CNYBrew.com

As I mentioned in a previous post, Santa came early for me.  In early December my wife had me pick up my 8.8 cubic foot Frigidaire chest freezer from Olum’s.  This got me started on my quest to build a proper kegerator, something I’ve been dreaming about for a while now.

One thing to note is that while I did buy a lot of new parts, I had a 20lb CO2 tank and most of my ball valves already from my previous kegerator.  Here is a quick overview of my costs:

• Freezer – $220
• 4way manifold (also prevents backflow) $61
• Refrigerator Thermostat $58
• 4 Perlick taps (used on ebay) $113
• 4  four inch shanks with barbs attached $58
• 13″ Drip tray $50
• Odds and ends hoses $35
• two ball locks (remember, I already had 3 beers on tap so I had some parts)
• Mat for the floor of the freezer $9

For anyone familiar with kegging and beer flow, I used 3/16 hose at 5″ for each tap to minimize foamy beer.  Here is how I came up with this:

1. Beer line temp: 38-40f
2. Keg pressure (psi): 12-15
3. volumes of CO2: 2-3 on most beers
4. beer line ID: 3/16
5. Rise to tap: 1′
6. beer line temp: cold

Here is how it works out: 5 ‘ Length = 12psi(1′rise x.5)-1)/R (line resistance)=2

I know it’s a little confusing, but if you Google line resistance/ beer line length, there are a lot of great resources.  Every situation is unique so I don’t want anyone to think they should just copy what I’m doing.

To finish the whole thing off I painted it with white extra-glossy indoor/outdoor paint.  I had considered finishing the wood and doing some fancy stuff, but at the end of the day, it was a few weeks worth of work already and I didn’t feel that the extra effort was going to increase my satisfaction with the whole thing.  The extra glossy is a must because beer WILL SPILL and you want a slick surface.

If you add in wood and about a million trips to the hardware store, I had close to $600 wrapped up into this project (including the $220 for the freezer).  But, in the end, I have this:

And here is the video on how it all came together.