New Faucet

A friend of mine bought me a Perlick stainless steel tower faucet for my birthday back in May. I had been having issues with leaks with the faucet that came with the kegerator pretty much since I got it. Both the faucet and elbow shank were original to the fridge and were honestly just worn out. I bought a new elbow shank and installed the faucet on the tower yesterday. It works great! There are no leaks or issues at all. I can control the flow of the beer a lot easier and am in love. I have looked at Perl faucets in the past and thought they were kind of pricey, but I can tell you (even after just one day) they are worth it. When I upgrade to a two-tap tower, I will be getting another Perlick to go with this one to replace the standard faucets that new tower comes with. I really like how simple and sturdy it is. It doesn't have a lot of working parts, which leaves less room for mishaps. The faucet itself is one piece (no moving ball pieces or locking joints on the faucet), which removes a lot of the leaking and pressure issues I was having with the other faucet. I know that standard faucets are a lot cheaper and ridiculously easy to find, but I highly recommend going for a Perl. This thing is awesome!

Until Next Time,
RHSC

Kegerator

Over the past couple of weeks I have been looking into kegging my beer. I have come to the conclusion that bottling is tedious and takes a really long time. Beer usually has to condition in bottles for at least 10-14 days, whereas keg conditioned beer only needs about 5 days. Also, force carbonating the beer is really the only way to ensure that each beer is consistently carbonated. I recently purchased a keg refrigerator, or kegerator. I've been pricing kegerators, online and on Craig's List, and finally came across one for sale at an antique shop in Raleigh. The owner wasn't even really aware of what he had. It is an old U-Line "Keg-Meister" complete with tower and CO2 tank. This model was discontinued around 1994 or 1995. It was rusted, dirty, and in need of lots of work, but worked fine and got cold in a hurry. It also has tons of space. It will easily hold two 5-gallon Cornelius (corny) kegs. He was asking $295, but I got him down to $250 once I told him about all the parts I was going to have to replace and modify for home-brew kegs (it was set-up for commercial kegs). I jumped on it immediately.

What I've Done So Far:

• Scrubbed down all the exterior metal--it looks silver again
• Scrubbed the interior--it's still rusted, but not as bad as it was
• Cleaned and scrubbed the drip tray and drain
• Replaced the beer line
• Soaked and cleaned the shank and faucet
• Replaced the commercial couplers (gas-in and beer-out) with ball-lock couplers for corny kegs
• Replaced the regulator and gas hose for the CO2 tank.
• Found a Sam Adams tap handle and put it on instead of the little black knob it came with

I eventually want to replace the tower with one that has two faucets so that I can tap two kegs at once. I'm not sure that I'll keep this one forever, but it's a great start. I already have a keg and am planning to keg condition my latest batch (see the Chocolate Macadamia Nut Porter post). It's a great investment and I've been told by many who have made the same leap that I got a great deal. Pictures below.

Until Next Time,

RHSC