Kegerators

[2Legit2Quit]

Anyone on here run a kegerator at home? Pros/cons? Other than the obvious of always having beer on tap and whatever maintenance is required.

Have always wanted one and tooling around the idea of incorporating one into my basement bar table top. Have googled general info but figured I'd check for owners insight on here

Thanks

[ExtraSlow]

If you entertain its nice to get the double tap/double size so you can have either two varieties for yir guests, or a second keg chilled and ready to go when keg#1 runs out. Probably overkill for personal use, although awesome overkill.

Check into a supply of co2/bevgas too.

Looking forward to this discussion. I've been trying to convince my brother to get one for his cabin.

[ThePenIsMightier]

I had an acquaintance who custom altered an old fridge to hold a keg and the tap came right out the front of the door. It was pretty cool. Plus, it was an old bawllz, FuckGreta fridge that kept that shit ice-chip cold.
I'd recommend that as an option.

[Darell_n]

I built a full-sized Kegerator with a second hand fridge using a commercial regulator and beer gas. At one point we had our rental house basement standup shower lined with styrofoam panels and filled with free ice from our wholesale supplier to chill up to 7 kegs. I'm surprised we all survived those years as we use to cart it around to various house parties. Big fancy handle on the outside door with a wall-mount ashtray to hold the mugs.

[jacky4566]

I have a full size Kegerator and it was fine for a year or so but really becomes a PITA after a while. Getting gas and organizing pickups for kegs. Plus it uses a ton of space and for the craft stuff you gotta drink it all in a few months.

What i would suggest now is getting a TrailKeg, They come in 64 and 128oz sizes and its really nice.
You can have a few different beers on tap without buying a while keg but the 128 doesnt feel small like the glass growlers do when you start sharing.
They use the standard CO2 which you can buy in packs of 100 for a lifetime supply.

https://www.amazon.ca/TrailKeg-128oz...6714052&sr=8-2

If you do get full size Kegerator. I recommend you buy your CO2 bottle from "The Vineyard" on macloed, they are assholes and will only do full bottle swaps if you buy into thier swap program.
You can bring your own bottle to be filled but it takes 2 days and they only do it on fridays. The swap program is the way to go.

[ercchry]

The vineyard gave me a card to their supplier last time I was there... there is a few places that do “keg grade” CO2 fills... mostly anywhere that does fire extinguishers

As for running a keg, I usually now only do it for parties. 20L are borderline manageable day to day but after the 3rd or 4th time of having to kill a 30L it feels like too much of a chore. I just don’t drink that much beer. When I was younger and had some roommates it was still a PITA.

Now it’s just a keg a year or so. Clean the lines before hand, piss around for a day dialling pressure and off ya go... then a 20L dies an hour into the party

[killramos]

I feel like having a built in tap just for parties is a waste. I like draft beer as much as the next guy but no way I could drink a keg on my own Quickly enough without getting unbelievably fat or it going bad.

[2Legit2Quit]

I'm personally interested in something more pony keg oriented. Not so much for parties but general drinking and ability to fill up my own growlers to take with me elsewhere.

A nice built in kegerator unit in my house would look really good but I've been thinking that I could just turn an old full size freezer that we barely use into a keezer.

[spike98]

I have a store bought then upgraded unit and am currently constructing a newer unit. Most of the complaints are real that said, if you do it right, its pretty awesome.

My advice would be to build one into a fridge you can use for other things. Lots of people have a garage fridge these days that aren't really utilized fully. Use that. Saves space with getting a whole separate unit. I stick to the 30L kegs as i would never drink it fast to warrant the full keg. It will last at least 2 months and it goes quick if you have a couple buddies over every other weekend. I put a beer mug on top of mine and seeded it with a few $10 bills and people always feel obligated to pitch in a few bucks when drinking from the keg. Ill also let buddies fill a growler if they like for a bit of cash too. In the summer months, ill burn through a 30L in 3 weeks and i dont drink most of it.

Learning the science will help a lot and save waste. Most people don't understand the impact of the various parameters and complain that it foams to much or doesn't poor fast enough. Of course its more effort, but the payoff is amazing draft beer all the time. Certainly worth it to me.

[ExtraSlow]

Being the local growler fill spot would be awesome. Get dual taps, and have one lager and one more exciting beer. Have a mentioned Dual taps are better? I also like the idea of just using a real fridge so you have room for canned beer, briskets etc.

[spike98]

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Being the local growler fill spot would be awesome. Get dual taps, and have one lager and one more exciting beer. Have a mentioned Dual taps are better? I also like the idea of just using a real fridge so you have room for canned beer, briskets etc.

Dual taps are great if you have room. A normal full size fridge should fit two 30L with a few other shelves to spare after removing the Crisper's. Also the door is a great place for cold beer glasses.

Lots of guys go the chest freezer route but i find that it takes up too much real estate. That said, you can few a 3-4 full 50L in a chest freezer and run multiple taps. Then you can do cool stuff like root beer or raddlers. You can even get wine kegs too (though the quality isn't top tier).

I also have a insulated growler myself so i dont have to go to the garage after every pour. Also great for taking one to a friends house as well so you aren't still buying beer.

[2Legit2Quit]

I think I'm going to go with using my barely used deep freeze and buy this kit

https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/Dual...picnic-kit.htm

not glamorous but will do the trick and cost effective for the sake we've been thinking about just unplugging the deep freeze on account of giving it little use.

Reached out to a buddy who home brews and has this setup for himself, put me on the path of looking at these dispensing kits



Again, basic but does the trick.

[Thaco]

I second the trailkegs, you can even get one with a remote tap so it looks like you have kegs, (I have the growlerwerks ukeg but i would prefer to not have to fuck around with the little air canisters, so i like the trailkeg)

That way you also don't have to worry about it going bad because it's smaller quantities.

[spike98]

You want at least 10ft of beer line to help with CO2 breakout. Those picnic style faucets suck. Get a proper faucet, one with flow control would be best.D type couplers are used domestically yes, but i also have an A type for import beers (wife likes kronenbourg). I have used it a few times. Something to think about just in case.

If you are converting a freezer, youll need an inkbird digital temp controller (or similar). The onboard thermostat wont control the temp ideally. Amazon has them for cheap. I have this one

Buying the parts separately will end up being cheaper but with better quality parts.

[TurboMedic]

I used to have a chest freezer keezer with 3 taps, I sold that and changed my system and bought a side by side fridge and have it converted into a Keezer/fermentation chamber combo running on dual STC1000 controllers, 4 taps in the freezer door. I'd put up a pic but its plain at the moment, so maybe this summer when I paint and finish it.

I brew my own so thats the reason for my capacity, I have my hockey buds over and it doesn't take long to crush a bunch of beer. The 4 taps is nice for just having different styles on tap to appeal to everyone and to experiment with everything. Currently I have an Isolation Red (literally all of my left over brewing ingredients from the years, topped with 2 row, old found yeast, and old hops, no measurements or proportions, just added it all) which turned out amazing, a black IPA, a belgian blonde single, and a maris otter/galaxy SMaSH. I don't think I drink any more than anyone else despite the convenience. I also find that if treated right and transferred right (I do pressure fermentations for most) I have beers that package and last long due to the no oxygen exposure. I just finished a raspberry Kolsch I had pacakaged last summer and it was as fresh and bright as the month I had it kegged.

If anyone every has any questions about brewing, about kegging, and about building and hacking kegerators/keezers, just PM me I'm happy to help!

[ercchry]

I think if you brew your own you can get away with much longer time tapped... but the issue with store bought is that stuff can sit around for a while before it ends up in your hands... even the local breweries, last keg I got was from born Colorado and it was already 3 months in the keg before I got it home

[2Legit2Quit]

My setup is supposed to be delivered this week, and of course the vineyard is out of stock on CO2 tanks, apparently won't be ordering any until next month maybe so that's no bueno for me.

Any recommendations for where to buy a tank/get it filled locally? Regretting not ordering the tank with my order but at the time vineyards website showed the 10 lb tanks as in stock, figured it would be something they regularly had available.

[goldfish168]

I've had CO2 refilled here, they were great and did it right away with decent pricing:
https://www.partyrentaldepot.com/ren...ergas-filling/

They have tanks too:
https://www.partyrentaldepot.com/pro...bar-equipment/

Seems like they're closed currently but maybe you can make arrangements for pickup still?

[ercchry]

Pretty much all of the fire extinguishers recertification places also can fill and have tanks

[spike98]

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Pretty much all of the fire extinguishers recertification places also can fill and have tanks

As long as its food grade. Else you can end up with trace amounts of lube oil from the compressor.