Thoughts on a 4 Tap Kegerator?

[drgonzo2k2]

Well, I've reached that point in my home brew career where I've said to myself, "why in the world aren't your kegging yet?"

Also, SWMBO and I have ventured into brewing other things like home made soda, kombucha, etc., and I think it'd be neat to have a one stop beverage center in our house, with beer, soda, etc. on tap.

I've discussed it briefly with her, and she's not against the idea of having some sort of tap setup in our house as long as "it looks good." Since this will go in our dining room, after showing her a couple of pictures of keezers, I don't think she'll be agreeable to that.

My basic idea is that I'd like to have something that can hold 2 - 5 gallon kegs and 2 - 2 1/2 gallon kegs, all ball lock. 2 taps dedicated to beer and 2 dedicated to other stuff. I think at the bare minimum I need something with 18"L X 18"W X 24"H of usable space on the inside, and that's with keeping the tank and/or regulator on the outside. I figure if there's a hump in the back, that's not a big deal as I can just put the 2 1/2 gallon kegs there. From a cost perspective it looks like it will be cheaper to go with 2 - 2 tap towers as a single 4 tap tower, so I'm also looking with something you can pretty much cut freely into the top with no worries.

I actually have a Haier 42 bottle wine fridge that is just like 1" shy length and width of making this work, which is a real shame, but after looking it over it's just not going to work, unless I cut it down to a 3 tap system.

Looking for suggestions/thoughts about ways to tackle this, mainly around the base unit I should start with and what type of tower (or alternative) I can go with. I think I've got the taps, lines, regulators, etc. more or less sorted out. I'm sure I'll have some questions there, but right now I'm at a block on how to get started, so want to tackle that first.

 

[timcadieux]

Show her this..

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=349038

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Haha, well if I showed her that knowing my woodworking skills, it'd be the equivalent of showing her the Antarctic Blue Super Sports Wagon and then delivering her the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

A pretty basic keezer with collar I could manage, but that sort of thing, while I'm sure it would be acceptable, I couldn't manage, which is why I was looking more for a fridge that I could drill into and add a collar.

 

[aaronmq]

I was in the same boat as you man. I wanted a keezer in my house, but SWMBO said I could as long as it doesn't look like it belongs in a frat house. Here is my build, keep in mind chewing on the popsicle stick after I ate the popsicle was the extent of my wood working experience.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=528999

Mine turned out pretty good, despite my lack of skill and experience; don't think you can't make a nice keezer based on those same limitations.

 

[Yesfan]

If you go the chest freezer route, I'd see if you can mount the taps more to the left or right, instead of center, and have a trap door for easier access to the kegs.


My old keezer, I hated having to pull it out from the walls to keep the taps from banging the back wall when loading kegs, not to mention the weight of that thing when it was loaded down.

 

[Kalmah]

Here is a fairly simply keezer build I did. Just a small chest freezer with a 8 inch lumber collar and an oak board façade. It fits 3 kegs and a CO2 tank inside or 4 kegs with the tank outside. There are videos on youtube showing similar designs. It's nothing too fancy, but it looks decent enough for the wife to let me put it in the dining room

 

[dunbruha]

I use a bottom-freezer refrigerator. It is large enough to hold 4 Sanke sixtels (I only have two in there right now), so I am sure it would hold soda kegs as well.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Here is a fairly simply keezer build I did. Just a small chest freezer with a 8 inch lumber collar and an oak board façade. It fits 3 kegs and a CO2 tank inside or 4 kegs with the tank outside. There are videos on youtube showing similar designs. It's nothing too fancy, but it looks decent enough for the wife to let me put it in the dining room

Hey man, thanks for posting that picture! I was reading HBT and hanging out in the kitchen while my wife was doing some food prep last night, and she glanced over, saw that, and said, "see, something like that looks nice, why can't you do something like that?" :rockin::rockin::rockin:

Would you happen to have a link to a specific design you followed you can share?

The one thing that worries me about building such a thing is the miter cuts, but I suppose I could just rent the saw and finish it in a day, or since it's not that many cuts, just buy one of the miter boxes and do them by hand pretty easy, yeah?

 

[Kalmah]

Here's a couple links

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHWy_Vlw3J4[/ame]
http://homebrewacademy.com/how-to-build-a-keezer

You can get by using only lumber (no hardwood façade) and without doing 45 degree miter cuts, it's just a balance of time and cost and how nice you want it to look.