The Kegerator



The kegerator is a Kenmore 4.9 cu ft. fridge converted to a 2 tap beer kegerator. Several modifications were required, the most scary of which was drilling a 3" hole in the top of the fridge. The kegerator will hold about 10 gallons of homebrew, serving from two seperate 5 gallon kegs. 10 gallons may sound like a lot, but is only about 4 cases of beer. OK, that is a lot. I never claimed I didn't have a problem!

Here is a tasty pint of Old Iron Beerworks' Amber Ale fresh off the tap! Note the rails along the top surface. These are actually cabinet drawer handles and were purchased online from Lee Valley Supplies.

To make room for 2 five gallon kegs, the interior door shelving had to be removed. A piece of dry erase board was installed in it's place and the rubber door was seal re-installed. The result is a professional and clean look. plus, I can make temporary notes if I needed.

In this image, only one keg is currently installed. When a second keg is added, the CO2 tank is moved to the shelf in the back. Both the CO2 shelf and the shelf that the kegs sit on were made from plywood and painted white.

When pouring the first beer of the evening (OK, some mornings too!) the glass would be 2/3's full of foam. The reason was that the beer lines in the tower were too warm, allowing the CO2 to come out of suspension. The solution was to cool the tower with air from the kegerator. Using a project box from Radio Shack, a computer cooling fan and some plastic 1 1/2 tubing I created a system for blowing cool air into the tower.

The beer lines from the kegs enter the cool air hose and are sealed with electrical tape to create an air tight seal. The cool air hose and beer lines enter the tower through the top of the kegerator

Cool air is blown up the plastic tube keeping the beer lines cool all the way to the taps. As you can see, there is room for the air to recircualte back down the tower and into the kegerator. This should also help circulate air in the kegerator, keeping the temprature difference between the top and bottom of the kegerator from being to different.

The cool air system works great. The first pour of beer pours as it should. The only drawback is that during the summer months the humidty causes condensation on the tower. I may look into insulating the tower to prevent this from happening.