Saturday, August 9, 2008

Kegerator Conversion Complete

I have finished converting my kegerator so that it can use three taps. When I first bought the kegerator, I was amazed to discover that the refrigerator portion could accommodate three 5-gallon corny kegs. However, the draft tower only had one tap on it, which prohibited me from taking full advantage of the keg space. I thought of several different ideas on how to get more taps on the tower, but each idea had problems. The biggest problem is that the tower column is only 2.5" in diameter, which means that the faucet shanks would run into each other if they were anywhere near one another. Add this to the fact that if I drilled additional holes much lower on the tower, I would no longer be able to fit a pint glass under the new faucets.

In the end, I decided on adding additional space at the top of the tower. Here is how it worked:



  • I saw a cool looking old champagne bucket that had wooden handles and a neat two color metal finish. I found it at a garage sale for $6.00

  • I drilled a 2.5-inch diameter hole through the bottom of the bucket and its insulation so that it could slide over the draft tower pipe.

  • I drilled three 1-inch diameter holes through the front of the bucket in a triangle shape, to fit the three shanks and faucet adapters.

  • I mounted brackets to the bottom of the bucket and angled the brackets up through notches in the bottom bucket hole and attached them to the draft tower. They were spaced so that the bucket slid over the original draft tower hole to make the entire piece look seamless.

  • The top of the brackets were mounted to the draft tower at the top, using bolts, nuts, and washers, so I did not have to drill a hole in the tower pipe. This would allow me to disassemble the bucket contraption and the original tower would still function (not that I plan on doing this).

  • I put all the fittings together and poured a pint. This, actually, was after much adjustment and grumbling on my part, and at least one puddle of beer on the floor.

Here you can see my "frankenstein" of draft towers (yes, that is the blade of a sword on the wall . . . don't ask, it is a long story). I think it looks pretty nice and I can say I made it myself. It certainly cost less than a new three tap draft tower would have cost, which is around $300. I probably spent about $150, but that is because I bought two expensive forward-sealing taps. The actual parts, with normal taps, would have been less than $100. Cheers.

No comments: