Homebrewing Blog and Resource

The hobby of homebrewing beer

Upright Fridge as a Kegorator

This week we mix up the format a little bit and I give you a quick tour of my brewing space.  I show how I’ve transitioned to using an standard upright fridge as a kegorator vs. my old chest freezer.  Also, I put my mobile draft unit on display.  I recently used it for a party so I still had it out of storage.  So it was a good time to show that too.

The most important drawback of using a standard upright fridge as a kegorator is that the height of the kegs don’t leave much room for connecting and disconnecting gas and beverage lines.  You can see in the video there really is only 3 inches or so above the kegs.  This is pretty inconvenient if you don’t have permanent tap handles through the door.  I didn’t get into drilling holes into the door yet because I am not sure I am going to keep this fridge as a kegorator.  And once you drill the holes you are sort of stuck keeping as a kegorator.  This is another clear illustration as to why a chest freezer, outfitted with a wooden collar, is pretty superior when it comes to converting back to normal beer use.

I do however show how you can remove the door seal so you can remove the pre-molded plastic shelves from the door.  You can then re insulate the door with some foam core board, replace the seal and you are good to go.  This accomplishes two things.  First, you gain a little more depth in the fridge this way.  This is because those shelves do stick into the fridge cabinet itself some.  I found removing the shelves on my very first kegorator gave me a little more room for the CO2 tank.  Also by putting in nice and flat foam core inner door, it gives you a very clean and flat surface to help drilling and mounting the faucets and shanks through the door later.

The last thing I cover is my converted wheeled trash barrel into an insulated keg cooler. This thing is great and very useful for parties when your primary kegorator isn’t easily accessible to you guests.  I also use it a lot for taking kegs on the road to some ones house for a party.

I hope this stuff gives you a good idea of some of the other options to add to you kegging arsenal.
Enjoy the video and leave us some comments or questions.
BREW ON!

 

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1 Comment

  1. Eric

    I have pretty much the exact same stand up fridge converted to a kegorator with 4 taps. I pulled out the bottom shelf and put in a plywood base for some extra room, like you mentioned. I have enough room for 6 kegs and C02 lines. I kept the shelving in the door for bottle storage and it holds my 5lb C02 tank nicely. With a dual regulator and 2 manifolds I can have 4 kegs at serving pressure and two others at force carbing or serving pressure. The freezer is an added bonus for storage since I typically buy my hops in bulk. I can send some pics if you want to add to the thread to see a finished product. Cheers!

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