My wife is planning on building an outdoor kitchen the backyard. We’re gonna build-in my smoker and incorporate a wood fired pizza oven too. I’d like to have the ability to move a keg of homebrew from the garage to this new spot when we have folks over and such. I probably wouldn’t leave a keg out there full time, especially in the winter. Maybe all summer, though. Anybody got any thoughts/experience with something like this?
Depends on how often you plan on using it.
If for example I were planning something like this, it would mainly be for special occasions or weekends. So I might not need a full fridge set up. Might just want a small bar set up with a draft tower - and underneath room for a large ice bucket. But that is just me - assuming my indoor setup would be fine most of the time.
In practice, I have my draft tower mounted on a moveable plank of wood (stained dark brown to match my bar top). It can be moved to any flat bar surface if I want to set up outside.
I have one at my in-laws place at the beach. I converted a danby 440 refrigerator to a kegerator and then built a cabinet for it to sit in. Three Tap tower on the cabinet. Works great. A small box sits over the taps when not in use.
They’re relatively expensive, but Summit Appliance manufactures some kegerators that are made to be kept outdoors (they’re made from Marine-Grade Stainless Steel).
That Summit kegerator looks pretty sweet. A corny keg should fit in there too. I might have to sneak that onto the wish list.
I’ve got a Summit SBC490OS. It suspect it would fit 2 cornys. I can’t say for sure because I haven’t used them, but unless the keg coupler on it is significantly taller that the typical ones used on 1/2, 1/4, and 1/6(logs), it should fit 2. At any one time I can fit:
1 half barrel or
1 quarter barrel or
2 sixth barrels/logs
or 1 sixth/log and 1 slim quarter
Edited to add:
The only thing I’ll mention is that it’s a challenge to get beer pouring well on a hot day, but that’s going to be the case with basically any outdoor kegerator. The tower/faucet gets warm, and causes foaming until enough cold beer flows over it to cool it down. I have a basic tower cooler in mine (small fan on the end of 1-inch hose that blows cold air from the floor of the fridge to the top of the tower)…it helps, but isn’t a silver bullet. Every spring when I move it back outside, I think twice because it pours so much better in a controlled environment.
