First, why might you want to build a kegerator? If you like beer, especially if you like brewing your own beer, then the logic behind a kegerator requires no explanation. However, if you are currently spending a small fortune on carbonated beverages in either can format or the ludicrously expensive Sodastream or other force carbonated home seltzer machines, then the economics behind a kegerator also probably make sense. As a home brewer, I had long coveted the ability to keg my beer thus negating the tedious task of bottling. Draft beer tastes better. My wife was less convinced of the imperative to sacrifice precious square footage in our Brooklyn apartment to an appliance dedicated solely to the consumption of beer. On demand seltzer, however, was something she could get on board with.
Fridge and Components
Step one in any kegerator project is, of course, finding your fridge. Now, I should mention that a common option among DIY kegerator projects is a “keezer” (chest freezer conversion). If space is not a limiting factor, I think a “keezer” makes a lot of sense. However, I needed to keep the footprint of this appliance as small as possible, so a more traditional kegerator style was on order. One could simply buy a commercially produced kegerator, but the fridge and components for your budget and mid-market units leave a lot to be desired, to say nothing of aesthetics. You need to be prepared to spend at least $1000 for something decent that will still look like, well, an appliance. We wanted something that would look nice in our living room, since that was the only logical space for the kegerator. I ended up spending $280 on the fridge and $450 on the components, so $730 all-in.
I really liked the looks of the Danby “retro” mini-fridges. I hunted around the internet to see if anyone else had previously converted one of these models to a kegerator, but couldn’t find any examples. My two principle concerns were: 1) could the interior fit two 5 gallon “corny” kegs (widely used in home brewing) and a 5lb CO2 tank and 2) the location of the refrigerant coils. You’re going to be drilling at least one hole in this thing and if you hit a refrigerant line your brand new fridge is toast. I wasn’t able to get very useful info from the available documentation on the fridge, but there are plenty of people that have converted similarly sized Danby fridges to kegerators so I figured I’d order it and, worst case scenario, return if it wasn’t going to work (before drilling any holes, of course).
I ordered my components from Adventures in Homebrewing. I went with a two-tap tower from Taprite, two Perlick 650SS faucets with flow control, a double gauge regulator, and all the tubing and connectors needed to dispense two kegs at different pressures (because beer is typically dispensed at 10-15psi whereas seltzer and soda are 25-30psi). I also ordered a new 5lb aluminum CO2 tank for $68. In retrospect, I should have saved $15 – $20 and purchased a used tank since you end up exchanging tanks, so there is no real reason to buy a brand new tank. Figuring out all the components and connectors was pretty time consuming, so hit me in the comments if you’re not sure what you need to put this together. I found it was a bit difficult to make sense of everything (lots of plumber jargon) initially, but the system is really quite simple despite the numerous options. I’m sure a home brew supply company would be happy to steer you in the right direction, but my system is probably representative of what most people will want. So… some quick FAQs about the components:
Do I want ball lock or pin lock kegs? You want ball lock. These are much more widely available. They are slightly different sizes, but the only meaningful difference (for most people) is the hardware needed to connect your dispensing line and your gas line to the keg. A pin lock connection won’t work on a ball lock and vice versa.
What hardware do I need to connect my kegs to my tap and gas supply? I think almost everyone uses MFL disconnects. You’ll get two ball lock disconnects for each of your kegs, one for gas and one for liquid. These pop on and off the keg’s gas (“in”) and liquid (“out”) posts. Super easy. I’m not sure why anyone would choose something else, at least that is planning on using corny kegs in their system. If you plan on tapping commercially bought beer kegs, you’ll need different hardware, although I believe there are simple ways to adapt your corny system to also connect to commercial kegs.
Those Perlick faucets are pricey. Do I really need to spend that kind of dough? I spent $140 on the two Perlick 650SS faucets with flow control. If you’re just planning on dispensing seltzer, you can probably stick with a basic tap and save a bunch of cash. My research suggests that most everyone that starts out with the cheap hardware for dispensing beer ends up upgrading because their taps inevitably get stuck. I also wanted the flow control because I read that without a tower cooling fan or similar device, foaming can be a problem, and flow control can help address that. I figured why not spend a bit more for that option instead of having to deal with rigging up a way to keep the tower cool. The basic problem, since you asked, is cold air sinks. This is a pressurized system so you’ll have beer in the beer lines in the tower and that beer is not going to be as cold as the beer in the keg “inside” the fridge. CO2 will come out of suspension as temperature increases, so foaming can be a “problem” for that first pour. I think many people just deal with a foamy first pour. Others rig up a tower fan to move colder air from the keg up into the tower. The option I chose was the flow control on the tap, so I can reduce the rate of flow and address foaming that way. It does work, albeit you’ll be dispensing beer more slowly than you would with a tower cooling fan, which is certainly a superior solution. With that said, a keezer negates this issue altogether, so if I were really concerned about being able to serve up copious quantities of beer at the perfect temperature, I would simply build a keezer.
What’s with all this PSI business? What do all those numbers and gauges mean? A regulator sounds complicated. It’s really not. The regulator connects to the CO2 tank. One gauge shows how much CO2 is left in the tank. The other gauge(s) show the outflow pressure to your keg. I wanted to be able to dispense kegs at different serving pressures, so I went with a dual gauge regulator. If you only plan on serving a single style of beer or just seltzer water or whatever, you don’t need a dual gauge regulator. But I think most people that like beer enough to make a kegerator are going to want more control.
The Build
Honestly, building this thing was pretty simple. I confirmed that there were no refrigerant lines in the top of the fridge (obvious just by looking inside the fridge in my case). The Danby fridge has a hard plastic cover over the top of the steel fridge “box.” The plastic has a raised edge, which is convenient for controlling spills. At some point, I could see replacing the plastic top with something like butcher block, which would look pretty awesome, but I didn’t see any reason to take that step now. I wanted to set my tower towards the back of the top, so I took some measurements to identify the location of my hole and marked my hole center, and then drilled a small hole through the plastic top and into the top of the metal below.
I dimpled the hard metal top of the fridge so I could be sure the center of the plastic top was pretty much exactly in line with the center of the metal surface below. Next, I used a metal hole saw to cut a hole in the top of the fridge. I think I used a two-inch hole saw, but I’m sure I measured the inner diameter of the tower before drilling. The metal is pretty thin, so this was no big deal to cut through.
Once I was through to the other side, I needed to contend with two minor problems. I had exposed the insulation in the top of the fridge and I wanted to seal that off from any moisture, so I used some foil tape to cover up the exposed sides of the hole. I also needed to mount the tap tower onto the fridge top. Marking the holes for the bolts that would run through the flange on the tower and into the fridge is pretty straightforward.
Unlike, say a bar top, the underside of the top of the fridge is pretty flimsy plastic and I was concerned that the tower wouldn’t have a nice solid feel without some modifications. The mounting bolts run through the tower flange and then nuts are attached to the bolts from the inside of the fridge, securing the tower against the top of the fridge. I decided that using a “plate” on the underside of the top of the fridge would make for a much more rigid tower. This is what it looks like from the inside of the fridge.
I used two pieces of a pvc sheet (1/4″ I think) to give the nuts and washers a solid base to tighten against, which resulted in a tap tower that is firmly attached to the fridge top. Without this step, the tower would be a bit wobbly.
At this point, you are most of the way there. The only remaining step is trimming the door. Apparently mini fridge manufacturers assume that most people want to store items like cans in the door. Unfortunately, these features protrude into the main cavity of the fridge when the door is closed making it impossible to fit two kegs in there without some surgical work to remove them. One option might be to completely remove the plastic door paneling. I found it easy enough to simply cut off the protruding parts of the door until it was nearly flat. I used an oscillating multi tool and then covered up the exposed insulation with foil tape. One note, I was careful to leave a small nub of the inner door paneling that depressed the on/off switch for the interior fridge light when the door closes. Otherwise, your light will be on all the time.
Here it is after trimming:
And here it is with the foil tape. This stuff is still in great shape even two years later.
Now hook up a keg and you’re ready to enjoy the incomparable pleasure of pouring a draft of your own home brewed beer whenever your heart desires. Truth be told, we’re probably getting a lot more mileage out of this for seltzer. We go through at least a 5-gallon keg per week. I usually add a tablespoon or so of magnesium bicarbonate which gets us pretty close to Pellegrino flavor profile at literally pennies to the gallon. Cheers to that.
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