Kegerator Build

If the laws of nature allowed it, I would ideally like to have a river of beer flow through my yard, in which all I would do is grab a mug from the house and grab a nice refreshing beer whenever I want.  But I can't (yet anyways), BUT I can have the next best thing, a kegerator!  Every time we bottle beer it takes about an hour to sanitize 50+ bottles, and fill and cap them with beer (with 2 people).  I'm not going to lie, I made that sound a lot smoother than bottling day actually goes for us.  Usually we have a major disaster like the capper bending or the valve from the filler getting clogged with small hop particles, but what if this could all be avoided?  And it can, thanks to building my own kegerator.  I've seen kegerators on the market that sell for $500+ but that was a bit out of my price range, and the website that I gain a lot of valuable information from homebrewtalk.com has a Do-It-Yourself section, from which I got the idea.

So to start off, I did what any sane poor person would do and searched craigslist for a refrigerator.  Turned out to be a little more difficult than logging in and magically finding a cheap fridge, but after about a months worth of searching my dad said he found a $25 fridge near my house, in which he so kindly helped me pick it up with his truck... thanks dad!  This fridge was more disgusting than any Miller beer... seriously, look at the picture... I think that's rotten meat juice, which is exactly how it smelled.  Needless to say, I did some heavy duty cleaning.

Before :(

After :)

Not only did my dad help with picking it up, but also with the massive holes that needed to be drilled.  Apparently, it's pretty freakin' hard to drill a 1" hole in a fridge.

Next step, feed the shanks and faucets through the holes, run some lines to a keg, and viola! Kegerator!

I wish that really that fast, but in actuality I had to wait a week or two before my Thanks-A-Latte Coffee Stout was finished fermenting.  And now it's on tap!  My cousin also got me a sweet chalkboard tap handle for Christmas last year which I've put to good use, as you can see from the pictures.

Lastly, I needed to find a place that would fill my 5 lb CO2 tank, and luckily I found a place near my job that fills it for $8.  The guy was pretty nice and filled it up in less than 5 minutes.  I think one full tank will get me through 5-7 kegs worth of beer, but I guess I'll found out exact values later on down the road.

A tap is much more convenient for whenever I have guests over because now I can put those small beer tasting glasses to good use that my roommate and I have accumulated from all the beer festivals we've gone to.  Can't wait until I've got a second beer on tap!  My roommate and I have a crazy brew coming up, I wouldn't want to spoil anything in advance, but it is going to be the next on tap.  Do I see a possible tasting party in the near future?

Enjoy the pictures!  If you're wondering what the mason jars in the fridge are, they are yeast that I've saved from a previous batch of beer in which I can reuse in future batches.

Note to self:  Draw my future river of beer.