I have been brewing now for about 5 years, only 5 gallon batches. I am interested in kegging some of the beer rather than bottles. Can anyone point me to information on what I need as far as equipment and knowledge? Are there advantages to a pre-built kegerator vs. a homemade one?
How to start kegging
- Thread starter Alphadawg
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Hi,
I built my kegator recently and found that the upside is that you can customize it the way you like.
as far as what type of equipment you need, go online to the following website and look into the kit they sell to build kegator. That will give a good start.
https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/Homebrew_Kegerator_Kits_s/493.htm
also, danby is a good brand of fridge for kegator as you can drill the top part.
have fun!
I built my kegator recently and found that the upside is that you can customize it the way you like.
as far as what type of equipment you need, go online to the following website and look into the kit they sell to build kegator. That will give a good start.
https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/Homebrew_Kegerator_Kits_s/493.htm
also, danby is a good brand of fridge for kegator as you can drill the top part.
have fun!
If you are handy, I say build. If you are like me, buy.
The link above is a pretty good place to start AFA equipment needed for whatever particular type of keg setup you opt to go with.
Other good resources:
How Many Kegs Per CO2 Cylinder (micromatic.com)
6 Common CO2 Questions Answered (kegerator.com)
Kegerator Info: Learn How to Get the Most From Your Kegerator
For any keg setup, you will always need these at bare minimum:
1) a corny keg (or a few)
- I went with ball lock, as they are taller and (slightly) slimmer cans than the pin locks. Plus they have a replaceable PRV on the lid.2) CO2 tank - a 5LB tank will be able to push 15-22 kegs before it needs to be refilled, a 10LB more like 31-44.
3) CO2 regulator - highly recommend the 2-guage model, one showing serving pressure, the other showing tank fill. 1/4 MFL output to connect duotight/EVA barrier lines (see below)
And these were my specific choices with regard to beer lines and keg connections:
4mm by 8mm EVABarrier Beer Tubing (williamsbrewing.com)
4) gas and beer lines - I use 4mm EVA barrier for both gas and beer, some use the 5mm lines for the gas side, but it doesn't really matter
5) gas (grey) and beer (black) quick-disconnects for each corny keg you run - I needed the 1/4" MFL versions because....
6) duotight connectors - these let you connect EVA barrier lines to 1/4" MFL (male flare) threaded connections
7) duotight beer gun - nicer than a picnic/cobra tap, and designed to use my lines out of the box
DuoTight Draft Beer Gun (williamsbrewing.com)
And finally....
8) a space where you can keep the keg chilled, whether it's a dorm fridge, chest freezer with a temp controller like an InkBird, or space in a spare garage fridge or similar that you may have about.
Other than the beer, what's listed above will get you started.
If you opt for a pre-built kegerator, a lot of the above decisions on taps/beer-gas lines/etc have been chosen for you.
If you have a cold box available that you can repurpose into a keezer or beer fridge, then you can explore the different faucets, shanks and the like to run the beer lines to the outside. This is where the DIY portion of our broadcast day begins.
For my part, I've been using the bottom shelf of a hand-me-down fridge as my serving space, with the duotight beer gun.
I scored a used 8 cu ft chest freezer this weekend which I'm going to convert into a proper 4-faucet keezer once I have all my ducks lined up.
Until then tho, it's no biggie to open the fridge to pull a pint
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