Right now my serving fridge/chest freezer is doubling as my fermentation chest, which makes for some annoying bottlenecks in my process/beer production pipeline. Right now I have 4 kegs, a 5# CO2 tank, regulator, and picnic hoses/taps.
I think I may have won some coin in my Masters pool. I was thinking of using some of the proceeds to upgrade my serving/storage setup with some faucets and another chamber (fridge or freezer).
Curious to hear from those who have used a fridge and drilled holes vs. a keezer/collar/temp controller. I have several of the Eva dry dehumidiers, so I’d be ok managing humidity in a keezer.
Here are my particulars:
-likely going in a basement
-would like to be able to serve 2-3 beers at any given time
-would like to also be able to lager/cold store a 5 gallon batch or two in the same vessel while something else is fermenting in my fermentation fridge
-I have a free older fridge available to me (heavy as $#!+, so a pain to get into/out of the basement, but one of those old ones that was made to last)…not likely particularly ‘energy efficient’
-advantage of a fridge would be the additional freezer storage we would gain (hops, meat, breast milk…no I’m not kidding).
-would like it to look decent as we may be finishing our basement at some point. Some stainless steel paint could be the trick for either I supposee
Sorry for the long post, just needed to brag about my Masters win and get some opinions, particularly if anyone has personal experience with both setups :cheers:
One of the best investments I’ve made in this hobby was the 3 tap Beverage-Air. I had the converted fridges, and they were great and I didn’t know any better until I stumbled upon the kegerator. Before, it was nice… but now it’s like “wow, nice”.
yeah those are definitely the Cadillac. Not sure if Wife would go for that one (unless I include a multiple day Ritz Carlton spa package with my purchase), but I will price it out.
You don’t have to get the caddy, you can do a Plymouth if it works for you, as long as it gets you where you want to go…
There are some great chest freezer mods out there, with the 3 or even 4 tap tower. I personally don’t like chest freezers because of all the lifting in and out. And you’d need to buy a controller, but they are easily the least expensive. Someone on board here had a used beverage cooler with the glass door and I think the taps were on the side. It was cool looking.
If you go with the fridge, you’ll have the freezer which is nice. They have those refrigerator skins if it’s in a nice area of your basement. Make it look all trendy and such.
Having had both, I do currently love my keezer. It’s a 7.2 cubic foot fridgidaire. I built a collar with a 2 by 10. There are hinges on the lid and hinges on the collar. It makes for easy clean up and removal. My keezer currently has 4 taps. There is additional space for a fifth keg that I use for lagering. I built a temp controller with the stc 1000 aquarium controller. The wood is stained a darker brown and the chest freezer was painted black. If you want pictures or more particulars let me know. I far prefer it to a refrigerator. Have used both the side by side model and the freezer on the top model. Keezer takes the cake! Congrats on your Bubba Watson win!
Having had both I would go with a fridge. While I didn’t build a collar for my keezer (just used picnic taps) the one major problem, and biggest PITA, that I had was mold. Even using Damp-Rid and a few other tricks to try to keep the inside dry I always found after a couple of months (sooner if a drop of beer got loose inside) there would be some very small mold growth inside. Then I was pulling everything out and bleaching everything down.
Since I switched to a fridge setup I have had no issues. Also, my fridge is big enough to hold 4 kegs, the CO2 and still have room for some bottles. Getting stuff in and out is also really easy. Looks really nice as well without having to paint it or anything. Keep an eye out on Craigslist and you can maybe get a steal like I did. (3 years old, normally a $1200 fridge, got it for $350, totally clean and get the guy to help me get it to my place.)
+1 on the mold in a keezer. I have both and I like the fridge hands down. Also the freezer on the bottom is a nice benefit if you can swing it. I keep 6 kegs in fridge for serving and 6 kegs in chest freezer for conditioning. Cool fermentations can go in the freezer but now I use my Bierkeller http://www.mullerbrau.com/Bierkeller.html
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Devils advocate here. I use a small computer fan the circulate air and a small reusable dehumidifier. I’ve never had an issue with mold, especially since the temp hovers around 40.
