Who knows stuff about Kegerators?

[JPinAZ]

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You can't get two commercial kegs in a mini-fridge with the very rare exception of microbrewers who both keg cornies and let you buy them.

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Actually, there are a lot of breweries that keg in 5 gallon sankey kegs. Just checking the availability at my local Bevmo, you can get them from Widmer, Pyramid, Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Redhook, New Belgium, & Fosters (which one of these things is not like the others, which one of these things doesn't belong? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] ).

[Yaboosh]

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You have no idea what you're talking about. If it stays cold, it will stay "good" as in "Won't kill you" for practically forever. It will stay "good" as in "Not skunky" for 4-5 months or maybe longer. For those who have had skunky keg beer, either it went through temperature fluctuations or, far more likely, the lines were filthy. I clean all my lines either once a month or between kegs, whichever comes first. But I'm pretty anal about it and would bet that most people with kegs - including bars - don't do it nearly as often as they should. Without cleaning, you'll get beer stone, mold, bacteria, and all sorts of other nasty deposits built up in your lines, so you'll essentially be filtering your kegged beer through filth. Not tasty.

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Errrr, try again. "Skunky" has a very specific meaning when it comes to beer, and it is solely a photoreaction. Light reacts with free radicals from the dissolved hop alpha acids and forms mercaptans, a sulfur compound that is the same chemical in a skunk's spray.

Temperature fluctuations or being stored at a high temperature can speed up oxydation, resulting in a cardboardy, wet paper, or even sherry off flavor in the kegged beer, but it will not be skunky until it comes into direct contact with light, mostly of the UV wavelength.

[guids]

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You have no idea what you're talking about. If it stays cold, it will stay "good" as in "Won't kill you" for practically forever. It will stay "good" as in "Not skunky" for 4-5 months or maybe longer. For those who have had skunky keg beer, either it went through temperature fluctuations or, far more likely, the lines were filthy. I clean all my lines either once a month or between kegs, whichever comes first. But I'm pretty anal about it and would bet that most people with kegs - including bars - don't do it nearly as often as they should. Without cleaning, you'll get beer stone, mold, bacteria, and all sorts of other nasty deposits built up in your lines, so you'll essentially be filtering your kegged beer through filth. Not tasty.

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Errrr, try again. "Skunky" has a very specific meaning when it comes to beer, and it is solely a photoreaction. Light reacts with free radicals from the dissolved hop alpha acids and forms mercaptans, a sulfur compound that is the same chemical in a skunk's spray.

Temperature fluctuations or being stored at a high temperature can speed up oxydation, resulting in a cardboardy, wet paper, or even sherry off flavor in the kegged beer, but it will not be skunky until it comes into direct contact with light, mostly of the UV wavelength.

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Im really starting to loathe most of you people.

[RunDownHouse]

Yaboosh,

Given a lot of the info in your post, its obvious that to you - and probably lots of brewers - "skunky" does indeed indicate a specific off flavor. To the other 200 million beer drinkers in the US, it means "gross." So you're right, but really missing the forest for the trees, particularly since I was trying to help out someone who didn't have a ton of understanding on the subject.

Badger,

I used the company OP linked to, beveragefactory, and since that first order was quick and reliable, had good CS, and nowhere else was significantly cheaper, I never used anyone else. As you can see from their site, if you just get a standard door mount with drip tray and simple regulator, it'll run $120 or so, and a tower a bit more than that. In the end, though, the important thing is that even the most expensive options will only run you half of what it costs to buy one that's pre-fabbed.

JPinAZ,

The southeast, where I live, is light years behind CA and the rest of the west coast when it comes to beer. I know I could pick up a 5g keg with a D coupler from one Nashville brewery, but I've never even seen them elsewhere. A year or two ago I actually spent a whole day on the phone trying to get a hold of some distributor who would send me kegs of Stone. No dice. I'd kill for a place like bevmo, and I'd settle for being able to buy a six pack and a bottle of wine in the same store.

[Yaboosh]

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Yaboosh,

Given a lot of the info in your post, its obvious that to you - and probably lots of brewers - "skunky" does indeed indicate a specific off flavor. To the other 200 million beer drinkers in the US, it means "gross." So you're right, but really missing the forest for the trees, particularly since I was trying to help out someone who didn't have a ton of understanding on the subject.


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Well, if it weren't for the fact that a skunked beer actually smells like a skunk, I would buy the fact that some people just think gross = skunk. But I think many people smell skunk, because they know what skunk smells like, and don't realize it is because their Corona or Newcastle is in a clear bottle, or because their Bud Light has sat out in the sun or in front of a fluorescent light for a bit too long.

But yes, I do agree with you that many people misuse the word skunky, but I think it is helpful to the person who may not understand that it is not temperature that makes their beer taste like a skunk's ass, but merely light. Drinkers of Corona and Heineken would be most likely to benefit from such advice. Heineken out of a can is a wonderful experience. Out of a bottle....ermm...not so much.

[trumpjosh]

Get one of the Bev-Air units. These are far superior to most, because they have cooling fans which cool the beer more and keep it more constant than the cheaper cold wall units.

I have a model basically like the BM-23 and it's excellent.

[EMc]

My dad cleans beer lines for a living now, he told me that if someone was to build their own, here is a great site for parts, and for top end premade ones:

http://www.micromatic.com/

Also too, you can build one easy if you knoiw someone in a bar, the beer truck guys leave the part you attach to the keg laying around all the time, which saves a [censored] bucks(not a ton).

If you get one clean out the lines every keg, just buy some of the solution off the site, some hot water, and take everything apart and let it soak for a few hours.

[beerworthy]

This site has probably the most information I have ever found online about kegerators.

http://www.kegerators.net

They also are running a free kegerator give-away contest.

Contest details: http://www.kegerators.net/kegerator-giveaway.php