A Keg Refrigerator and a Wine Chiller for Your Home Bar

A keg refrigerator, or "Kegerator" is the most important feature of any home bar that serves beer. In this golden age of micro- and home-brewing, a wine chiller also comes highly recommended as a way to preserve rare and unique vintages of wine and beer. While it may seem costly to add such features to a home bar, the rewards far outweigh the costs. Many varieties of barley wine coming form micro brews in this day and age are best preserved for years, the subtle flavors and characters changing as much as fine wines, but over a shorter period of time.

The most important aspect of building your home bar is the refrigeration, so make sure that you have all of the units prepared BEFORE you start building your home bar. Refrigeration, piping for the sink, and the drain for the sink are aspects that must be considered first, along with placement. Should you wish to have your taps in the front of the bar, the kegerator will by necessity need to be part of the design of the bar. Other appliances, such as the sink, if you wish to have one, and the icemaker will need water lines to and from.

One advantage of having a wine chiller in your home bar is that it can be used to chill not only bottles of wine made from grape, but also these rare and tasty barley wines and specialty Belgian ales. Of course a cool cellar is considered the best area to store racks of fine wines of all sorts, but for quick chilling before consumption, a wine chiller under your home bar is ideal.

Similarly, a kegerator that keeps a small keg or two of your favorite micro or home brew allows the enjoyment of a pub draught ale in the comfort of your own home. With time, you may find your own home bar to become a better hangout than your local bar - and the closing time is up to you! As well as the patronage…

In order to serve your guests best, it is advisable to have not only a kegerator and a wine chiller, but also have room for chilled mixers and an icemaker. These can fit easily into a wine chiller or you can combine all aspects in one large kegerator conversion. By selecting a large refrigerator with an ice maker built-in, you can expediently transform it into a kegerator with a kegerator conversion kit in a matter of a few hours, and be able to chill wine, beer, mixers, and have ready made ice available all in one. The only problem with this solution to the home bar is placement of the larger unit. It takes up a lot of space, without a doubt, but can also make for a convenient end piece to your home bar. If you simply hang a large painting or place a cabinet with some curios or a large bookshelf around the end of the modified kegerator, you can add some nice décor to your bar as well.

The other way to go is to buy these units in the smaller and more compact style, placing the underneath the bar, or underneath the home bar back shelf. It is always wise to put the mini-fridge in this position so that guests may see what manner of brews are on-hand (if you have a mini-fridge with a clean glass door). Such "Beverage Centers" are easily found online, where you can also find a selection of kegerators, under-the-counter ice-makers, wine chillers, kegerator conversion kits, shot glasses, pint glasses, and just about anything you can think of to add to your home bar.

There is also plenty of room for imagination in the creation of your home bar. I have seen custom made beer coolers built into camping coolers, coffins, and even whole art cars devoted to serving drinks. Once, when working at the Burning Man event, I saw many varieties of roving bars built on top of a vehicle of some sort. One of the most inventive was a wild west themed bar that looked like a slowly moving sand dune with swinging saloon doors, faux cactus, and weather beaten wooden bar. I saw at least two other open air bars built upon the chassis of VW vans, where only the front of the vehicle remained, the back panels all being removed and replaced with a bar running down the center with mounted swivel chairs (6), and a Tiki-style roof for shade.

All this is proof positive that your dream bar can come to life, whether a stationary installation in you home, a portable bar capable of being set up on a camping trip, or even a mobile art car bar! Keep in mind that many resources are available online for all manner of home bar gadgetry, appliances, and advice. Websites such as Kegerators.net, wikipedia, and even youtube are rife with helpful articles and examples of how to make your home bar come to life.