jdoiv
Well-Known Member
So, I started kegging this year and it has probably been the best upgrade I've made since going AG. I started out by taking half of the fridge in the garage and squeezing a 5# CO2 tank and 2 kegs with Picnic taps into it. This proved to be be handy, but sorta messy. The picnic taps would occasionally leak or drip and the fridge started looking really bad. Also, I could only have 2 beers on tap at a time and if I wanted to try a new brew, I had to drink up 5 gallons of something to make room.
So, I decided I needed a better solution. At first I thought of going with the standard chest freezer solution. Only problem with this was for me to have the number of taps I would want and lagering space, I would need to get a beast of a chest freezer and that would eat up too much floor space. So after seeing a thread on here about a stand-up freezerless fridge that could hold 10 cornies, the gears in my head started turning. I started searching craigslist for a volunteer for my project.
As luck would have it, just before Christmas, I found a 20 cubic foot commercial stand-up freezer for sale just a couple of miles from my house. It was 2 years old and the seller was asking less than half of what a new one would cost. I already had a digital temp controller, so a freezer was fine. I picked it up and started the project.
Here is the volunteer.
I promptly pulled all of the shelves out and went to building a sturdy shelf that would hold 5 cornies on the top and I could squeeze 5 in the bottom. I bought a set of secondary regulators and pieces from McMaster and built up a six regulator bank to pressurize each serving keg plus a line to carbonate a keg on the bottom.
Finally, I ordered Ventmatic forward sealing faucets and shanks which arrived today. I got busy this afternoon and finished her off.
I mounted up a shelf that I purchased at Michaels and stained it. I took advantage of Austin Homebrews special on 19 inch drip trays and the package was complete. I also mounted the faucets rather high up, so if I decide to add another couple of taps I can mount them near the bottom or stagger them at the top. I figure it will also make it harder to accidently bump into one and open it if it is high up.
Anyway, I'm happy as a clam now that I can have 5 different refreshing beverages on tap just a few feet away out in the garage right in the middle of my brewery.
So, I decided I needed a better solution. At first I thought of going with the standard chest freezer solution. Only problem with this was for me to have the number of taps I would want and lagering space, I would need to get a beast of a chest freezer and that would eat up too much floor space. So after seeing a thread on here about a stand-up freezerless fridge that could hold 10 cornies, the gears in my head started turning. I started searching craigslist for a volunteer for my project.
As luck would have it, just before Christmas, I found a 20 cubic foot commercial stand-up freezer for sale just a couple of miles from my house. It was 2 years old and the seller was asking less than half of what a new one would cost. I already had a digital temp controller, so a freezer was fine. I picked it up and started the project.
Here is the volunteer.
I promptly pulled all of the shelves out and went to building a sturdy shelf that would hold 5 cornies on the top and I could squeeze 5 in the bottom. I bought a set of secondary regulators and pieces from McMaster and built up a six regulator bank to pressurize each serving keg plus a line to carbonate a keg on the bottom.
Finally, I ordered Ventmatic forward sealing faucets and shanks which arrived today. I got busy this afternoon and finished her off.
I mounted up a shelf that I purchased at Michaels and stained it. I took advantage of Austin Homebrews special on 19 inch drip trays and the package was complete. I also mounted the faucets rather high up, so if I decide to add another couple of taps I can mount them near the bottom or stagger them at the top. I figure it will also make it harder to accidently bump into one and open it if it is high up.
Anyway, I'm happy as a clam now that I can have 5 different refreshing beverages on tap just a few feet away out in the garage right in the middle of my brewery.
