So today was the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to bottling (I have already been itching to keg, but this instance takes the cake).....I was transferring from the fermentor to the bottling bucket after spending a couple hours preparing (sanitizing dozens of bottles) when the auto-siphon tubing kicked the bottling bucket over spilling nearly 6 gallons all over the garage....let's just say I got into hot water over that one. Ended up getting 5 bottles worth out of the whole fiasco. Only saving grace was the beer didn't taste that good out of the fermentor anyway.
So, tangent aside, I am looking at kegging but am not into spending a lot of money and also want more control of it as a homebrewer rather than buying a kegerator and then having to convert it anyway for homebrew.
I am looking at Keg Connection and Kegerator.com (better price for the dual-guage regulator) for the best prices, but does anyone know of better places? I also would like to know if there are sites where they charge less than 65 for a 5-gallon CO2 tank seeing as how I will probably have to exchange it anyway.
I was looking at the 7.1 Igloo Chest Freezer from Best Buy http://www.bestbuy.com/site/igloo-7-1-cu-ft-chest-freezer-white/4584005.p?id=1219098811096
Does anyone have any experience with that model? If so, could I get 3 kegs into it with a collar? I would like four (well really six), but I don't want to take up much space. What should I consider between Pin (including the converted Ball-Locks) and Ball Lock kegs in terms of spacing?
Any other recommendations would be helpful. I feel if I don't start kegging, I will lose the joy of homebrewing, which was assured to me was more unacceptable than spilling beer all over the garage.
So, tangent aside, I am looking at kegging but am not into spending a lot of money and also want more control of it as a homebrewer rather than buying a kegerator and then having to convert it anyway for homebrew.
I am looking at Keg Connection and Kegerator.com (better price for the dual-guage regulator) for the best prices, but does anyone know of better places? I also would like to know if there are sites where they charge less than 65 for a 5-gallon CO2 tank seeing as how I will probably have to exchange it anyway.
I was looking at the 7.1 Igloo Chest Freezer from Best Buy http://www.bestbuy.com/site/igloo-7-1-cu-ft-chest-freezer-white/4584005.p?id=1219098811096
Does anyone have any experience with that model? If so, could I get 3 kegs into it with a collar? I would like four (well really six), but I don't want to take up much space. What should I consider between Pin (including the converted Ball-Locks) and Ball Lock kegs in terms of spacing?
Any other recommendations would be helpful. I feel if I don't start kegging, I will lose the joy of homebrewing, which was assured to me was more unacceptable than spilling beer all over the garage.