Adding Taps to Your Kegerator

Adding taps to your home draft system, or kegerator, is easy. Deciding how many taps to add can be the hard part, but once you decide that, it's not far to go. If you made your own kegerator from a kit, you should already have all the tools you would need. In this case, you just need the new parts and to figure out how to hook it all together. If you bought a pre-made kegerator, you should think hard about whether you want to take the hole-saw to her as it may void your warranty. We will go step by step through some of the different options available for adding taps to your kegerator.

The first question you will have to answer when considering adding taps to your kegerator is this: how many taps do I want? The most practical consideration for this question is how much room you have in your kegerator. If you have room for 4 kegs plus a CO2 tank, then you're looking at 4 taps at most. If you are a die hard beer fan and/or home brewer, this should be enough taps. So, when determining what parts to order, you must remember to order not only the taps, but also extending connectors or air distributors for your CO2 tank. Without the pressure going to all 4 kegs, your four taps wouldn't be all they could be, right?

Now let's make sure that you have got a handle on how much each tap is going to cost you. Financially speaking, lets do some itemization. For each tap that you want to add, you need the following parts:

• 1 beer shank around $20
• 1 faucet around $20
• 1 beer faucet handle around $3
• 3 feet or so of surgical tubing for beer lines, plus fittings $10
• 2 feet or so of surgical tubing for CO2 lines, plus fittings - $10
• Spill Tray (if necessary) - $50

So, we are looking at around $50 - $60 dollars for your basic parts, per beer line, but there is one more factor to take into account. The CO2 regulator is only equipped to dispense to one keg. The simplest way to compensate for this is to simply trade the CO2 fitting, as the keg you are dispensing from loses pressure. While this may be cost effective in the short term, it will become irksome as you have to open and shut your kegerator in the middle of serving. This will cause your kegerator to lose temperature control during serving.

If you are looking for a more comprehensive CO2 solution, you have a couple of ways to go about rigging your CO2 supply. The high-end method is the 2, 3, or 4-way secondary air regulator. These units cost about $80, $125, and $160 respectively, and allow you to control the CO2 pressure powering each keg independently. If you like to have highly differing beers on tap at once, you may want to go this route. This is because beers with different bodies and carbonation levels need more or less carbonation than each other to achieve the most desirable body and carbonation levels.

Another way to go with the carbonation is the 2-way "air Y kit" which splits the CO2 line from one into two different lines. With 3 of these kits, you could have 4 CO2 lines all pushing the same amount of gas. Each unit costs about $23. While being modular and expandable, this option is also relatively inexpensive.

If you have a tower-style kegerator, we're afraid your most likely options will be either to buy a multi-tap tower or to install a secondary tower. Either of these options can be tricky unless you are the one who designed your kegerator. We would advise against any action that would void your warranty if you happen to be the owner of a brand new kegerator. Also, for owners of factory designed kegerators, We would suggest contacting your manufacturer regarding finding local certified kegerator technicians. Or, if you are interested in going D.I.Y. with the project, still, to inquire about kits available or recommended for adding taps onto your kegerator.

We will now go over the tools necessary to complete the project of adding taps to your kegerator. You will need:

• a faucet wrench,
• a 7/8" or 1" hole saw,
• a drill,
• screwdrivers,
• Wrenches,
• and hose clamps.

That should do the trick. Now that you are setting down to work on the project, you must determine the best spot for the new taps to be located. Your primary consideration should be the avoidance of coolant lines that keep your kegerator running cold. Most units lack these lines in the door, making this the obvious choice for mounting, as it is made of naught but metal, plastic, and insulation. In some cases, the best choice will be to mount the taps in a wooden "collar" that goes between the lid and the main body of the kegerator.

Now, check that your location will be ergonomically satisfactory. Look inside, too, and make sure your other beer and CO2 lines are not going to be in the way. Make sure that there is room for another spill tray as well, or that your already existing spill tray can handle the new flow. Some kegerator owners will find that it is easier to move their existing beer tap(s) or spill tray to accommodate the new one(s). The process is easy in either case, and will not take much longer to take out and re-install the old one if you wish maybe five or ten minutes more.

Once you have decided the location, carefully mark your new hole and drill it. Next, mount your beer shank and faucet using crescent wrenches and the faucet wrench. Now, hook up your beer lines and install your choice of CO2 dispersion systems. The CO2 system should go in without much trouble, the work being mostly consisted of attaching hose clamps with screwdrivers.

This should get you through the process of adding taps to your kegerator.