My Kegerator Project….

I think there comes a point in every homebrewers life when you think, “God Damn but bottling sucks”
It takes a looong time to clean, sanitize and fill upwards on 2 cases per batch of beer you make. If only there were some way to make this easier.

And then like manna from the heavens you see draft systemns, kegerators, keezers, cold boxes….whatever you call them, but now they are everywhere. Like the cartoon hungry wolf who sees everything as a steak, now no matter where you look, faucets are appearing. In mail boxes, on cars. It’s a sign, you can’t ignore it anymore, you have to start kegging.

But holy crap, fridges are expensive…..or so you thought.
Dear Craigslist,
I love you, you’re awesome. Thanks for the fridge
Gavin

And then it begins. I got a fridge from craigslist… cost $0. It’s an older model, side by side, and needed some cleaning, but for that price, you don’t mind it.

Start with this…..

Old and busted Fridge

First thing you need to do is clean that bad boy. It’s not new, and it wasn’t yours, so you get out the bleach, the oxyclean (rip Billy Mays!!!) and the elbow grease and you clean that thing until it’s like new.

And now you are left with this doorless looking thing…

Doorless wonder

Now we transition this monstrosity from “fridge” to “Kegerator” (note the use of capital letters, because a fridge is just a fridge, the Kegerator is much more than that, therefore that K gets to stand upright)

First you need to tape off the doors and sand them gently, clean all the loose debris from the doors. Spray your undercoat (or paint, I used spray for the primer and the finish here since it wasn’t a huge area to cover).
Let it dry, spray again.

Now your door looks like this…

Doors were cleaned, sanded and primed

Next it’s on to the top coat. For this I’m using chalkboard paint. I’m doing this for 2 reasons.
1. I’m going to be brewing different beers, so I can just write above the tap what’s in each keg.
2. It’s common in brewpubs to have your beers listed on a chalkboard, so why not

Here is what the taped and coated door looks like…

I applied 3 coats of chalkboard paint to the doors

Next step is to remount the doors onto the Kegerator…

Chalkboard paint applied and doors back on the fridge

The Kegs and fittings have arrived. After doing some measuring, I can get a couple of five gallon kegs and a 5 lb Co2 tank in the bottom. Whats even better is I can get, when the time to expand comes, 2 more kegs on top. I will have to make a more sturdy shelf to set them on that the ones that come on the fridge, but that’s a ways away yet.

Kegs fitted in place…

Measuring the inside of the fridge for space

And now the final piece, and the most important piece. The faucets.
I drilled the holes with a 1″ hole saw (you can use a 7/8″ also, whatever you have) and spaced them about a fist width apart. There are several type of faucets you can use, I’m using Perlick 525’s because they are forward lean no drip faucets…..and they were on special. Which is a must if you are trying to build on a budget.

Faucets on the fridge….

Faucets on the Fridge

A close up of the faucets…

Close up of the Perlick 525s forward lean no-drip faucets

So, there was only one thing left to do (well, two, I still have to install a drip tray), test the chalkboard paint to see if it actually works.
You will have to forgive my terrible writing, it is absolutely brutal, but it was only to test the actual paint. I’m sure it will be elegant and awesome soon.

I’ve installed a bottle opener on the other side of the fridge as that door looked lonely.

Last photo, I promise….

Testing the chalkboard paint

And that’s all there is to it… Easy right?