The Return of the Blog-O-Beer

I'm back like a bad case of herpes! I'm finally settled down in DC and just moved in to my newly purchased condom (umm, I mean "condo"...I'm still on the herpes subject apparently). Okay, enough about STDs! On to beer!

Along with my new home, comes a newly built kegerator. When I moved down to DC, I got a new 5.5 cubic foot chest freezer as a mini-kegerator in my temporary apartment. Now that I have my own place, I'm going to be using the chest freezer for lagering, and I moved my 14 cubic foot upright freezer down to DC from NJ. Last week I converted the upright freezer into a full blown kegerator with three taps. Despite a "small" snafu along the way, it's all setup and waiting for beer! I only need a drip tray and some tap handles to complete it, which are both on their way. Check out the pictures below!

I built the kegerator by drilling three holes through the door using a 1-inch hole saw. Shanks run through the door with faucets on the outside and 5 foot beer lines attached on the inside. The gas systems consists of a 5lb CO2 tank and a primary regulator connected to a 3-gauge secondary regulator, so I can control the individual pressure in three different kegs. My small snafu was the fact that one of the three holes I drilled cut through two wires in the door. I managed to fix the wiring by removing the back of the freezer door, digging through the insulation, and splicing the wires back together with. In a moment of stupidity though, I decided to plug the freezer in after drilling through the wires--this shorted out the circuit board in the LCD control panel on the freezer. Luckily, I was able to order a replacement control panel from Frigidaire--it arrived yesterday and everything is back to working order!

The only thing I'm missing now is beer. I'm going to be re-starting full-scale brewing operations this weekend when I brew my inaugural beer in my new home: a Munich Helles. I've setup an agressive brewing schedule for myself; I plan on brewing 3 weekends in a row in order to stock up the kegerator. The other two beers will be a Rye IPA and an Imperial Brown Ale. I'll have details plus pictures of my brew day after the weekend. Cheers!