Show us your portable travel kegerator/cooler.

[CRZ]

^^^^ That's a nice setup!! How do you keep everything cold?

 

[limulus]

Monster Mash,
...when you go camping....? I assume it's beer camp

 

[Monster Mash]

We got a coldroom for free so we cut the walls up and made boxes out of it. Each cold box holds 5 kegs and we have 3 of them.

Here's another pic of the front.

 

[CRZ]

That's unreal, if you never posted pictures I wouldn't have believed you!

 

[Jaysus]

That's unreal, if you never posted pictures I wouldn't have believed you!

I still don't believe him

P.S. that thing needs it's own thread!

 

[user 103238]

Well, Monster Mash's post is a tough act to follow. But in the end mine happily served 3 gallons of beer to some great friends, so I'm not (too) ashamed of mine. I utilized the cup holder to hold the CO2 tank, and for now am satisfied using a picnic tap.

 

[limulus]

I still don't believe him

P.S. that thing needs it's own thread!

Yeah, and he's gonna be sorry he ever built that thing. Doesn't he know 13 is an unlucky number?

 

[Mirabotz]

Well, Monster Mash's post is a tough act to follow. But in the end mine happily served 3 gallons of beer to some great friends, so I'm not (too) ashamed of mine. I utilized the cup holder to hold the CO2 tank, and for now am satisfied using a picnic tap.

Sheeet! NEVER feel ashamed! n Just wish your paying job WAS brewing, or building such beauties as that!

I like your rig - it's compact and most importantly FUNctional!

The absolute WORST portabe setup I have EVER seen was the one I built due to an emergency for a New Years party...It was a standard pony keg bucket of ice holding 2 - 5 gallon cornies, wrapped in a wet towel to keep them cool in the bed of my pickup in Tampa, FL;

The Co2 was a 1 liter(?) paintball gun canister, rigged to a shortened piece of regular orange home depot type air compressor line so it would fit onto the single guage air compressor regulator that STARTED at 10 PSI, then fed to a corny pin lock line to the keg, and the 'tap' was a cobra type that originally was part of a college keg tap - the kind that pumps air (shudder) into the keg.

We managed to kill all 10 gallons, marveling at the result of sheer determination and ingenuity.
My brother-in-law's eyes widened in disbelief with every beer he poured, and he couldn't stop laughing with joy!

Screw MacGyver! I am MacKGuyBEER! We ALL are here it seems.

 

[JoeCap09]

Haha. Just loaded up the truck for my trash can kegerator's first use/ road trip. Hopefully I strapped it in good enough. We shall see!

 

[Mirabotz]

To COLLINH, it's a 3 gallon corny. I thought about converting it to fit a 5 gallon, but since I have two 3 gallon cronies and a 2 1/2 gallon Chinese one I figure why bother. It works great, Walmart sells the cooler for $30 and it needs next to no ice. I actually use keglove ice blankets which keep it ice cold all day long out in the heat. The other advantage is that it's a direct tap unit, there is no beer line to clean out the next day.

Hey Doc!
what sort of serving pressure does the direct tap need? does it seem to foam more or less than a regular longer lined setup?

And, what is the 'gallonage' of that cooler? Looks very clean, and neat! I like it a lot!

 

[DrHops]

Mirabotz, it only needs 2-3 psi to push the beer, and no, no more foam than a normal glass of beer. I love it, as a matter of fact I'm probably going to use it Christmas Eve in the backyard next to my hot tub, why bring a pitcher when you can bring 3 gallons!

 

[Gonefishin]

This is one I built. Ice and cornies go into the inner can w/ice. 5# CO2 tank goes in a corner between the inner can and the outer can. I insulated it with 650,000 packing peanuts recycled from work. It worked great, we ran out of beer days before the ice melted.

 

[Rcole]

Got the idea from BYO Dec. 2012 issue.

 

[heckels]

Copied from a guy on here. His was called the "chit wagon". I'll be putting in the second tap next summer.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

My old trashcan tapper isn't portable enough for my liking so I've been building a new system on a lightweight hand truck with stair rails from HD

I'll post some pictures when I get it finished up in the next few weeks.

I have a question though. Does anybody else have issues with excessive foaming when transporting kegs moderate distances? I've had a hell of a time with it. My typical usage is to arrive a half hour before serving time and be empty within 2 hours or so, only requiring a single bag of ice, so I don't have time to let it settle. I've been popping the pressure release often and only serving at 4psi but would like to know if there's a better solution out there...

 

[MannyZ]

Mischief, I think the pressure difference is your problem. Your beer is carbonated at a higher pressure right? Then you are lowering the pressure and agitating it (by running it thru the serving lines) causing the CO2 to come out of solution before it exits the tap.

I transport (as cold as possible) and once everything is in place I purge (since the pressure is now likely higher in the keg after transpo) and immediately hook up to my normal serving pressure (10 - 12 psi) With 10ft lines I have no issues.

 

[Rcole]

Sized for 2.5 or 3 gallon kegs. Build photos to follow.

 

[Rcole]

Build photos 1...

 

[Rcole]

Build photos 2...

 

[Rcole]

Build photos 3...

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

Finally finished this one enough to post it.

Made mostly from stuff I had laying around the garage.

Will utilize garbage bags for condensation in the box with the kegs and have had great results with just dropping a bag of ice down between all 4 kegs to keep them at a good serving temperature. It's not really built for anything more than about 5 hours of serving.

I wanted something that I could easily get into/out of my truck and up/down stairs and be completely self contained.

Not the prettiest pig at the fair but 100% functional and portable.

 

[AnOldUR]

Copied from a guy on here. His was called the "chit wagon". I'll be putting in the second tap next summer.

Copied from a guy who copied from a guy . . . :cross:

Holds two 2 1/2 gallon kegs and a 22oz paint ball CO2 tank.

 

[Ralph1959]

Made this 2-keg rolling bar for camping and parties on the deck. room for ice bags and 20 oz. paintball tank.

 

[Rcole]

Made this 2-keg rolling bar for camping and parties on the deck. room for ice bags and 20 oz. paintball tank.

Very nice.

 

[Rcole]

 

[BigLuke]

These are all excellent ideas!

 

[beerlover77]

Resurrecting an old thread. Here is my Camping keg cooler/dispensor build
Made of 1-1/2" hard insulating foam. The gas hose pops outside to accomidate any sized gas tank and the picnic tap pokes through for dispensing. Inside there are gas and liquid QC's. All pieces are bonded together using PL300 and all seams are sealed with silicone inside and out. There is a simple spigot poking thru the bottom for when ice melts and water has to be emptied.

The outside still needs to be painted

 

[beer_gig]

Here is our "flavor" of portable beer on tap...all stainless steel faucets (Perlick), stainless steel keg growlers, built-in lift, lighting, self-cooled, foldable tower, self-powered battery pack, built-in temperature regulator, all tig welded aluminum, powder coated and bedlined and dual regulators for multi-beverage capability - beer, wine, mixed drinks, etc.....

https://www.thebeergig.com

 

[Duane Hallowell]

Figured it was time to finally become a member cause I've been reading a lot of the older posts on portable kegerators wanting to build one soon. This is very interesting does anyone else have any anything similar that I don't have to fill with ice every day?

 

[bleme]

A little off topic (maybe) but with all posts about beer line length, how long are the lines on these portables?

This depends. If I am serving something REALLY good, I could have 20-30 people in line....