I have been lurking on this forum a while and finally set up an account. Man is this place inspiring. I decided to build a keezer literally one week before Christmas. I wanted to serve Great Lakes Christmas Ale - a family favorite, and I have a fair amount of Great Lakes paraphernalia. But as this forum has shown me, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Also I wanted to be able to keg my homebrew, since I have found bottling to be a PITA. I decided to follow the collar instructions at Billy Brew since it looked like a project I could handle.
12/18: I ordered a black 8.8cft Kenmore Freezer from the local Sears hardware. I paid $329 and have since discovered that Sears and K-Mart charge different prices at every location, and you only have seven days to get an adjustment. This can be found for $299 at Super K. Second I placed an order at Keg Connection for the Four Faucet Fridge Kegerator Kit These guys rock and the prices seem great. Upgraded everything to stainless.
12/19: Sat on my hands. Browsed Forums.
12/20: After being inspired by you guys I decided I needed a stout faucet as well and would add Beer Gas on that tap later. Ordered it just for show. Also went to Home Depot for the collar bits and pieces.
Later that night a co-worker of SWMBO showed up to pick up some baby stuff for her grand kids. Her retired husband came as well, and told me that his job is now golf, and his hobby is woodworking. So I showed him the video on Billy Brew. He said "that's great, but do you want it to look like a piece of furniture?" Long story short he offered to do the facing and some trim work over the next two days as long as I built the inner collar.
12/21: Pick up freezer, cut the inner collar to dimensions, ship it off to the woodshop. Turns out the laser sight on my circular saw sucks.
12/22: Buy the keg of Christmas Ale, stash it in the Garage. Get the collar back and it is great. Added two space heaters and started sanding, drilling and staining. Turns out I can keep the area where I was woodworking at 55, so I was hopeful for the staining.
12/23: More staining, turns out 55 is not entirely warm enough to get penetration with Minwax.
12/24: More staining, find a great source for CO2 - ABC Fire - that is half the price of Airgas \ Praxair. (Thanks HBT!) Keg Connection order arrives! Ok, enough staining. Was supposed to be Red Mahogany but looks like Walnut. Start hitting it up with the spar urethane.
12/25: More sealing and start the assembly. Understood that I clearly missed something by ordering an array of primary regulators. I also had some bicycles to assemble and a flying angry bird blimp, so it was a race to the finish. But as Santa's deer landed on the roof I was able to pour him a pint of fresh beer!
12/18: I ordered a black 8.8cft Kenmore Freezer from the local Sears hardware. I paid $329 and have since discovered that Sears and K-Mart charge different prices at every location, and you only have seven days to get an adjustment. This can be found for $299 at Super K. Second I placed an order at Keg Connection for the Four Faucet Fridge Kegerator Kit These guys rock and the prices seem great. Upgraded everything to stainless.
12/19: Sat on my hands. Browsed Forums.
12/20: After being inspired by you guys I decided I needed a stout faucet as well and would add Beer Gas on that tap later. Ordered it just for show. Also went to Home Depot for the collar bits and pieces.
Later that night a co-worker of SWMBO showed up to pick up some baby stuff for her grand kids. Her retired husband came as well, and told me that his job is now golf, and his hobby is woodworking. So I showed him the video on Billy Brew. He said "that's great, but do you want it to look like a piece of furniture?" Long story short he offered to do the facing and some trim work over the next two days as long as I built the inner collar.
12/21: Pick up freezer, cut the inner collar to dimensions, ship it off to the woodshop. Turns out the laser sight on my circular saw sucks.
12/22: Buy the keg of Christmas Ale, stash it in the Garage. Get the collar back and it is great. Added two space heaters and started sanding, drilling and staining. Turns out I can keep the area where I was woodworking at 55, so I was hopeful for the staining.
12/23: More staining, turns out 55 is not entirely warm enough to get penetration with Minwax.
12/24: More staining, find a great source for CO2 - ABC Fire - that is half the price of Airgas \ Praxair. (Thanks HBT!) Keg Connection order arrives! Ok, enough staining. Was supposed to be Red Mahogany but looks like Walnut. Start hitting it up with the spar urethane.
12/25: More sealing and start the assembly. Understood that I clearly missed something by ordering an array of primary regulators. I also had some bicycles to assemble and a flying angry bird blimp, so it was a race to the finish. But as Santa's deer landed on the roof I was able to pour him a pint of fresh beer!
