KELVIN'S NOT QUITE SO CHEAP BEER ENJOYMENT UNIT

For almost ten years I bottled every batch of beer I brewed. While I really enjoy the brewing process, bottling the homebrew is a laborious task which I find quite unpleasant. I found that I'd let my beer sit in secondary for months on end, aging past its prime, just because I'd procrastinate. Face it - bottling beer sucks. After years of admiring other people's kegging systems & putting it off because of the sheer expense, I found a good deal on used kegs. My sister was moving across the country and didn't want to move the chest freezer, so I bought that off of her. I made a collar for the freezer out of 2x8's which I painted with some mildew resistant white paint. This allows me both the direct the temperature controller’s probe cabling and CO2 line into the freezer without drilling holes into it, and also allows me to place an additional corny keg on the compressor hump in the freezer. The collar is mounted over the freezer with the used of some galvanized plating, and the edges were caulked with some kitchen grade caulking. Without the collar, there would not be enough height to allow for it. I keep the freezer at 48°F most of the time, which is the serving temperature I prefer. This also allows for a primary fermentation of a lager.

While other homebrewers mount beer taps on the outside of their fridges or freezers, I have decided to stay with cobra head taps held inside the freezer. This is mainly due to the cost, but another advantage is that the taps themselves remain refridgerated, which helps reduce bacteria growth in my taps. It saves me a great deal of time in cleaning. At the moment, I have four sets of dispensing hoses, and a manifold capable of splitting the CO2 among four kegs. Some day I may decide to finish the bar that's roughed into my basement and set up some real beer taps, but I'm happy enough with this setup for now.