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Brew Fridge
A lot of people purchase new appliances even if their old ones are still working fine. At the same time they usually pay to have the old one carted away. Consequently, a friend that works at an appliance store is a great source for old refrigerators. Anyway, I acquired an 18 cubic foot fridge for free. It required a good deal of cleaning, but otherwise was in good working order. After cleaning, I removed the plastic shelves from inside the doors and while I had the doors apart, replaced the old, smelly insulation with some regular fiberglass insulation. I removed the shelf units to make more room inside the fridge. To do this, lift the magnetic gasket that seals the door, to reveal the screws that hold it all together. Unscrew them all and remove the shelf assembly. I then got some 1/4" luan plywood and traced the outline of the shelf unit (don't forget the screw holes) onto the plywood. I cut the plywood to size, predrilled the screw holes and reassembled the doors. This is where I made a mistake. The 1/4" luan was too thick. What you really need is something the same thickness as the shelf unit, maybe a thin sheet of Plexiglass or some galvanized sheet metal. Another option would be to rabbet the edges of the plywood down to thickness of the shelf unit. So that everything would fit back together nicely. I went through all kinds of problems trying to get the doors to close properly. I finally worked it out, but one of these days I'll take the thing apart again and fix it properly.
Shortly after acquiring the fridge I ordered some kegs and ball-lock fittings from RCB Equipment and I got a 20 lb. CO2 tank and regulator from a local welding supply place. The tank was "leased" for about $100 and when I need a refill, I swap it for a full one. The "refill" costs around $18. I drilled a hole in the side of my fridge and ran the CO2 line inside. I hooked the gas lines together using a combination of PVC t - connectors. The taps were mounted through the front of the refrigerator door. Currently, I've got 5 taps on the fridge. I can fit the five kegs in pretty well, I could probably squeeze six in there if I had to. Here's a look at the front of the fridge, and here's the inside with 3 kegs hooked up. The drip tray you see in the picture is new. For the longest time I just kept a bucket on the floor in front of the fridge. I got sick of looking at it and sprung for the drip tray. It's a 24 inch long counter top model with a drain in the bottom. I drilled a hole in the door of the fridge and ran a hose through the hole and connected it to the drain. The other end of the drain hose goes into a plastic bottle strapped on the inside of the door. I'll just empty it when it needs emptying. I then built a box to set the drip tray in and attached it to the front of the door. The box matches the piece of maple mounted behind the taps. That piece of maple was also recently added to move the taps out away from the front of the fridge. I couldn't use some of the longer tap handles because they would hit the freezer door before fully shutting off. The extra 3/4 of an inch really helped. By the way, the drip tray came from Rapids, this is a great source for beer dispensing supplies, among other things. I control the temperature of the refrigerator with a Ranco ETC-111000-000 temperature controller. I got three of them on eBay for $35 for the lot. I think that was probably my best score on eBay! (I'm currently using all three of these, so I'm not looking to sell any of them.) I usually keep the temperature around 42°F for serving. I'm amazed at how long beer will keep in the kegs, most improve with age. I've had a kegs in the fridge for almost a year and the last glass was better than the first. As a wise man once said, "mmmmm, beer."
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