Not quite a traditional home bar. We renovated and expanded our kitchen last year and in doing so we had to put a large post in the center island in the kitchen in order to support the second floor because we knocked out a supporting wall. My wife and contractor suggested we put a beer tap in, so here it is! Upright freezer with a Johnson Controls thermostat located in the basement underneath the kitchen island. ----------------------------------------------------- The fridge is clean, just stained. I use the extra space for cold crashing homebrew and cold storage after kegging. I have the 3 gauge set up so that I can force carb kegs while still having the kitchen tap hooked up. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Little squirrel cage fan which takes cold air from the bottom of the freezer and pushes it to the back of the beer tap. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4" vinyl tube which runs through the top of the fridge, the pvc pipe is what is connected to the squirrel cage fan and obviously the other line is the beer line. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Inside the post of the island. The 4" tube runs through the middle of all that insulation. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Beer tap in the island post. The post in the island was necessary because we expanded the kitchen and needed the reinforcement for the second floor. ---------------------------------------------------------- There you have it! Thanks for checking it out!!
And there are magnets glued to the table and the bottom of the drip tray so it doesn't slide around when unruly guests come over?
In the middle of building my kegerator right now and I must say this is one of the coolest and most unique build-outs I've seen! You should add taps at random spots sticking out of walls all around you house.
Thanks Randal! I've thought about putting taps on all 4 sides of the post but I don't want to push my luck with the wife.
Very nice. I've been considering adding a draft tower on my kitchen counter, but had been worried about the distance between the keezer and the counter level. Any issues or thoughts on how you made that work well? What exactly is a squirrel cage fan, very curious about the insulated refrigerated 4" tube solution.
You need to research remote draw systems. Depending on the length of run you can either use forced air cooling via a fan, or you need to go with glycol. The beer needs to be kept at the same temp from keg to faucet or you will get nothing but foam.
Thanks, I've done quite a bit of research on glycol/antifreeze/ saltwater setups, but a fan would be much more convenient in our house. I don't know that much about these, but it looks perfect for me if it works well.
My run from top of fridge to beer tap in kitchen is only about 4 and a half feet so there isn't much line to cool. The 4" tube is surrounded by about 5" of your typical R19 insulation and the squirrel cage fan forces cold air to the back of the tap and since the 4" tube runs all the way into the fridge it is also cooled by air from the fridge. It may not be the most efficient way of keep a line cool but I've had the tap installed for about a year and a half now and it's worked great for me. And it was pretty inexpensive. The cage fan was like $30 from a guy on eBay and the pvc and 4" hose was like $12 from Lowe's. Just make sure you know how your freezer/fridge coolant coils are set up before you go drilling giant wholes in the sides or top. The last thing you want to do is drill through a coolant line and destroy your fridge/freezer.
Thanks a bunch, my setup would be similar and this seems way easier than figuring out a way to circulate coolant through a seperate freezer.
One tip for running a duct style blower conduit is for and bends make sure you use long sweep elbows to reduce line kinks and for better air flow.
