Check it out:
Posted by Kevin Railsback at 11:58 PM
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I decided to make my conversion a little more involved than just drilling a hole and installing a tower. I replaced the plastic top that comes with the fridge with a 2'x2' piece of 1/2" plywood. I'm going to use copper flashing (used for valley areas in roofing) to cover the plywood, hopefully making a nice looking small bar top. Later on when I add a larger bar the fridge will already have a nice looking top and I won't need to change that. As the copper ages it will look very cool. For a full series of pictures and info go to http://www.railsback.com/kegerator.html. Here's the final result:
My new two-faucet tower from MoreBeer.com arrived today, along with some sexy pump handles.
Brewing projects for this weekend:
Anyhow, here's a nice shot of the tower I chose sitting atop my kegerator:
I share Chad's penchant for fetishizing obscure beer brewing, and other, tools. But recently I have discovered what is perhaps the most useful tool in my homebrewing endeavors -- a plastic, gallon jug with its head cut off.
I'm in the process of brewing 4 kegs worth of beer for an upcoming party, and have been forced for the first time into the world of brewing simultaneous batches, and having to keep track of multiple beers at various stages at once. That has demanded lots of juggling of containers. Transfering one beer from primary, into secondary, rinsing out the old primary fermentor, and dumping a new batch of beer in.
Through it all, the gallon jug has been a great help. Measuring out water to mix cleaning or sanitizing solution, temporary storing Iodophor which I needed to reuse after transfering a keg or bucket full of beer. And since I brew in my basement with laundry sinks, the gallon jug can get uder the faucet where a carboy or fermentation bucket can't. When a recent batch of hefeweizen was bubbling blew the airlock off a carboy, the gallon jug was there for me to dump a blowoff tube into. I've even used it to cultivate yeast starters.
While it may not have lasers, it's still a hell of a good thing to have around.
Just when I thought my wish list for home brew equipment was pretty well complete, along comes something I had never even considered -- the RayTek MiniTemp with LaserPoint(tm).
The operation of the device is simple -- just point the gun at any surface and pull the trigger. The LaserPoint(tm) shoots a red beam to the surface (lasers!), then the digital readout displays the temperature of the targeted surface. In the example illustrated to the right, we learn that Doug Herr's Black Death Stout registers at 49 degrees Fahrenheit (a temperature at which it was most excellent, I might add).
This has been added to my Amazon wishlist.
(A big thanks to John Allspaw for the innumerable shots he posed for with the RayTek MiniTemp!)
Leave it to college students to apply electrical cooling technology to their beloved kegs. Sounds even better than the Keg Parka.
We guess this is what happens when frat bros face their biggest fear: warm beer. To combat the growing plague of half-empty, tepid kegs, some grad students at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University created the Keg Wrap.Powered by an electric socket or cigarette lighter (tailgate party!), the Keg Wrap acts like a portable chilling blanket, letting you get rid of that bulky acompanying ice bucket, thus making the keg more portable. You would think someone would have already invented this, but we guess it takes those in the know to develop the goods since the frat brothers are getting $20,000 to develop the idea. [Engadget]
When I first decided to build a kegerator, everywhere I looked fellow home brewers were recommending the Sanyo 4910 (or, more precisely, the Sanyo 4910M). Right at that time, it appeared that the Sanyo 4910 was being phased out, so I rushed to my local Best Buy and got one of the last few on the shelves. The kegerator turned out great and I was wishing I had picked up another 4910 to do lagering. The faux brushed metal door, though actually plastic, looks really nice.
For those who want to carry on the Sanyo 4910 kegerator tradition, I'm pleased to report that Sanyo has released the Sanyo 4911 (pictured at right). According to a discussion over at the Northern Brewer forum, the 4911 is exactly the same at the 4910, except the inside is black plastic instead of white, which sounds pretty cool. They are on sale right now at Best Buy for $159.99.
If you don't have a Best Buy in your area, Sears has a two models that will work -- both have the exact same dimensions and interior as the equivalent Sanyo models (and are probably made by Sanyo). For a Sanyo 4910 or 4911 clone with the nice metal door, there's the Stainless Steel Kenmore Elite. Despite the name, it looks like the Sanyo, which does not have a real stainless steel door, though it can pass as one from a short distance. This one is currently on sale for $179.99.
The Black Kenmore Elite will also work, but won't look as sexy in your kitchen as the others. From what I can see in the picture on the Sears site, the inside looks exactly the same as the Sanyo. It's currently on sale for $159.99, but appears to be out-of-stock.
For all three, my photo-illustrated step-by-step instructions should give you the information you need to build your own kegerator.
