This is somehow becoming much more difficult than I ever thought.
We had some flood damage in our finished basement that ended up in removing everything from the floor to about four feet up. We just finished dry walling, but in the process realized we have a perfect area to put a beer keg fridge in a little storage area and run the tap through the wall.
I’m finding things that say it isn’t as simple as just buying a kegerator and unscrewing the tap on the top and running a line to the wall. Also I’m having no luck in finding anything on Google that seems to help… everything is for commercial use… I only want one keg and one tap that are about three or four feet apart and a way to connect the two. I’d even be happy finding someone locally to do the set up for a reasonable price.
Maybe I’m just getting things mixed up and it is as easy as I first thought… it seems like simple plumbing
So, does anyone have experience, and or a contact who can point me in the right direction? I’ve found some forums but they are more geared to the home brewer and not the guy who wants to tap a keg of domestic beer but run it through the wall to make it look a bet nicer.
That’s the thing… I’m finding lots of things about how to convert a regular fridge to one that you can tap beer from. I want to buy a beer fridge that is already set up to dispense beer, but instead of having the tap directly on top of the fridge to one that runs a short line to a connection to a tap on the other side of the wall.
That’s the thing… I don’t know. This says it is a second tap,and I just want the one through the wall. If that is what it takes though I could live with it. I really just want to talk to someone who has experience doing this to give me the elementary info on what is involved. I’ve looked a little closer at this https://www.amazon.com/EdgeStar-Full-Size-Kegerator-Cooler/dp/B0170NWHDM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1499485613&sr=8-4&keywords=keg+fridge and it seems like it should be simple enough to unscrew the tap from the tower and run a line from the tower to the wall, and on to the new tap.
This was the basic setup at a sports arena where I worked. The beer coolers were in the back room of a concession stand and could hold five kegs. Plumbed the system with CO[sub]2[/sub] from portable tanks initially - later converted to run the entire arena (beer and soda) off a huge single bulk tank.
We then ran insulated lines to taps mounted on the front service counter so staff could pour a fresh one in front of the customers. Simply the line exited the keg cooler through a hole drilled in the back. Size the hole to the size of the line insulation and then caulk it into place. Run as short and direct a line as you can to your tap. Simple.
Drawbacks… The longer the line the more important the insulation. A poorly insulated line could have the beer warm too much and pour too foamy. You might waste a lot of beer as the line cools down until it stays cool enough to the tap.
And second, for a home use you will need to purge the lines frequently for sanitation and will lose a relatively large amount of beer that way. Keep the line as short as possible to minimize spoilage.
Did I mention that you should keep the line as short as you can? It is REALLY important.
There are people who install and maintain beer systems for a living. The bar where I drink has a guy come on who sanitizes and tweaks the taps once a month or so. Maybe inquire at a few bars and get a name?
This is what I was going to suggest. Go to a local neighborhood bar and get a name.
I think you biggest issue is, once the keg is tapped, it has to be drank fairly quickly. My understanding is that it doesn’t keep long.
I know a few people with keg systems who get high or high-ish end beers in Corny kegs (5 gallons) or standard 1/6 kegs (also around 5 gallons). If they go too quickly, a 1/4 keg (the tall, skinny version) is 7 3/4 gallons.
I’ve helped friends finish their beer when necessary, but I’ve never known shelf life to be a concern.
(A few xmases ago a friend with a bar drove to Vermont (from western PA) to buy a Corny Keg of a beer from a brewery that would sell for home consumption, but did not want the beer sold commercially. He brought the keg back and sold the beer at his bar. The brewery found out about it on Facebook and freaked out, threatening legal action, etc.:D)
This might be something that goes without saying for you beer nuts (<–note clever pun), but the tap should probably be mounted in a hole drilled into a 2" X 6" secured between two wall studs; I doubt dry-wall will support multiple pulls. I could be wrong.
It is just as easy as you thought. I did it in two different houses. Insulate the line. Make a drip tray. My second install was better, it was over the kitchen sink.
My son did a project like this. One thing he did that wasn’t mentioned here is that he added a second tube from the box which wrapped around the supply tube and then returned to the box. He heavily insulated around the multi tube system.
He bought a low power fan to sit inside the keg box and force cold air from the box into the second tube and recirculate back thereby keeping the beer in the supply tube cold.
The fan added an extra energy cost to the system but it was negligible given the overall cost of the compressor. He figured that a few dollars more per year to power the keg was worthwhile in order guarantee a cold draw at the tap.
He’s thinking of trying an aquarium pump with a water cooled tap line for his next project.
Drill a hole in your wall slightly larger than the shank, put a small sheet of something rigid (for reinforcement) behind the wall and drill the same size hole in that, then push the shank through and add another washer and nut to tighten everything up.
If you already have a small kegerator, I’d just remove the tap tower at the top and run 1.5" PVC or similar from there to the tap (with the beer line inside of the PVC, naturally).
I agree with some of the suggestions above. I think the only big question is whether your beer line is going to end up so long as to affect the temperature of your output. Keep in mind even with a short line, if it isn’t chilled, then the first few ounces will come out room temperature. You can calculate the amount of beer that will be in your line when not in use to figure that volume out and whether it will affect your first pint.
If your line is a foot or less, then passive convection from the fridge may be enough, provider you run your line through a piece of insulated PVC. Otherwise you’ll probably want to either run a small fan to blow cold air from your kegerator into the pipe or eve a fish tank pump from a cold water reservoir inside your kegerator circulating around your serving line.
