The Kegerator

Problem: I'm tired of bottling beer and doing in-bottle carbonation. It's time consuming, uneven, and inexact and prone to error.

Solution: Build a functional kegerator (that's a refridgerator for kegs) that I can use to keg my homebrew.

There are a whole bunch of options when deciding to start kegging beer. Once you decide to build a kegerator, they are roughly:
- How many kegs do you need to hold?
- Do you convert a chest freezer or refridgerator?
- What style of dispenser do you use?
- What keg types do you need to hold?

I decided on a 2 cornelius keg tap chest freezer conversion with side mounted taps using a freezer collar. This has several benefits, chiefly among them that I don't have to drill into the freezer and damage it, the parts are modular.

With this in mind, I went in search of a chest freezer. After searching Craiglist for a couple weeks, I posted a wanted ad and found this baby up in Arlington. It needed some cleaning up, but the price was good and it was functional and in good shape.

Now that the chest freezer was in place, I started hitting the hardware store for materials for the collar. I decided to do a full collar for the freezer. One of the guys at work built his with an angled collar that sits like a wedge between the lid and freezer. Unfortunately, the top isn't level and this would actually be harder for me to build, as I am doing this without the aid of power tools. I've decided on 1x4 hemlock boards, as they look nice and aren't too pricey. Once I get home, though, I take a close look at the boards. They're only 3/4" thick. That's not going to keep in the cold very well, plus it's not very moisture resistent. Another trip to Lowe's nets me some Cedar 2x4s that I can use inside the hemlock.

Now for the fun: Lowe's can cut the boards for me, but they won't mitre them (cut the 45-degree angles so the corners are nice). Which means I have to do that myself. Yay! If you want some future project advice, don't do this by hand. Buy, borrow, or find a friend who has a mitre saw and use that. Cutting mitre angles by hand sucks.

I picked up some Red Chestnut stain for the hemlock, which just looks awesome. This picture is after two coats of the stain, and two coats of polyeurethane (sanded in-between coats). Each coat takes a day or two to fully dry. This whole process took about a week, but it's really nice at the end. The red color here really stands out next to the bright white of the freezer and should be slick against the chrome tap handles too.

I then cut the cedar to size, which I didn't do at Lowe's since I wasn't sure I had the right measurements. They came out WAY off straight, as I'm trying to hand saw them. I bust out the power-sander Dremel attachment to try to even it out as much as I can. I sink two screws into the end of each board (they're not mitred here as they won't be visible), and the entire assembly comes out crooked. Damn. I disassemble it, level out the boards with the sander much, much more and reassemble. Close enough to level.

Somehow, miraculously, the hemlock boards actually fit right outside the cedar with the right amount of room to spare. I start applying the caulk to the cedar boards to hold them on. The caulk is an acrylic-silicone mix that is designed for doors and windows. It's very adhesive and also insulating. Once the hemlock boards are on and fitted (and not really going anywhere, I start caulking the edges. This will dry clear. If you've never bothered to try caulking before let me tell you - it's more fun than you'd probably think it is. I don't know why, but I guess it's the case that any hardware tool that requires a separate "gun" for application and use has to be cool.

With that, the collar is done(ish). I applied some high-density foam to one side of the collar (the side that will be against the freezer) to insulate it. The other side will have the lid seal to do the job. The lid is removed from the freezer, the collar is then placed on the freezer itself, and the lid reattached to the collar (using wood screws, not the tiny bolts/screws that it was using to attach previously). The collar is now in place.


Next time - bypassing the freezer thermostat, building out the gas lines and taps.