Fridge help?

[misty]

Hello,

I'm completely new to the kegerator movement, but I'm looking to get one for my husband for Christmas. He's a do-it-yourself kind of guy so I think buying a fridge and then a kit may be best. My problem is I have no clue what size fridge is needed. If it fits just one standard size keg it's fine. Also, we love Guinness, but I understand it has different needs than a regular microbrew? Is it backward compatible though... If you get a Guinness tap, can you use it on other beer?

I think those are my questions for now and please excuse my ignorance, I'm just trying to jump on this bandwagon.

Cheers,
Misty

[misty]

One more thing... we have a large fridge/freezer in the garage that's just holds beer and soda mainly (not even half full). Can I get a conversion kit for that and keep a smaller 5 gallon keg in there? Even with the other bottled beer/soda in there.

[edramshaw]

I don't have my dimensions in front of me but it goes something like this; Guiness kegs and other half barrels are all about the same size, an American half barrel is a few inches taller so I would use that as a minimum. If that fits then everything else will. You certainly could use that other fridge for 5 gallon kegs because the only space you really need in there is enough for the keg. To answer your second question, you can pour Guiness through a converted fridge kegerator but you will need some extra parts woudl you could buy all at once or later on if you wish. Essentially you will need to change out the faucet when you are serving Guiness. This can be done quite simply with a tap wrench. The other thing you need to change is the gas. Regular beer pours with straight CO2 and Guiness pours with a blend of CO2/Nitrogen. A new regualtor or an adapter for the old one will be necessary to switch gases.

So long story short, find a fridge big enough to hold the biggest keg you would want to carry and pick up one of the conversion kits here at Micromatic and you will be all set. Regardless of what you do you can certainly keep other beer in there but be aware that every time you open that door you are causing the temperature to change which could be a problem if it is often enough to cause the beer temp to fluctuate. Normally this is a problem in retail accounts where the doors are opened a lot. Good luck to you!