Any books/help needed

[Suburban Cowboy]

I have been thinking about getting a kegerator. Down the road though, I would like to build a home bar in my unused formal living room.

I can't afford to build the bar right now, but I was hoping to get the kegerator. I have a few questions though; If I get a kegerator, is it possible later on down the road to 'convert" it to a setup where I have a beer tower mounted to my bar, rather than on the kegerator itself? (Thus looking more traditional?) Also, if I should choose to dispense a beer like guinness later down the road, will the existing equipment work as long as I get a nitro tank and special faucet?

I've usually seen folks put just one keg in their kegerator...is it possible to put two 1/4 kegs in and run a tower with 2 faucets for if I want more variety? What about if I wanted to do a nitro beer and a regular beer at the same time (say to be able to serve black and tans) Would there normally be enough space for two 1/4 kegs, a nitro tank, and a CO2 tank?

Are there any other considerations I need to keep in mind?

I went to the local borders bookstrore yesterday, but they didn't have SQUAT on home bars or anything similar...any resources would be helpful. Books/videos, etc that you can point me towards.

Thanks in advance from a newbie.

[toneyc]

Man, that's a lot of questions.

Ok, yes, you can convert your kegorator down the road simply by unscrewing the tower and screwing it onto your bar top.

Yes, to the Guinness question.

How many kegs can you fit in your kegorator? Depends on how big your kegorator is. Mine is 13 CuFt. I doubt you could fit all that into one of these little single half-keg units, though.

Search for kegorator on this board. Many people have posted pics of their bars and their standalone kegorators. The sky's the limit!!

:)
Toney.

[corkybstewart]

If you're only interested in store bought 1/2 bbl kegs, it's going to take a very big fridge for more than one. An alternative is to look at bar/restaurant quality equipment. And you should be able to find this stuff at used equipment sales, going out of business auctions, etc. When my wife was a bartender she had an under the bar, sliding door cooler that held 6 kegs and the CO2 bottle, and it was only about 8'long, just the right size for a home bar. The taps obviously came out of the top and were glycol cooled, another important consideration.
If on the other hand you homebrew or have access to 1/6 bbl kegs(cornelius) a medium sized chest freezer can hold 6. My 12.8 cu ft holds 6 5 gallon kegs. The disadvantage is that it would have to be on casters so you could pull it out to open it.