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After talking about it on and off for years, I got a small dual kegerator for my spouse and I for christmas, it is this one: https://www.edgestar.com/kc2000twin-edgestar-full-size-dual-tap-kegerator-and-keg-beer-cooler/KC2000TWIN.html I realize this is on the lower end, pricewise, and I also know these things are touchy as gently caress because I worked in an office that had a couple of them, but I am guessing 2 adults in their late 30s/40s might be gentler on one than an office of 250 20-somethings. Also I use an EdgeStar medical freezer to keep ethanol at -30C for chemistry work and it's been a solid little workhorse for years. I don't really expect to save money this way; the fancy kinds of beer we get are, at most, maybe 25% cheaper in 1/6 kegs (and I expect to want to have 2x1/6 on hand, rather than one larger one). I also expect we'll supplement with sixpacks for variety. I am posting this because I would like to know, who else has home kegerators, what are your drinking habits like, and what else should I have known before spending money now that it's too late? Also, is cleaning the lines every 2 weeks sufficient, and how long do you invest in that generally. Cabbages and VHS fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Dec 1, 2021 |
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Dec 1, 2021 19:40
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 06:58 |
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someday I hope to have company to impress again   seriously, we're quite friendly with a few of the neighbors and while this has never been a hangout spot, once the nicer weather is here (and maybe we're less in pandemic hell? If not, outdoors is nicer at least) I can well imagine that if people got the idea they could stop by and day drink keg beer, I'm likely to get some extra visits, and my schedule generally allows such things so we'll see what happens. Bags Fly at Noon posted:I turned one of my taps into a nitro tap for variety but it usually just stays a Guinness tap since there isn’t really much on nitro available around here. Now you have the  in me coming out because I know that homebrew kegs are a thing and also that nitro iced coffee is loving amazing, and while I am sure I can find someplace to buy kegs of nitro coffee, if there is a way to make such a thing myself, the markup on all coffee products that aren't beans is absolutely nutty. Also, I drink as much or more coffee as beer by volume. Probably more.edit: haha wow https://homebrewacademy.com/cold-brew-nitro-coffee/ this is going to send me down many rabbit holes, like "where can I buy pure nitrogen". Nice. Wonderful woman I had a crush on all through gradeschool works for some major, coast-to-coast distributor of industrial gasses now. I should see if I can get an in, maybe have the occasional pallet fall off the truck when they get lost up here Cabbages and VHS fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Dec 1, 2021 |
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Dec 1, 2021 23:11
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Bags Fly at Noon posted:I could be wrong but I think coffee needs pure N2 and not beer gas mixture otherwise it tastes off? Yes this is what I've read. I am reading about converting a tap, I see kits etc, that sounds like a next summer project. According to shipping, our kegerator will be here next week, so that gives me plenty of time to get it set up and hidden behind a wrapped box, though I will resist actually tapping anything until Christmas, I think -- torn on that, because I'd like to make sure everything works ASAP, on the other hand I have a 30 day return, and having a chilled sixer and charged co2 tank sitting in there ready to go, but actually tapping it when my spouse "opens" it, sounds fun. Trying to get a sixer of this stuff as first beer: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9784/224262/ It's great. Delicious and dangerously mild for an 8%er. Was 2020/2021 season Official Ski Beer for me. Probably back to Lawson's Sip of Sunshine for that this year. 
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Dec 2, 2021 18:10
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My plan right now is to get two sixtels, crack one of them in a week or so and ensure everything is working fine on the system, then keep the other (better) one uncracked for Christmas morning.prayer group posted:It's actually sort of interesting that you bring this up! I just happened to look at the "Cold N/A" section of the inventory spreadsheet of a distributor we use at work recently, and it turns out we can get a sixtel of nitro cold brew from Stumptown for only $124, much cheaper than I expected. TBH if I had the opportunity to put a nitro keg of coffee in my house, I probably would not also want to make it myself. If we use this keg as much as I hope, getting a seperate prebuilt nitro single tap keg down the line seems fine I am getting sort of excited about this, UPS brought the unit yesterday. Of course they delivered it upside down, so I have righted it and am letting it sit the 24hrs plus that an inverted fridge should sit. Henrik Zetterberg posted:- Don’t tell your friends. They’ll drink it all and you end up paying $10/pint. Your real good friends will offer to throw down $5-10 per visit for all you can drink.  quote:The real good stuff hardly ever gets kegged, it’s mostly low to mid-tier stuff at BevMo, which is where I get most of my kegs. Some breweries will happily sell kegs to the public, and others won’t. Completely depends on the brewery. I made sure that at least some decent percentage of the stuff we like to drink, is reasonably available. Locally, Zero Gravity is easy to get, especially Cone Head. Madonna, which is my favorite of theirs, is harder but I made a couple calls and it seems like I may have a sixtel before Christmas. Lawson's is probably my favorite local; they seem veeeeery spotty on kegs but I do also live right next to the actual production facility and showroom etc so I am going to harass them once I am sure the device is all setup. Alchemist beers on tap are a thing you need to be a bar to order. I do have at least a friend as well as an acquaintance in that situation, though I suspect if they can get Alchemist sixtels they are very happy to just sell it all at $10/pint or whatever. I have no real plans of trying to do this, but, if COVID ever opens up enough that I am slurring to my favorite barmen again, perhaps I will ask! atothesquiz posted:That brings me to how to tap and pour a new keg. I dont know how others do it but when i tap one, I turn off my CO2 valve to that coupler and just use the keg's internal pressure until it can longer pour (1, maybe 2 pints?). I then wait a bit while I drink that beer and pull the pressure relief valve to release any extra CO2 that's been made. At this point I turn the CO2 valve on so I know the keg is at the pressure I want. quote:But LOL at real (good) friends offering $5 or $10 a visit. If one of my friends offered me money to come drink at my house, with our without a keg, I'd be insulted. Yeah, I am deeply into the barter economy at this point. I haven't charged anyone for anything in ages, but I've swapped maple syrup for a frozen chicken, I give away an assload of extra weed, and most recently I traded ~4g of weed oil for a CODE/WASD branded TKL mechanical keyboard
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Dec 7, 2021 15:05
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Thanks to everyone's advice! This worked out real well, and I sent my mom home with a growler of local Madonna IPA.  I took the advice about PSI from the thread to heart and set to 9.5, ignoring the device manual telling me to set it to 12 or something, and we've been getting decent pours with not too much head right off the bat. Someone recommended longer lines to reduce foam, but, I am wondering -- what's the upward limit, can I have, like, twenty foot long tap lines coming out of this? If so, then I could conceivably leave the unit in the basement but run the lines directly into the kitchen and mount the tower into the kitchen countertop, which would be pretty sweet. Also, if anyone else cares, TCC is having a thread about how alcohol is the worlds shittiest drug and it's very  https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=1&threadid=3988711
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Dec 27, 2021 18:13
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  We ran out of Madonna and they happened to have a log of Switchback very locally, so I grabbed it without too much enthusiasm, it's an acceptable ale. The stuff out of this keg is darker, more flavorful and just better than whatever the gently caress comes in the bottles. amber vs yellow, too. interesting, I've noticed some variation in switchback bottled stuff, too. I am guessing smaller places have more variance.
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Jan 17, 2022 18:01
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 06:58 |
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Hah, love that I came to post about NA beers and now see the thrust of recent conversation. My spouse and I have done periodic purges, but post COVID my response to alcohol seems somewhat different in a bad way, and, also, I am in my 40s now and the fact I've been mostly drinking 1-3 beers a day since I was in my early 20s seems more and more dubious all the time. My mom recently gave up beer because of age-related health concerns and I had sampled some of the "fancy" NA beers my brother bought her; I hadn't tried any in years, since O'Doules was the only nationally available option. I'm surprised. That is, it doesn't surprise me that there's a spectrum of decent tasting NA beers now. What does surprise me, is, how strong the Pavlovian response is. I don't drink tremendous amounts but I've done it so long I have a tolerance anyway, so it's as much a "taste plus time of day" thing as anything else, and the good NA beers make me feel like I am "having a beer" to the point that I recently caught myself checking the clock to see how quickly I was drinking  My basic takeaway so far is that higher calorie stuff is better and lower calorie stuff tastes a lot less like beer. Things I've been drinking in order of preference: 1) Zero Gravity Rescue Club IPA 2) Athletic IPA, Haze IPA, Wit 3) Sam Adams NA haze I haven't tried Guiness yet, probably will at some point. My feeling is that if this is scratching some itch for me well enough that I am not actively missing beer, I'm better off not drinking? I went to a bar with friends after a synth jam session last week, ordered a Rescue Club, and basically forgot I wasn't drinking beer right up until I had to drive home at which point I thought, "cool, hour long drive in the dark, but at least I'm totally sober despite `drinking` in a bar for an hour!"
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Feb 7, 2024 19:11
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