Building a Keggerator

Finished project. Just need to add a drip tray.

This fathers day I got to spend a bit of time with my dad building something great.  We built a keggerator.  It was a simple project in the end but non-the-less an important one.  Work has been crazy busy and I have not had time to see my dad or mom since our vacation in late May.  This is a project that we wanted to tackle well before Father's Day but it just kept getting pushed back.  My dad has always helped me build and fix stuff.  Him and my uncle just know how to do stuff without much instruction.  He looks at the pieces and we build.  This case was a bit different because I had watched 1,000 hours of YouTube video's on how to build this thing out.  Here is what we did and how I got my keggerator set up and ready for its first draft beer in my "brewery".

 Step One: Plan like crazy.  Look at your fridge.  Think of how you want it set up.  Determine if you want small kegs or typical 5G sized kegs. You will be doing this with a lot of unknowns but you should try to visualize exactly what you want.  Watching all of the YouTube videos will help you understand what is possible for your scenario

Step Two: Go to a good homebrew shop or online store that can supply you everything you need while walking you through what part does what.  In my case it was Country Wines in North Hills of Pittsburgh.  I said I have a standard fridge with a top freezer from the 90's and want to fit two kegs and a small CO2 tank so everything can be held inside the fridge.  They then went to the shelves and pulled everything out one by one telling me what the piece does and how to hook it up or put it together.

Step Three: Do a dry run of your system to get a feel for the space and how you might like it set up.  In my case I put both kegs and the CO2 tank in the fridge and tried to move my shelves around to squeeze out as much storage as possible.  I then figured out where the taps would go on the door and had a rough idea of where those would be placed.

Step Four: (Enter my dad)  I discuss my plan and he concludes that it should work out as I planned.  We measure the spot for the taps to go into the door.  I measured to make sure they fit within the one shelf of the fridge door while also being low enough that when I open the freezer the taps dont kick open and pour precious beer everywhere!  We mark the outside of the fridge with our marks for the hole saw.  We made the tap handles four inches apart.

Step Five:  Pre drill through the door to have a guide for your hole saw drill to do its thing.  Then drill the hole saw through the metal side of the fridge door.  Stop the drill and remove the circle of metal.  Continue drilling through to to the other side. Most fridges are not going to have anything in the door other than metal, plastic and foam.

Step Six:  Put a small piece of wood on the inside of the door to distribute the pressure from the hex nuts.  We held up the piece of wood after cutting it to size against the inside of the fridge.  My dad then did a quick drill to mark where the hole saw needed to go through the wood.  Finish drilling with the hole saw.

Step Seven:  Insert the tap shank into the hole and the wood. Put the hex nut on the wood side and then screw on the taps.  Tighten until the taps arent spinning around and you are not flexing the plastic too much.  Snug.  Not death grip.

Step Eight:  Hook everything up. Hook up all of your hoses as outlined by your LHBS.  Use hose clamps on all ends.  Hook up regulator to the CO2 tank.  Hook the beverage tubing up to the tap shanks and the kegs.  Hook everything up. All of it!

Step Nine:  Once you have everything hooked up you should run cleaner through your system.  I had my kegs pre-filled with cleaner solution.  So once everything was hooked up we tested the gas.  Turned everything on.  Tested the pressure.  Put water and soapy solution over all of the placed gas could leak to test for any small leaks.  Test the lids.  I had my lid off center ever so slightly and a nasty hiss kicked in sa soon as the gas was turned on.  Turn of the gas and try, try again.  Once you have a leak free system have 4lbs of CO2 on the water and cleaning solution and let it flow.  Pull the taps forward and run all of the solution through the keg or kegs.  Rinse with water and repeat.  Finally.  Sanitize.  Now you are at the best step.

Step Ten:  Put homebrew in the keg.  Hook it all up and set your regulator to your desired PSI.  (I have not even done this part yet so I wont pretend to know for sure).  I am going to sue this site and calculator to start and see how it goes with my system and particular setup:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator/

Wait 7-10 days.  Try the beer.  Hopefully enjoy!

So that's it.  It only took about 1.5 hours for me and my dad to get it set up and the first two kegs cleaned and run through the system.

Once I get some time to finish kegging my beer I plan to do that while bottling a few for long term aging.

Hopefully you see a post on that within the next ten days.

Cheers.