If you have ever thrown a party with beer, then you know about the after party mess. While 24 full cans fit nicely into the case, 24 empty beer cans can cover from here to as far as the eye can see. The solution. A kegerator. Anything from the Heineken Beer Tender up to the full blown kegerator will allow you to avoid the sticky mess that is taking cans back the next day. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that you’ve decided to get a kegerator,  the first question that always has to be decided is what kind.  Shortly followed up by how much work you want to do.  Kegerators come in numerous styles.   The one at right is a Mini Fridge with a tower on it.

Each kegerator has advantages and disadvantages so follow along for the rundown of each style.  If you think about where you are going to put your kegerator, you may be limited in the choice.  Even if this is the case,  it’s best to know about your options in case the ability to change it ever arises. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a number of different types of kegs.  They basic measurement is a the barrel (abbreviates to bbl).  All breweries that I’ve heard of, always talk in the number of barrels that they can produce in a single batch.   This then gets put into kegs for distribution to us, the drinkers.  There are a huge number  of keg sizes, but these are the ones that you as a kegerator owner will need to care about. Read the rest of this entry »

The tap is what you put on top of the keg to open it and allow the beer to flow out and Co2 to push in.  If you went with one of the counter top units,  this does not apply to you at all since you only have one option and they are all the same.  For the rest of us, there are a huge number of different taps out there leaving you with a question of which one do I want. Read the rest of this entry »

So,  Now that we know what kegs sizes we will commonly see, it’s time to talk about how you will actually purchase your beer.  This is how it works in Oregon.  Your state might vary a bit, but everything I’ve heard says that this is the more or less standard (except in Utah.  They can’t get real beer in a keg). Read the rest of this entry »

Now that we know where to buy beer, what different options there are for purchases of kegs, and what type of tap we want, the next major issue is whether to get a domestic, import, or micro brew.

If you love one type of beer and always buy that type, then odds are you just want to upgrade to buy it by the keg rather then the case. (Then again, If you bounce around and like to try different flavors every time you are at the store, you probably aren’t the right person for this article).

I tend to stay away from imports. Since I do rotate between summer (lighter) and winter (dark) beers, I need to have all the beers use the same tap. To do this, Both taps in my current kegerator are US Sankeys. This prevents me from going and getting many of the import beers. Even when I’ve thought about expansion, I’ve never really seriously considered adding a different tap. If you favorite beer is an import, then have at, but otherwise, most home kegerators won’t run them.

If you live an an area that is lucky enough to have great micro brews like me then you can get some real variety. Be aware that many micro-brews don’t have the consistency that the domestic beers have. This isn’t bad and many times isn’t significant unless you taste two batches side by side. As I mentioned when we were talking about distributors, many micro brewers don’t have the set schedules like a full distributor and that means that getting it may cause you problems. On the bright side, if you buy from the same brewer enough, gradually you get to know that and eventually you might find them more flexible for a regular customer then for some new person.

This one comes down to personal tastes. I run micros pretty regularly and every once in a while I will get a domestic beer. Usually that’s when it’s a great (cheap) deal though so read the next page to find out when get domestics.