Generik's Tap: Project Kegerator

Project Kegerator: Mission Accomplished

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:55:13 GMT

The kegerator is officially built and pouring beer! Saturday afternoon Josh came over and helped me with the finishing touches. Mainly cutting the hole through the top of the fridge and mounting the tap tower. Everything went pretty smooth for the most part. The only real snag was the hole saw I had was either not sharp enough to cut through the metal skin of the fridge, or was just designed to cut wood. Basically I ground the teeth down trying to cut the hole. Wound up having to drill about 30 holes in the groove the hole saw made, and then took the Dremel and finished it off. That was a bit rough looking but we ground down the rough edges and in no time it was done.

In celebration, Josh brought over a bottle of Avery The Beast. A Grand Cru weighing in at a whopping 18%. Thankfully we waited until the cutting was done to pop that open or it could have been a disaster. After that tasty beverage, we mounted the tower and officially tapped the keg. Just a bit foamy at first, but being poured into a pitcher allowed it to settle down nicely. I think we drank 3 pitchers and I made Josh and myself a Manhattan. Very good day to say the least and a big thanks to Josh for the help! Check out the finished product:

Project Kegerator: Back on Track

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:40:53 GMT

Forces aligned against Project Kegerator have been beaten back and beer is now carbonating in a keg! I mentioned in a previous post that all the equipment I had ordered was taking it's sweet time to get to me. Well this week that all came to a head when I called the vendor and was told that at best my order wouldn't ship until the end of this week, which I guess would be today. Let me take a moment to mention again that I placed the order on March 16th and received an email stating my order should ship within 3 business days. Kegkits.com must be doing business on another planet that has much longer days then we are used to or they don't know how to count to 3. So I canceled my order right then and there as in my mind I had been beyond generous with my patience.

So Wednesday night I went to Great Fermentations and picked up all the equipment I had ordered as well as a couple of minor upgrades. I paid more but walked out with everything in hand. On top of that Anita Johnson, the owner of Great Fermentations, spent a lot of time showing me how to use this new equipment and giving me advice on how to keep it all maintained and running good. So in the end, money well spent when the training is factored in.

So what all did I wind up with you ask?

What we got there is two 5 gallon soda kegs, one 5 pound CO2 tank, 1 dual tap tower and then all the hosing and quick disconnects you could possibly want to run two kegs simultaneously. I mentioned upgrades above and they are Perlick faucets, which are forward sealing taps. Meaning when you shut the tap off, it seals very close to the actual opening and prevents that from getting nasty if you don't pour a beer for a few days. The other upgrade was a better gas line splitter that will allow me to better maintain different PSI levels in each keg. After some quick sanitizing of one of the kegs, I filled one with my Amarillo Wit. This was a kit I picked up at Great Fermentations called "Witless in Indianapolis" and I added a dosing of Amarillo hops to it to give it a kick. So how easy is it to fill a keg?

And finally, this is what everything looks like nearly put together. Kegs and CO2 tank all fit nice and snug in the fridge with enough room for tubing and such. The dual tap tower has not been installed yet. So there is still a chance for a disaster in this project when it comes time to cut through the top of the fridge to run the tap lines.

Oh yeah, since I was lazy and didn't give you guys an update, I will mention this now. In that last picture you can see the big modification that has been done so far to the fridge. The door used to have molded plastic shelves and a can caddy built in. That shelving unfortunately would have prevented the CO2 tank from fitting so it had to go. Underneath that rubber seal that goes all around the door is about 20 screws that held that entire panel to the door itself. I completely removed that, then busted out the Dremel for the first time and simply removed the entire middle section. You can actually see what I removed propped up against the fridge on the left side. What was left when I was done was a rectangular strip of plastic with the screw holes and the rubber seal. Before I remounted the seal, I took some black electrical tape and taped a large garbage bag to the door to cover the insulation that was now exposed and to give it a bit of a more finished look. Then just screwed the seal strip back to the door and voila, everything fits!

I did actually hook up the tap last night and poured the first pitcher.. and of course in my excitement didn't take a photo to commemorate the event. To do this required my wife to hold the tap tower while I poured, so maybe it is better to just wait for the official tapping pictures when everything is put together tomorrow. Draft homebrew.. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Project Kegerator - Phase 1

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:08:06 GMT

I have a not so well kept secret project currently starting up. To build my own kegerator for my homebrew and end the tyranny of cleaning and sanitizing countless bottles. Well last night was truly the initial salvo fired in this war as I ordered the bulk of the equipment to get me started in the ways of kegging my own beer. But there was one critical piece needed that the rest of this project was hinged on.. a refrigerator to convert to a kegerator. I am happy to announce that I can say Mission Accomplished in this vital area of the overall project.

Oh yeah, I went there, but unlike him.. it won't take me 1,778 days... and counting... to make it mean something.

Back on point, I purchased a Sanyo SR-4212M refrigerator. This unit is basically a counter-high refrigerator that with some fairly minor modification will house 2 kegs of homebrew and a 5lb tank of CO2 to keep it all happily pressurized and flowing through the dual tap tower which will be mounted up top. So without further ado.. I present the basically unmolested refrigerator so you can see the 'before' photos. With luck, by this time next week everyone will see the 'after' photos, and a few days after that will be photos of the ceremonial first tapping.

When this project is fully completed there will be a chrome tower on top with 2 taps and a stainless steel drip tray underneath them. It will, barring something catastrophic, look like it was purchased that way and cost hundreds less then purchasing a true kegerator, which would need modification to make it work for homebrew anyway.

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