The gift of a kegerator

So a family friend will be getting rid of a perfectly functioning fridge soon. I joked with my father about how I'll turn it into a keg fridge just for him. A few local micros will sell to the general public in cornies, not to mention I can drop off homebrew by the keg instead of the standard "Got a growler for me" greeting I've been getting lately. Enough backstory.

The question is that is this an intimidating gesture? I know to many homebrewers we've got the setup and it's near second nature by now. I ask this in the general section to also appeal to the non-kegging crew. Those wine and mead makers I adore and applaud attention to detail but have little interest in homebrew beer and have no need for it. The people who for some reason don't do any homebrewing but enjoy our company anyway.

As far as it goes it would be a regular kitchen fridge with either a single or dual pass-through tap on the door. Likely in the basement where the rest of the beer is stored. Nothing terribly fancy required. Pure function.

It's easy enough to just toss the burden of keg swapping onto my shoulders, but that would be a crap gift. "Here's something you can't maintain," and therein lies the problem. My father is mechanically inclined and I have little doubt he could handle a could of quick connects or the occasional line flush. Burden of needing to head out and get a co2 fill vs the awesome-ness of (him) being able to buy some amazing craft beer for $1.50 a pint. Of course I'd probably be keeping at least one of those taps full of brew, but what can I say? Some people enjoy the brewing more than they have the capability to drink.

So where do you stand on the subject? Should I get the "free" fridge and get my father a conversion kit for Christmas? Or should I keep thinking about other ideas and run over the growlers when I visit?

 

I'd say go for it. 1-2 taps is pretty easy to maintain. I'd thought about doing something similar for my father, but he's 150 miles away, so keeping full cornies proves troublesome.

 

If you're willing to put it together and show him how it works, then let HIM decide if it's something he'd like to deal with later. I'm sure WE can't answer for him.

 

I'd be plenty willing to do the legwork to get the system up and running. An afternoon of using power tools and my mechanical inclination? Yes please. The problem is that if this gift is to go through I'd like it to be a half-arsed surprise. Asking him straight up "If I get you the stuff to have a kegerator in your basement you think you could handle it?" ruins that just a bit. But it is a perfectly valid question given the investment required.

I suppose I could have asked the question "If you had no idea how a kegerator works, would you be overwhelmed by receiving one as a gift?"

 

I think it would definitely be a good idea. Not sure how old he is, but it is definitely something fun to learn about. When I got my kegerator I was scared because I had no idea about anything but ended up loving to learn about how it functioned.