jakedudeta

Hello and howdy for all you drinkers out there. I have recently decided to look into the purchase of a kegerator and Im wondering what information is out there.

Im looking at getting a stand alone unit that is not a regular fridge conversion. Several makes are available. My local Sams club has a unit made by Danby that will fit a 1/2 or 16 gallon keg. This is the unit that I am interested in, so I can avoid paying the shipping costs. Ive looked for reviews and several people have commented that it did not keep the beer as cold as they wanted. Has anyone used this unit and had problems?

How about other units?

I know that Sanyo and Haier make a similar model.

Any information helps. Thanks yall.

scionofPCFL

Built ours from an old fridge. Holds a full keg, a pony keg, full bottle of CO2, and 2 cases of Guiness tall boys.

That's the route you should go. It's a lot of work, but it's a lot more fun. And think about all the beer you get to drink while building it!

seattledave

after a couple beers, the exact coldness of your beer isn't gonna matter too much.

u should be using a frosty glass anyway.

jakedudeta

Yeah, I plan on using a frosty glass, but then again, that gets hard after you have a few. If I had a dollar for every glass Ive dropped. . . .

scionofPCFL

A good beer mug/glass will survive falls on all services except concrete or tile. It's another reason I prefer hardwood floors.

jakedudeta

Well, after searching long and far I gave up and headed down to my local Wal-Mart for yet another 30 bomb of keystone light, when low and behold there was a kegorator in the beer isle, made by a company called Nostalga, underwritten by the hellman corporation. There was a website on the box so I gave 'er a look see. To my suprise its a company that makes some of the skymall products sold on airplanes. The unit looked pretty good and was about $100 cheaper than what else I have seen. Its now set up in my kitchen awaiting a keg. Finding a CO2 fill up was a chore, but I should be getting a keg tomorrow, more information forthcomming.

Cheers

BigMURR

God what I would do for either a yager despenser or a kegerator...

scionofPCFL

Is water too strong for you or something?

BigMURR

Hahaha keystone is horrible
Killians or Newcastle is where it's at.

scionofPCFL

You can buy one of those yaeger dispensers from the distributors. Around here they charge you $300, and you get 3 big bottles to go with it.

I get more of a buzz on apple juice than on Keystone Light. Seriously. KL is just water downed Coors light, and I'm not kidding about that either. They take the barral of bad Coors Light, and inject a bunch of water into it, then relabel it. There's a reason it's cheap.

jakedudeta

Ok, enough with the keystone bashing, here is why:

1. Im a poor law student and I simply dont mind the bite of cheaper beers.

2. You only really taste the first 4 or 5 anyway.

3. As I learned in college, if you bring a case of good beer to a party you only get 4, so you have to learn to love something that people wont take.

4. Keystone is made by coors brewing, as its damn near identical to coors light.

5. It comes in the "specially lined can" what more do you need.

Finally, I bought the kegerator so I could get bud light kegs and actually pay less for the beer than getting keystone 30 packs.

scionofPCFL

When I was a poor non-law student, I still paid the extra buck-fify for better beer. And there are better cheap beers out there.

If you had a stronger beer you'd only need 4 or 5

This is true, but a 6 pack of better beer is much easier to hide, and if it's unique enough, nobody will drink it because they'll be spotted eaiser.

30% more water content than coor light

Can beer is for beaches, rivers, lakes, and other places where broken bottles would be bad for bare feet.

:bleech: Since you got the kegorator, you need to be more imaginative now. Buy a keg of Heinekin (law kids love that stuff), and invite the friends over, force them to ante up $5/each. Heinekin in the bottles is nothing like the Heinekin in the kegs. It's like the difference between a quarter pounder and a filet mignon. That green bottle absolutely kills the beer, but the keg is fresher (non-pasterized) and zero light ever hits it.

Keg beer is the bomb.

You won't be able to do any Guiness or Bass with your set up, they use Nitrogen for the bubbles.

congrats on your purchase, btw. Yours is now the official party spot, milk it for all it's worth. You will now be paying more for tp, and cleaning up your place a lot more (you can probably kiss your deposit good bye) but it's worth it. You can get donations out of people in the form of cash and/or food now, and don't be afraid to ask. You are officially one of the coolest students in law school now.

jakedudeta

Ive had kegged heineken before, its great, so long as its poured into a chilled glass. I dabble in home brewing and am looking into kegging a batch of my homebrew. I have come close to newcastle flavor a time or two, so wish me luck. As far as keystone I stand by it till the very end. 12 buck for 30 cans of beer cannot be beat. Its the best beer for beer pong, it tastes great when its cold and the water in the beer beats the hangover. Finally it does not give one the wonderful morning after guiness $hits. I used to drink alot of the dark beers from Deschuttes in Bend, Oregon, but I gave it all up after realizing its 600 calories per beer 7.9% alcohol and I literally cr@pped my life out in the morning.

If Im going to spend the cash I get growlers from local brews, its always better. However, Im a keystone light man and damn proud.

scionofPCFL

This is a very very dirty trick: Have two kegs of differing brews. Open the Bud/Miller/Coors/Keystone Light first. When that one gets cashed, people are already lubed up pretty good, their tastes are deadened, and they have established a drinking rate for the night with weak beer. Then open up the Ice House keg. Within an hour of the second keg getting tapped, the party will be flying.

In the area I was in, Bud Light, Heinekin, and Shiner were all within about $5 of each other on the keg level, so it's probably pretty close in your area. Craft brews are the ones that will push the keg price into the 130's and beyond.

Can you get Buff Gold in your area? You can definitely get Fat Tire. Those two are amazing. Oh, also from the Coors brewery, also try Coors Gold (a 50/50 mix of yellow coors hops and red Killians hops).

Wait a second.....don't yall have the 3.5% beer there in OK? Does that apply to the kegs as well? You may be a lot more limited than I orginially thought.

scionofPCFL

On the home brew front:

We did that for a while, did a co-op sort of thing. There were 8 of us in 4 teams, to help defray the costs and labor. Bottling was by far the worst part of the ordeal, however one of our buddies had a 3 gal keg. He came over when our Bass Ale was ready and we kegged 3 gal and bottled the other 2 (all the recipies we had were 5 gal based). The kegged beer was ready the next day, and let me tell you....it was nector of the Gods. By far the best thing I have ever put in my mouth, bar none.

The brew shop we used had a big ole recipie book. You just told them what beer you like, and they had the hops and everything gor it, it was great. Austin Homebrew Supply, and I think they have an online presence, it might be worth it to you.

SeanstC

ok.. since this is a beer thread ...

anyone ever heard of "rogue dead guy red ale"? its pretty awesome.. thick, but not dark (its a red duh) and stays cold very long.. kinda weird.. but strong.. think its like 18 or 19% alcohol?

jakedudeta

As far as Oklahoma, yes we have the 3.5% stupid rule, but anything purchased from a liquor store, ie, heineken, newcastle, ect. is its usual 4.5% or whatever, dumb rule. Funny you mention it because I may make a run at the state legislature with that as my campaign platform (yes I like beer that much). The bud light keg I have in there right now was $80. The liquor store has shiner bock for $85, there is a 3 day wait and in the summer I love to stick with the light cheap water-ed down beers. Which brings me to the dead guy ale. Its no 18%, but its strong.

If anyone likes dark beer look into the selection from the deschuttes brewery, its in Bend Oregon. Stuff has dark head on it. If you like coffee try the obsidian stout at 9% alcohol. If you ever make your way into Missoula Montana my alma mater, try kettlehouses discombobulator doppelbock at 12% or something, one growler will floor you. I love the home brew and with the CO2 setup I can keg my brews and make them last (the real idea behind the kegerator).

If any of you are in the market with some work this $400 deal from walmart aint bad.

Cheers, happy 4th, dont blow your hand off.