AngryTurk
Member
This is my first contribution after having learned so much from all of you. I am going to document my piece-meal conversion of an old used fridge into a shiny new kegerator. Why did I chose to convert a fridge and not a chest freezer you ask? Well, I see that many people in fact use chest freezers (keezers) for this, but
OK, so the fridge is truly a piece of junk, but it works. It's in my basement, where I plan to keep it. It's in a room that few guests will visit so I plan to make this project more utilitarian versus the WHAM-BAM sweet gitup. But... being the only family member that is in proud possession of a Y chromosome, I am sure it will be hard for me to NOT tweak it up at least a little.
So here's what I'm working with...
As you can see, it holds 6 kegs nicely, which is ANOTHER bonus over a keezer (unless you want to blow in excess of $500 for a new bigger one).
So... the plan... 6 kegs, 6 taps on the door. Modify the inside to stagger the front and back rows a little. Keep the freezer working and use it perhaps to store glasses for serving. Single CO2 tank stays outside the fridge, with a 6 way distributor on the inside. Make the front facade presentable, and perhaps get it to a point where I (more importantly my dear wife) won't mind having it someplace in the house that guests CAN see. I like shiny... Maybe something shiny on the outside...
Now... during my initial research into converting a fridge to a keg serving machine of pleasure, I found one piece of information to be lacking. I noticed that when it came to serving beer, I couldn't get much useful information on the choice of faucets, except the obvious recommendation to avoid the cheap ones. Ummm duh! I don't make cheap beer, so I won't buy a cheap anything... Inexpensive... YES... cheap... NO!
Anyway, I found that everyone has strong opinions about one faucet over another (typically the Perlick), but I haven't found any reliable information from anyone that's tested more than the one they claim is the best... So I decided that I will be the community guinea pig and order a number of different faucets and let you all know what I think of each. Feel free to bang away with questions regarding performance, price, look, flow, taste, magnetic resonance, etc... Yes... I am putting my time and wallet on the line, just for you... all of you, because that is the kind of selfless and modest man that I am! When I'm done, I'll eBay the ones I don't want (or sell them to my fellow brewophiles here). Hell, maybe I'll just keep them all hooked up and use them all anyway. Who knows what we'll all learn!
Stay tuned for my shopping list that will get this ball rolling...
- loading/unloading a chest freezer with 50lb kegs is not the easiest thing in the world for my minions... errrr... kids, who aren't strong or tall enough yet,
- you have to use a temp controller to maintain serving temperatures that a fridge handles normally. I'll spend that $70 on a cool brewery sign instead!
- quite often the design of the keezer (with the tower on top) requires that you move the full unit away from a wall in order to access the kegs inside. Sure you can put it on casters, but that's more work and less time to drink my creations. Plus it's a wee bit heavy for the aforementioned minions.
- but MOST IMPORTANTLY, the people from whom I bought my house left me a old beat up POS fridge for free! :rockin: No matter how you look at it, free beats Craigslist ANY DAY!
OK, so the fridge is truly a piece of junk, but it works. It's in my basement, where I plan to keep it. It's in a room that few guests will visit so I plan to make this project more utilitarian versus the WHAM-BAM sweet gitup. But... being the only family member that is in proud possession of a Y chromosome, I am sure it will be hard for me to NOT tweak it up at least a little.
So here's what I'm working with...
As you can see, it holds 6 kegs nicely, which is ANOTHER bonus over a keezer (unless you want to blow in excess of $500 for a new bigger one).
So... the plan... 6 kegs, 6 taps on the door. Modify the inside to stagger the front and back rows a little. Keep the freezer working and use it perhaps to store glasses for serving. Single CO2 tank stays outside the fridge, with a 6 way distributor on the inside. Make the front facade presentable, and perhaps get it to a point where I (more importantly my dear wife) won't mind having it someplace in the house that guests CAN see. I like shiny... Maybe something shiny on the outside...
Now... during my initial research into converting a fridge to a keg serving machine of pleasure, I found one piece of information to be lacking. I noticed that when it came to serving beer, I couldn't get much useful information on the choice of faucets, except the obvious recommendation to avoid the cheap ones. Ummm duh! I don't make cheap beer, so I won't buy a cheap anything... Inexpensive... YES... cheap... NO!
Anyway, I found that everyone has strong opinions about one faucet over another (typically the Perlick), but I haven't found any reliable information from anyone that's tested more than the one they claim is the best... So I decided that I will be the community guinea pig and order a number of different faucets and let you all know what I think of each. Feel free to bang away with questions regarding performance, price, look, flow, taste, magnetic resonance, etc... Yes... I am putting my time and wallet on the line, just for you... all of you, because that is the kind of selfless and modest man that I am! When I'm done, I'll eBay the ones I don't want (or sell them to my fellow brewophiles here). Hell, maybe I'll just keep them all hooked up and use them all anyway. Who knows what we'll all learn!
Stay tuned for my shopping list that will get this ball rolling...