Bottling beer is a pain in the (enter choice word here). I brewed 3 batches over 2 years before I bit the bullet and put together a kegging system.

In the 9 months since beginning kegging, I have brewed 15 batches. There are all sorts of reasons that you should switch to kegging, but flat out, there is nothing better than opening a tap and pouring your buddies a beer that you made.

Deciding to DIY

I thought about my kegorator for quite a while before I started putting together the pieces. Personally, I prefer the look of a tower over the designs that have faucets through a collar; however the price tag of pre-made towers is outrageous.

I decided that my best bet would be to make my own tower. Anytime a project brought me to a hardware store, I walked the isles, brainstorming on how I could get various products to work. Finally, I purchased a stick of 3” PVC. I cut off two short pieces and made a mitered corner, and glued them together with PVC cement. The joint held. Really well. I twisted and pulled and pried, and the joint held. I was going to turn that 6 dollar stick of PVC into my beer pouring masterpiece.

Making the Tower

On to the construction. I needed to be able to access the shanks, so I cut out an access door in a length of PVC using a jig saw.

I cut both of the risers and one side of the cross piece at a 45 degree angle. The other side of the cross piece was left at a 90 degree angle at this point. While still in three pieces, I lined each with insulation. I used a cheap yoga mat. It’s the blue stuff that you’ll see in various pictures. Once it was lined, I glued the first riser to the cross piece.

After the joint dried, I mitered the opposite side, making sure that it was square with the opposite riser.

When the second joint dried, I drilled the holes for the shanks using a 7/8” spade bit. The holes were 4” on center.

On to the fun of sanding. I probably spent an hour with a sanding sponge cleaning up the corners, removing excess PVC cement, and smoothing out the exterior of the PVC.

I used one coat of primer, and two coats of black appliance paint, the same paint that I would be using on the chest freezer.

Stainless steel hinges and latches were added to the access door, and the stainless shanks were installed on the tower.

The tower then sat, awaiting final assembly.

Customizing the Refrigerator

The heart of my kegorator is the Whirlpool 8.9cf chest freezer from Lowes. This specific freezer is deeper than other models, allowing kegs to fit without staggering. I can fit 5-five gallon ball lock kegs on the floor of the freezer. It also leaves room for bottles on the compressor hump, as well as stacked in the voids between the kegs.

In its final home, after my basement gets finished, the kegorator will likely be against a wall. This will pose a problem when I need to open the lid: I don’t want my spiffy tower banging against the wall. A cart was in order.

The outside skirt is a 2x6 with mitered corners. The inner support frame was constructed with 2x4’s and half lap joints. Each joint in the 2x4 support frame occurs where a “leg” of the chest freezer is, and a caster is directly below to stabilize the entire assembly.

The 2x4’s are spaced down an inch from the top edge of the 2x6, this will allow a tighter transition between the chest freezer and the cart. All four casters swivel; the back two are locking as well, incase this thing ever gets hauled to a party with sloped ground. The screws attaching the skirt to the 2x4’s were countersunk, then filled with wood putty. The cart was given a coat of primer and then cheap black paint.

While I was removing the hinges from the freezer for painting, I found that there were holes in the outer skin of the freezer hiding under the hinges. These were likely used to fill the cavity with expanding foam insulation. VERY carefully digging out the foam in this area, I was able to locate a spot where I could safely drill through the freezer to run the probe for my Love temperature controller through. I refilled the hole with the little bits of insulation. The temp controller housing hangs from a piece of scrap sheet metal that was sandwiched between the freezer and a hinge.

After taping things off, the freezer got a couple coats of black appliance paint.

Putting Tower to Fridge

The tower would be supported by toilet flanges that fit inside of the PVC risers. Using ½” aluminum u-channel, I created a frame to support these flanges from the bottom of the lid. I removed insulation where each channel was located, allowing the frame and remaining insulation to be a uniform surface.

I also attached a length of aluminum plate to the frame that I would be attaching the CO2 manifold to.

On the tower side that won’t have beer lines running through it, I added a muffin fan. This is plugged into the second switched outlet that is operated by the Love controller; the fan cycles with the freezer and pushes cold air through the tower.

This photo also shows the one of the toilet flanges screwed to the aluminum frame.

I also installed a through-wall coupling in the lid that will allow me to easily disconnect the CO2 from the freezer at anytime.

With an all black kegorator, the white gasket between the lid and the body of the freezer was not acceptable. I used a black spray-on rubber coating on the gasket. The product I found is called Plasti Dip, and it is normally found by the spray paint in hardware stores. It worked pretty well, the gasket is still as flexible as it ever was, and coating seems to be adhering to the gasket well. I did touch up a few uncoated spots with a sharpie.

All of my gas connections use push-connect, or instant tube, fittings. These are super easy to use. To connect, just push the tubing into the fitting. To disconnect, push in on a release ring on the fitting, and pull the tubing out. It doesn’t get any easier than that. I looked around for a pre-made manifold that could be adapted, but didn’t have any luck. I ended up piecing one together. My manifold accommodates 5 kegs at the same pressure, each with a check valve to prevent backflow to the regulator or between the kegs.Manifold Parts List

With all the pieces of the lid ready, the plastic liner and gasket were re-attached and the CO2 manifold was screwed into the plate mounted on the aluminum framework. The tower slides through the freezer sheet metal and onto the flanges. With the help of the aluminum frame and the flanges, the tower is very sturdy, yet can easily be removed from the freezer should transportation require it.

Beer lines were routed through the tower and attached to the shanks using oeteker clamps. Due to lack of space inside the tower, I couldn’t crimp the first beer line. The beer line was routed through the shank hole, crimped, and the shank replaced. The others were easily done in place.

To protect the floor of the freezer from kegs and bottles, I cut up two door mats that I found at a big box hardware store.

These are very similar to the anti-fatigue mats, but I liked the price a lot more ($6 instead of $30).

Up to this point, I had taken great lengths to make sure that each part of the kegorator could be easily disassembled. Barbs are not easily removed. At each liquid disconnect, in lue of the normally used barb-to-flare adapter, I utilized a short length of 1/4 inch stainless tubing. Note, stainless is not easily flared; the flaring set I use for copper plumbing wasn’t up to the task. I ended up giving the pieces to an aviation mechanic buddy, who used a hydraulic flaring tool at work.

Finally, the nickel plated floor plates were snapped into place at the base of the tower, and the drip tray was centered. The drip tray has a layer of the rubber shelf liner glued to its bottom, which prevents scuffing the top, yet keeps it in place when opening the lid. Again, this allows for easy removal for cleaning.

The Bottom Line

All that is left is to hook up the co2 and draw a pint!

Full Parts List and Cost

Wow, I hope my wife doesn’t see that sum. Note that with the exception of the CO2 tank, everything was purchased new. A large amount can be saved if you are patient and scour ebay and/or craigslist.