It has been a bit too cold lately to enjoy any time in the Black Barn Pub, so I’ve had to do my drinking down in my Winter spot, the dram room down in the Salt Mine. Once I get the heater going in there, it’s actually very comfortable. I nestle into my puffy leather chair, cover my lap with a wool blanket or a wobbie poncho liner (or both if it’s really cold), pour myself a wee dram, and sit back to watch YouTube videos. But I’ve also been working on a project in the wood shop that’s finally coming to completion.
We’ve had a Kegerator for years now, and we’re currently pushing Labatt Blue…a nice, crisp Canadian Pilsner, Canada’s #1 selling beer. It’s also very popular here in Western New York, and I drink it occasionally, but I keep a quarter keg on hand for visitors to the pub. But I’ve always wanted my favorites on tap. I love Guinness and very light Pilsners like the Corona family of beers. As I currently try to stick to a very low carb diet, Corona Premier has been my beer lately. Still, I’ll sneak a Guinness now and again. Plus if I have it on draft, then it doesn’t have a label like the cans or bottles do. No label, no carbs, right?
So my recent project has been a 5-tap keezer. If “keezer” doesn’t sound familiar, it’s a chest freezer converted into kegerator. The 5 taps will give us lots of options; I’ll have my Guinness and Corona Premier, and three additional taps for a local IPA (for my wife @the sabigirl), water, and nitro cold brew coffee in the warmer seasons. In colder seasons, that tap can push another beer, a featured cocktail, a cider, sangria, or whatever we want!
I’m almost done with the keezer project, but I still have some tweaks to get the system complete. There are always little line leaks and since I’m pushing 5 taps, that means I have 5 kegs, each with a gas line and a liquid line. That’s a lot of connections. Plus, these are my own personal Cornelius kegs, not commercial beer kegs, and I have to test the gas and line posts on each keg. That can be a bit involved and tedious. Sadly, I lost about 80 ounces of Guinness the other evening to a tiny leak, but the small leaks can be surprisingly difficult to troubleshoot. Plus, as the chest freezer is tiny (only 7 cubic feet) it can be super crowded with the little kegs and lines, making access to kegs and lines difficult.
Once the tweaks are complete, it should be warm enough to paint the keezer cabinet with black appliance epoxy. I need steady 50 degree+ temperatures for that to cure properly. In the mean time, I might be forced to fill and drink from each keg a few times…just to make sure all the kinks are worked out 😉
I’ll post some build pics soon…