Kegerator question

[britton]

I'm thinking of building a kegerator and wondered about a couple of things:

1. What temperature do you guys set them to?
2. What do you use for temperature control, the inbuilt stat or do you wire your own STC1000 type controller?

Thanks in advance

 

[AnimatedGIF]

I'm thinking of building a kegerator and wondered about a couple of things:

1. What temperature do you guys set them to?
2. What do you use for temperature control, the inbuilt stat or do you wire your own STC1000 type controller?

Thanks in advance

You'll not regret building one!

1. Depends on what you're serving
2. Depends on answer to 1.

To be a little more helpful, I have my kegerator (which I use for lagers) with no temp control, as it is designed to keep to 3C so I see no need for temp control.
My keezer I have set to 12C (in the middle of what is considered "cellar temperature") using an Inkbird as I prefer plug-n-play rather than doing wiring myself. I use the keezer for ales.

An inkbird would work just as well with a kegerator as a keezer.

 

[MrJay83]

Do you prefer your kegerator or keezer? I'm slowly getting the pieces together to build one. While I was dead set on a kegerator I'm being drawn towards a keezer now.

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

I set mine to 11c irrespective of what is on tap. I generally make IPAs of various styles, pales, bitter and pilsners. I use an inkbird to control.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Do you prefer your kegerator or keezer? I'm slowly getting the pieces together to build one. While I was dead set on a kegerator I'm being drawn towards a keezer now.

Honestly, they both have their advantages. I think if I could only have one, I'd go for my kegerator as it's easy to store bottles in too, or even a leg of lamb if needed! In fact, it currently also has a bag of spinnach and 4 pints of semi-skimmed in it.
That said, my keezer holds more kegs and it's easier to mount extra suff to (I have a beer engine on the side of mine), and it provides a surface to put things on (drinks etc).
Available space is also a big factor. Kegerators have a smaller footprint usually, but can also be quite a bit taller as you can see in the photo.
It's all still a work in progress - I am yet to add a bar top, paint the fridge, and neaten up the mount for the beer engine. I only added the left-most tap this afternoon.

 

[MrJay83]

Cheers. Something to think about.
Great setup you have there.

 

[allotment_fox]

My set up is also work in progress & fully paid up member of the corny keg collectors club
Its an tall secondhand larder fridge located in my garden shed fondly called the covid arms from lockdown when draft beers were passed across garden fences. it holds 3 kegs 4 at a squeeze set at 11.5c at the moment with an ink bird just seems an easy way of controlling temps there is also room for bottle storage + bits and bobs brewing related. CO2 bottle and regulator stored to one side beer taps in a home made wooden box to the side. will post a pic when i get chance. hope you get on ok

 

[Sprocker]

I have an old larder fridge that I converted and currently use the inbuilt thermostat. The highest I can set it currently is 7 degrees, but I prefer my ales around 10 degrees.
I'm thinking of getting an inkbird to allow me to control the temperature a little better.

 

[Braufather]

I’m going to build mine next week. Everything is ready to go. As I’ve got a spare inkbird I’ll use that to keep it at 8c which is my preferred carbing and serving temp. Mainly IPAs and Pales.

 

[britton]

thanks everyone, iteresting reading, it will be for ales as thats all i brew. Im suprised some say a keezer is a smaller foot print. I was going to go with an under counter fridge, i only have 2 corneys so that should be fine for me.

 

[MrJay83]

thanks everyone, iteresting reading, it will be for ales as thats all i brew. Im suprised some say a keezer is a smaller foot print. I was going to go with an under counter fridge, i only have 2 corneys so that should be fine for me.

Just wondering what corneys you'll use (AEB, Kegland, etc)? On paper they all seem to fit my fridge but reality could be a bit trickier.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

If you are looking at different fridges, then you might want to check out this thread: List of fridge internal dimensions

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I'm thinking of building a kegerator and wondered about a couple of things:

1. What temperature do you guys set them to?
2. What do you use for temperature control, the inbuilt stat or do you wire your own STC1000 type controller?

Thanks in advance

1: It really depends what I'm doing: fermenting, cold crashing or just keeping the beer at serving temp :-)
2: I use an external controller because (a) the existing thermostat took up a bit too much room in the enclosure, and (b) I wanted to operate over a much wider range of temps.

I think the internal thermostat would in fact be OK - I was worried that it wouldn't hold the temperature steady enough; but in reality 20L of beer doesn't change temperature very quickly...

 

[allotment_fox]

I'm thinking of building a kegerator and wondered about a couple of things:

1. What temperature do you guys set them to?
2. What do you use for temperature control, the inbuilt stat or do you wire your own STC1000 type controller?

Thanks in advance

My set up basic I know but it works for me always on going

 

[MrJay83]

My set up basic I know but it works for me always on going

Did you insulate the external lines? I had a pipe dream of putting my kegerator in the shed and a tower on the kitchen counter top. The wife green lit it but I'm of the impression I'd waste too much beer (probably 5' max length for the external lines in my case).

 

[crowcrow]

I keep mine at 3 to 5c as I like my beer cold and we also use it for soft drinks and overflow food storage when the house fridge is full, so it needs to be at food safe temps.

Use a cheapo inkbird clone type temp controller, and I put the probe between too defrosted 'ice bags' that come with online food delivery, this smooths out how often it turns on and off and keeps a better temp for me. If it dangles free I found it turned on and off a lot. I used to tape it to a keg with some foam on the other side, but found this too much of a pain when changing kegs.

I like a keezer as I can use it for 0.5c cold crashing.

 

[allotment_fox]

Did you insulate the external lines? I had a pipe dream of putting my kegerator in the shed and a tower on the kitchen counter top. The wife green lit it but I'm of the impression I'd waste too much beer (probably 5' max length for the external lines in my case).

I use in the main apart from connections 3/16 beer line for both beer and in the mostly gas line as its a bit more flexible again apart from connections. I didn't bother with insulation it seems to work ok the beer flow is reduced a little with around 4 feet of beer line to the tap