The Kegerator that Phill Built

Now, I can't lay claim to coming up with this idea all by myself; in fact, it's a blatant rip off of my good mate Pinko's system. However, that said, my latest little project (along side my computer and bicycle) may be the best yet!

How is this a bad idea!

While expensive, its not too difficult to convert a fridge into a dream dispensing machine. First I consulted a How-To guide by micromatic, a US based home brew company (for US readers they also sell full fridge conversion kits).

 It turns out taking a lid of a keg is not intuitive. I had to look that up too.

Then I sourced a CO² cylinder. This was much harder than expected in the UK. After visiting multiple forums I finally found out that you can get them aquarium/fish stores and so I hit up Ocean Commotion, a Leicester local aquarium store, for their largest cylinder - 3.0 L (or 5 pounds).

Still don't know what all those dials means

After that it was just a matter of buying the parts outlined in MicroMatics How-To Guide from BrewUK, an online brew store. From them I could get an AEB keg (just like a corn keg, except Italian), a tap and shank, disconnects, the regulator pictured above, hoses, and, of course, actual beer making equipment.

I know exactly where I want to put this.

Next, I drilled a hole in the cheapest fridge I could find (£ 20!!!!).

This is as much fun as it looks.

And, then it was ready for a my first batch of beer.

Weissbeer - verdict: awesome

It was all pretty simple; two biggest issues I faced were drilling the hole in the fridge (those suckers are tough) and figuring out how the regulator actually works. It turns out that finger tight is not air tight...

These babies, disconnects, lock onto the keg - the grey lets gas in and the black lets beer out.

All up it cost waaaaaaay more than I expected - mostly because the cylinder (£ 135) and keg (£ 90) are quite pricey. But hey, have a gander at the picture below and try to convince yourself it is not worth it.

 'Tis a thing of beauty!