Solutions to always have a beer on tap?

[fun4stuff]

You just buy an extra keg. Always have a batch fermenting. Transfer beer to keg when you’re 4 points from predicted FG (tilt hydrometer makes this easy) and using a spunding valve to set pressure to 30-40 psi (depending on room temp and targeted vol co2). Once a keg in your keezer kicks, the keg will be carbonated and ready to drink in 12-24 hrs once it chills.

I use a ball and keg temp controller to control fermentation temp because it’s the most cost efficient way of controlling fermentation temp currently. Takes up way less space than a fermentation fridge or keezer.

This combined with an anvil bucket fermenter allows for closed gravity transfers to keg. I keep hops for dry hopping suspending on roof of fermenter with magnets. Never have to open unless I’m adding fruit or more than 2 sets of dry hops.

 

[fun4stuff]

Decided to go the two mini-fridge route. One will be a fermenting fridge while the other will be a serving fridge for two kegs! That is if I don’t finish the first keg before the other brew is done fermenting!

anyways, any suggestions on how to get this bottle holder off without messing up the seal?? I was thinking to saw it off... what do you guys think??

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I started with these small minifridges too for fermenting and serving. Nothing wrong with doing that. The best way to get that plastic bottle holder off is to cut around the border of it with a razor utility knife taking care to leave enough of the plastic intact to preserve the gasket.

Keezers over complicate things and take up too much floor space. Easier and cheaper to come by an upright refrigerator and turn that into a kegerator. Then you don’t have to bother making a collar and trying to keep things air tight. Not to mention an upright fridge is more aesthetically pleasing and has a less “redneck look” than a keezer.

To make a kegerator out of an upright fridge, you just have to drill holes through the doors. No worries about building a collar.

https://imgur.com/gallery/bStb0as

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• fun4stuff
• Apr 2, 2020

Kegerator

 

[danielthemaniel]

My solution was to spend way too much time and money on this hobby. I have amassed 26 kegs. An 8 tap bottle cooler. A 4 tap kegerator. 2 fermentation chest freezers with inkbirds and brew belts. I brew 10 gallon batches every 2-3 weeks. Keeps me in stock pretty well.

 

[Kickass]

Easy! Rotate yeast and augment temp control with a strand of Xmas lights or an ice bath.

When it’s cold, brew lagers; use lights as needed.

When it temperate, warm ferment lagers, brew ales, and/or use kweik yeast; use lights and ice bath as needed.

When it’s warm, brew ales and/or use kweik yeast; use ice bath as needed.

It’s like you never had a problem in the first place!

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Make more, drink less.

 

[Redpappy]

Make more, drink less.

how do you drink less????

 

[Jonakr]

San Francisco, what's your average home temperature? In Tucson, I would ferment in a closet, 5 gallons at a time with a wrap and a couple of 1 gallon frozen ice blocks for years. That's at roughly 75 degrees home temperature.

I now have a freezer with Inkbird to ferment 12 gallons at a time, and a top-bottom fridge that can hold and serve 5 5 gallon kegs, with 4 on tap.

 

[brew703]

This is late to the party, but if I were considering an expensive Glycol chiller to remove the bottleneck, I'd be looking at making a keezer. If I were committed to spending Circa $700 on a chiller, I'd ask what other uses of that $700 would also solve the problem.

It sounds to me like you're just putting a keg in the refrigerator and using a picnic tap to serve. Nothing wrong with that, it's how I started. But a keezer would allow you to have several kegs on tap at one time, and if you build it properly, you could allow for expansion.

In my signature is a link to how to build a keezer with no glue--it's about as simple a way to build one as I know. You can decide how much capacity you want/need, from a 5.0 cubic foot freezer which will allow a couple kegs on tap, to a 16 cubic foot monster that....well, it's a lot.

My own is a 9 cubic foot freezer in which I can get as many as 7 kegs, though the normal number is 5 kegs on tap. My new one (moment of silence for my old freezer that gave its life that I could have beer on tap) has 5 taps, but you can start with fewer, make a mark on the collar so you can add faucets as you wish later.

A good standard is a 7.0 cu foot freezer. They cost in the low $200 range, but I have seen them on sale for as little as $169. The cost of a wood collar is probably $50 absolute max including foam tape; faucets plus shanks and connections will run roughly $60-100 apiece depending on quality (get stainless steel everything).

So, for $200 + $50 + $200 (2-3 faucets), you could have beer on tap in an appliance designed for that, leaving your refrigerator for fermentation.

A few pics of mine, plus my old one:

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This is how I built my keezer. Been using it for 2+ years now. I do want to refinish the collar at some point but the build itself is great plus no glue.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

how do you drink less????

I have absolutely no idea, man. It would be like trying to breathe less.

 

[dochawk]

*Long* term planning.

As in, when you buy your wife a refrigerator, think about her next one . . . and measure this one . . .

So my beer refrigerator was, from the moment she got it, *known* to fit 4 kegs in the refrigerator side and two more in the freezer side . . .

[ok, I'm still less than clear why I bought the knew *insanely* expensive 4 door that she wanted . . . maybe because my old fridge failed???]