I got a couple of corny kegs and a 5gal glass carboy off of craigslist for $50. The poor guy has gout, thus his homebrewing days are over.

The setup came equipped with some hoses, and a bunch of his old homebrewing books and periodicles. Anyway, now that I have this stuff, I need to figure out how to use it! lol

My beer fridge, that I hoped I could turn into a keg fridge, has one of those freezer units on top that makes the interior too small for the keg. Any tips on modifying this thing to work?

Also, the setup didn't come with a CO2 tank or regulator...what's the cheapest way to get started?

Also, the setup didn't come with a CO2 tank....

You might try going to a place that sells fire extinguishers etc. They often have used CO2 tanks for sale.

Before you purchase one be sure to check to make sure the date of its last hydrostatic test is not too far back. I believe tanks need to be tested every five or perhaps seven years.

Congratulations on a great find!

- Scott

Spyder wrote:My beer fridge has one of those freezer units on top that makes the interior too small for the keg. Any tips on modifying this thing to work?

Post some pics of the freezer unit. On my box, I simply unhooked the freezer unit from the sides of the fridge and shoved it to the back of the compartment. NOTE: Remember that the freezer unit is the source of your fridge's cooling ability. Damaging it could render your fridge useless!

Cheers,
Dave

GuitarLord5000 wrote:

Spyder wrote:My beer fridge has one of those freezer units on top that makes the interior too small for the keg. Any tips on modifying this thing to work?

Post some pics of the freezer unit. On my box, I simply unhooked the freezer unit from the sides of the fridge and shoved it to the back of the compartment. NOTE: Remember that the freezer unit is the source of your fridge's cooling ability. Damaging it could render your fridge useless!

Cheers,
Dave

lol...that was my concern. When I was checking the thing out, I noticed that all of the coolant lines were running into the freezer plate.



This is the unit that I have. Notice all of the shelves are removable, but the bottom one is a half shelf. The back half is a hard molded shelf, most likely due to make room for the motor unit in the back.

I'll need to create a photo bucket account if this catalog pic isn't detailed enough.

I had planned on starting out with an inexpensive small refrigerator and doing everything myself. When I started pricing out the items I needed to add, including reinforcing the bottom to hold the CO2 and keg I was approaching the price of a complete unit. I guess if I had an old refrigerator it would have been more reasonable.

My local beer and wine making dealer not only sells the CO2 bottles, he fills them for $15 which is cheaper than a welding shop. Plus if I take my empty tank in chilled overnight he will fill my same tank instead of exchanging it. Since I live 100 miles away from him. I chill it overnight, then ice it down in an ice chest. Forgot to mention, I live in the wilds of Wyoming, nothing worth buying is much closer than 100 miles. We're 20 miles from the nearest town of 8000.

What size bottle do you get filled for $15? I get my 5lb bottle filled for $3.50 over here.

Cheers,
Dave