"What's in the Kegerator???"

This is a common question I get from time to time...

To sum up, "Yes... I have a kegerator." Now, if you're asking yourself, "What's a kegerator," it's simple: It's a refrigerator that was built to hold a keg and distribute it through a tap.

It's a little different from a regular refrigerator because it has a reinforced flat surface on the inside - so, a keg can sit in it. I purchased it from Sears and it's made by Frigidaire.

Ok... enough said. On with some other common answers to the common questions...

Normally a keg will last in my house about 6 weeks. A keg is 15.5 gallons of beer. However, a keg can have a lengthy life-span due to the CO2 gas that pressurizes the beer.

Now the last one I had was Golden Monkey. If you know anything about that beer, you know it has a high alcohol content! So that one lasted about 4 months!

With my latest purchase, I was looking for something of the "session beer" variety... you know, one that you can drink easily. As you probably read below, it was a very difficult process which culminated in my finding a different keg reseller.

I went with Kegs & Barrels, and they did a great job. Like I said below, "communication" is key to me. Susan from K&B kept me informed throughout the week. She even apologized when a "slim" keg was delivered of my request - I told her that was ok. (A slim is half the size of a regular keg).

So Friday night I brought it home. It was much easier to move since it wasn't 15.5 gallons (165 lbs!). I then set out to clean the lines, the tap, and the coupler. This is standard whenever you switch out your kegs. The process takes about an hour. No big deal...

Well, after I hooked everything up and tapped into the keg, I put a glass under the tap and... "dripping stream." It was NOTHING! Very low pressure. I was devastated. Here I had spent the entire month trying to get this keg, and barely anything was coming out. Plus, it was flat. That meant it wasn't getting the gas it needed.

Instead of re-working the entire operation, I gave up. I was tired anyway from a long week.

Saturday I thought about the problem. I knew that it had to be the line from the coupler to the tap... but where?

Sunday I decided to jump in and disassemble it again. After about 20 minutes, I had it re-worked and was ready to pour a beer.... SAME FREAKIN' RESULT!

Now I was mad. It had to be the tap. If you've never seen the inside of a tap, there are multiple pieces that work together to make it pour your sweet sweet beer. One thing I did after taking it apart was to remove one of the washers.

Well, after that... success! The beer flowed and I was a happy camper. I then left for the evening and came back to discover there was a leak between the coupler and the line. Basically, the nut wasn't holding the pressure.

My sweet sweet beer was all inside the kegerator. What a mess! It wasn't a lot, but still it wasn't a good sight! I cleaned it up, and then put another washer on that nut.

Finally... fingers crossed... it's all good. If you ever purchase one, know this: It's a lot of work, but in the end, it's worth it.

Oh, and my beer of choice this month?

Rahr Blonde