the TP wire soldered to copper discs featuring Lincoln's head. Continuity between the 2 sensor nodes (all wired in parallel) at any point in the system sounds the alarm.
 

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