Dual Faucet Kegerator and kegs

Question

I am looking for a good dual faucet kegerator for home brewing. I brew in the normal 5.5 gallon batches. I am wanting to move away from bottling and into kegging, and I really want to be able to do two kegs so I can keep a cycle going.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what brand or unit to buy (hopefully somewhere around the $500-$700 range). Do I need to buy one more expensive than that? Is it better to try and find them locally? Are the prices on beverage factory pretty reasonable?

I also wanted to know where to find good deals on 5 gallon kegs that would go in the dual faucet kegerator as well?

Answer 1

I'm more of a Do-It-Yourself kinda guy. However I can give you some brewadvice.

Looking at the Beverage Factory website, Beverage-air and Sanyo are decent brands. Can't say anything about Summit either way. Look for a model that is energy efficient and sturdy. The tower should seat solidly on the unit and not give when you pull the tap.

If they don't already have them, I recommend upgrading to Perlick seal-forward faucets. They stay clean longer.

Perlick seal-forward faucet http://morebeer.com/images/thumb/phpThumb.php?src=/product_images/morebeer.com/1/7930.jpg&w=250&h=250&far=C&fltr[]=wmi|../../themes/morewinepro/images/thumbnail_watermark.png|C|15

Answer 2

Go to micromatic.com and look at their beer forum. If you truly want a great pour, kegerators are much more involved than most people think. Sure you can "get it done" without research, but you will have far less problems and far better beer by doing some homework on a site dedicated to kegerators. Most manufactured kegerators have a lot of problems from the factory, and are designed for use at sea level. The best option is to build it yourself. I think the best would be an upright freezer with an external thermostat and a faucet drilled through the door. Although, I currently have a 21.5 cubic foot refrigerator conversion that works great. Chest freezers work as well, and may be cheaper than upright ones, but you have to lift the keg all the way up and in, instead of just opening a door and putting it in; Could be a huge difference if you are using a 1/2 barrel keg.

You can do it twice as good for half the price if you do some research and build it yourself.

Answer 3

Another very good option is to buy a small chest freezer from the local big-box store and buy a home brew conversion kit from one of the online brew stores that includes a CO2 bottle, gas and liquid lines, regulator, shank, taps and hardware. You need to add is add a thermo-controller that will override the freezers temperature controls (also available from the home brew store) and you will have a kegerator for home brew that will accommodate 3 or more kegs depending on which size freezer you purchased. You can decide whether to buy a tower to mount on the lid or simply drill holes in the front of the freezer to mount the taps directly.

The kegerator kits are going to come with the fittings for a commercial sanke keg by default so will still require you to get a conversion kit to push homebrew.