build a kegerator

Looks like the kegerator will hold four 5 gallon cornelius kegs.

I think I’m technically done with this, but it’s not /as/ done as I’d like it to be. What is the definition of a kegerator? Something that uses refrigeration from which you can dispense cold draft beer. Right now, I have that. Last friday, I kegged and force-carbonated an IPA that had been dry-hopping for over two months. I can go out into the garage right now and pour a glass of chilled ale. That’s great, but I want to be able to pull down a tap on the wet bar in my living room. Right now, I have to open the lid on the deep freeze and dispense from a picnic tap. I think I’m going to leave this marked as undone until I realize my final goal of making an air-chilled run from the kegerfreezerater through the wall and up into a two-tap tower on the wet bar.

Kegconnection.com had a “Cyber Monday Sale” where they were blowing out cornelius kegs for a really good price. I bought three of those and a kegging starter kit that included a 5# CO2 tank, regulator, hoses, and picnic tap. As soon as it arrives, I can keg my IPA that’s been dry-hopping for two months.

I ended up replacing the bad relay… didn’t want to take any chances with potentially starting fires. I’ve also rigged up an external temperature control, which seems to be doing a good job of keeping the temperature at 35F. Before I start using it as a kegerator (which means buying more stuff anyway), I’m going to use the temperature-controlled environment to brew a batch of lager.

This weekend, I acquired a free chest freezer that someone was giving away on craigslist. The compressor relay is bad, but it still gets cold when you wire the motor directly. I don’t know if I’m going to replace the relay or not. I can just wire it up and hook it up to an external temperature control like I was going to, anyway.

I’m sick of sanitizing and filling bottles. It’s time to start kegging my homebrew. I have the perfect setup in my living room, too. The wet bar is right against a wall that’s shared with the garage. I figure I can have a deep freeze on a controller, run the lines through the wall, then have the tower and faucets on the non-sink side of wet bar. If I’m feeling fancy, I might even add a glycol recirculation system to keep the lines cool (but I doubt they’ll need it).

I just added a kegerator to my basement bar

more pics of the beer tap and kegerator and how i did it here

so far, it is awesome.
nothing tastes better than a beer out of your own wall.

and once you get all the parts, it takes about an hour to put together.

well worth building one of these if you have alittle time and a keg ready you will never have to worry about stainding in lines just for that six pack again

How long will all of this building take me and how much are supplies??

This is a totally cool project – I just finished mine on Friday, got the keg that night, and… well, after that I don’t remember too much! Totally a budget way of having a party and drinking beer. Average cost is probably half of a can or bottle, even if you buy the cheap nasty beer (ahem Coors, Bud ahem). Steps:

1) Buy an old fridge – preferably something that won’t completely annihalate the ozone. I got mine at a yard sale.
2) Buy kit (Tor wrote out the components below – regulator, CO2 tank, lines, cleaning stuff, coupler, etc). I got mine online but I was told you can buy locally as well.
3) Make the kegerator – this is the only tricky part. There’s some decent instruction online, ie Wikipedia instructions or this kegerator instructional video
4) You’ll need some good tools – go to Home Depot etc and make sure you have a quality drill bit.
5) Enjoy the cold draft beer!! If you need help with your project just reply, I am the kegerator master now :) :)

(Pic is of my kegerator right after construction)