Any Kegerator guys?

[GilpinGuy]

Any other guys on here have a kegerator?

I thought that guys with them might want a place to discuss their setups, problems, solutions, etc. Being at altitude (more of us than others) some have real troubles getting their kegerators to pour good beer. I did a search in GD, DIY and SOY for "keg" and got no results so I figured I'd try it out. I know I had a really hard time myself when I first set up my kegerator, so I thought it might be worthwhile for others.

Here's a start.

I came to a revelation tonight. Anyone that has a kegerator that has the tap on the top of the unit, with a "tower" like mine...


...probably knows that if you haven't poured a beer in a while that the first glass poured will be pure foam. Assuming that everything else is properly set up (like temperature, CO2 pressure, line length, etc.) the foam is due to the beer in the line in the tower being above the insulated cabinet and getting warm. Warm beer foams when dispensed, period. After the first beer is poured, the second one poured right after that is perfect...because the beer in the line is still cold. I wasted so much beer pouring that foam into a pitcher and tossing it.

Tonight I saw my little girl walking around with one of these:



I thought , "Why not stick a few of these in the tower when I'm hitting the keg?". It's been working awesome. No more foamy pours after a while between pours. Of course, these won't last forever. They'll eventually melt (kegerator is at 38F) and be put back into the freezer to be reused - how eco-friendly of me! I put two in my tower a few hours ago and it's working awesome.

Anyway, just a start if anyone wants to start a kegerator thread.

By the way, here's what I'm running:
Sanyo BC-1206


Brewers Edge Controller II
(Of course I don't keep my beer at 59F, it's just a pic of the unit)

If folks are interested I'll continue with other things I've tried to prevent "tower foam".

[BushMasterBoy]

Pure genius. I don't drink anymore.

[DFBrews]

I built this out of a chest freezer. It can fit 3 sixth barrels running 425ss perlick taps 14 feet of 3/16 line to each the tower is cooled as well I get a 1/4 of a glass of foam on the first pour of the night and then all is good

[meatman]

I just got one of the Danby kegerators with 2 faucet tower from a friend (good friend, it was only $50 including the CO2 and regulator!). I have to go through all the lines and a bunch of fittings to get rid of some nastiness. I've run kegs on CO2 for years, but I've never owned an actual kegerator. I have a beer fridge in the garage that can fit a keg and my CO2 inside, and I just use a faucet attached directly to the Sankey tap (in a round about way with ball lock fittings from my homebrew days). Since the whole thing is always cold, no foam.

But now with this new gadget of a kegerator with a tower, I'm sure I'll have a learning curve. Thanks for the heads up of the warm tower causing foam. I saw a tower blower yesterday on Amazon when I was checking out kegerator parts, but I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to spend $65 on something like that. After a quick Google just now, I found this and thought I might try it if I'm changing out lines anyway. He just ran the beer lines through a length of copper pipe into the tower to transfer the cold from below and insulated the tower. Seems like a good idea: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=43072

[Blowby]

Cooling the tower is the key. I had this installed a year ago and ran into the same problem. Added more insulation and made a fan from spare computer parts. Run the Pelick flow control tap to help on the initial pour and filling small glasses.

[00tec]

I have a co2 bottle, regulator and tap sitting around. It has been on the back burner for a while.
I bought an antique referigerator to turn into a smoker, but then felt bad about cutting up a good old fridge. So, it goes to basement for kegerator duty, and I bought a stainless reataurant fridge for the smoker.

[hurley842002]

Cooling the tower is the key. I had this installed a year ago and ran into the same problem. Added more insulation and made a fan from spare computer parts. Run the Pelick flow control tap to help on the initial pour and filling small glasses.

Mmmmm Ranger IPA.

[funkymonkey1111]

Mmmmm Ranger IPA.

Hillary approves!

[hurley842002]

Hillary approves!

Meh, I don't tend to let liberals get in the way of me and the things I enjoy.

[Blowby]

Vodoo IPA is the new name and formula.