Grill-out season in upon us and I got tired of the need to bottle beers to bring to a picnic, so, I decided it was time to build a portable kegerator. I have seen a bunch of posts and articles on building one out of a cooler but they all seemed to be for 2.5 gallon kegs - don't have any of those and don't want any...
I used a 100 quart Coleman Xtreme wheeled cooler, drilled some holes, put in a Perlick tap and a drip tray. I got a mini-regulator from Williams Brewing that runs off of paintball CO2 cartridges and ran that to the keg through a hose with a shut-off valve. The keg is held in place with two fabric straps that I fastened to the bottom of the keg. And I added a digital thermometer that I found which fit perfectly into one of the cupholders.
I positioned the corny to rest against the side of the cooler opposite the wheels because there is a sort of ledge on the other side and that side has the big handle to rest the cooler on when standing up.
I used it yesterday for the first time and it worked great. I bought a dozen of those blue freezer packs and it got the cooler down to 35 in about an hour and it stayed cold all afternoon. While it was upright, sitting on the handle, it was very stable - you would have to try to knock it over.
Overall, it was pretty easy and well worth the effort...
I used a 100 quart Coleman Xtreme wheeled cooler, drilled some holes, put in a Perlick tap and a drip tray. I got a mini-regulator from Williams Brewing that runs off of paintball CO2 cartridges and ran that to the keg through a hose with a shut-off valve. The keg is held in place with two fabric straps that I fastened to the bottom of the keg. And I added a digital thermometer that I found which fit perfectly into one of the cupholders.
I positioned the corny to rest against the side of the cooler opposite the wheels because there is a sort of ledge on the other side and that side has the big handle to rest the cooler on when standing up.
I used it yesterday for the first time and it worked great. I bought a dozen of those blue freezer packs and it got the cooler down to 35 in about an hour and it stayed cold all afternoon. While it was upright, sitting on the handle, it was very stable - you would have to try to knock it over.
Overall, it was pretty easy and well worth the effort...