Darwin, Kegerator question

[Old Bloke]

Hi Guys,
I'm just looking at getting into kegging and am looking at getting a kegerator. Will one work in Darwin considering the ambient temperatures up here? The new kegerators come with a fan to cool the tower part so am hoping that will prevent the problems that some people get on their first pours. Any advise would be much appreciated.
How many kegs do you realistically need? I normally brew 23 litres every three weeks in temperature controlled fridge.

Regards

Chris

 

[fdsaasdf]

My advice is that if you want to serve 1 degree beer in year-around ~30 degree humid environment then you might be pushing it to avoid first-pour foam with a standard keg king kegerator (assuming that's what you mean) unless the fridge lives in an air-conditioned room...

 

[Mozz]

Blokes up here have them. Haven't heard any problems apart from the controller on an earlier version needed to be reset every time the power failed. That's every other week in Howard Springs anyway.

 

[Old Bloke]

Thanks guys, appreciate your response.

Regards

Chris

 

[mr_wibble]

I have 2x upright fonts on my (home made) kegerator.
FWIW in the heat of summer the font fans have trouble doing much to keep the temperature down.

While the towers do look nice, perhaps making a kegerator with a wooden collar might keep the beer colder.
That or something better than a simple font fan, like a flooded font, etc.

 

[malt junkie]

How many kegs do you realistically need?

12 is a good round number. And thats what I told the missus as I accumulated them. ('I need them')

In reality it's good to have a couple more kegs than you have taps.

 

[Old Bloke]

Thanks gents for responding.
In regards to 12 kegs, umm.. living in a unit, that would take up a full room LOL.
Lets see me getting that through the boss.

Regards
Chris

 

[Hostage_85]

I have a 2 tap system with 2 Kegs and i'm forever running out.

Its better to have 3 or 4 kegs so that you can swap them out quickly.

I've convinced the missus of this also... haha

 

[Rocker1986]

I've got a kegerator which I have a 3 tap flooded font on, and have 7 kegs in rotation. I quickly discovered that only having as many kegs as taps or +1 wasn't gonna be enough :lol:

As for cooling the font, I did have one of the standard towers originally and I found the font fan worked much better if I put the conduit hose in the bottom of the font, turned it on full bore and blew the cold air up into the font, rather than the usual sticking the conduit as far up into the font as possible. In the end though, I just bought a flooded font and I've been much happier with its performance. I still get foamy first pours from the taps themselves being warm but I lose a lot less beer to it.

 

[Hostage_85]

Are you running Glycol through the flooded font?

 

[Rocker1986]

Not at this stage, just got a cut off 3L plastic milk bottle with water sitting on the shelf at the back of the kegerator that gets pumped through the font. Glycol would be nice, but I can't justify spending $1000 on a chiller system for it. Sometimes I dump a heap of ice into the water bottle which helps chill it a bit more than usual. Either way, it does the job it's intended to, even if it doesn't make the font look frozen on the outside.

 

[Hostage_85]

Ahh thats a pretty good idea... Might steal that for myself... When I eventrually get a flooded font that is haha.

 

[Rocker1986]

Steal away lol. Mckenry suggested it to me when I was looking at getting a flooded font and I decided to give it a go. It has worked well. I just got home from work about half an hour ago and poured a beer, very little foaming and the water pump hadn't even been turned on yet, so even the font itself seems to be a bit less susceptible to heat ingress than the standard ones are. The kegerator sits out on the back deck and cops the arvo sun as well, although I have blocked that off now. That said, it has been a cool day here, but it still works well on warm days. I'm really happy with it.