Operation: Draft Tower

Ever since I began kegging my homebrew, I started to dream of my own draft system.  Somehow, the mystique of home draft beer is destroyed when you have to tromp past the furnace, water softener and litter box to find it.  Or, so I've heard.

As I've pondered my own dispensing setup, I had several things to keep in mind.  First, as much as I wanted to convert a chest freezer, I was going to stick with my refrigerator.  Second, because I was going to use my existing refrigerator, the option of adding a kegerator under the bar was out too.  Had it been an option, this would have been the easiest way and probably, the most expensive too.  Third, I wanted three lines, as three is the max number of corny kegs or 1/6 barrels I can squeeze in the Frigidaire.  Also, three is greater than one line and that, is cool.

Oh, I forgot the most important part: wife approval.  Although I've been yammering about this for sometime, out of the blue Zoë decided I should just pull the trigger and make it happen.  Sometimes her ideas are just fantastic.

For great information on dispensing draft beer, I cannot recommend Micro Matic enough.  In fact, this page, on dispensing draft beer over 5 feet from the refrigerator, was my major reference.

My Plan

A 3 tap draft tower connected to my fridge via 2 inch PVC.  Per the MM page, I would run the three draft lines from the taps to the kegs inside the PVC.  The lines would be accompanied by a 1inch line which runs cold air from a blower inside the fridge.  Because of the distance to the taps, the blower is necessary to maintain a cool temperature on the beer lines and most importantly, temperature dependent good pours.  The cold air exits the 1inch tube at the top of the draft tower and returns to the fridge through the remaining void space in the PVC.  My fridge backs up to the wall directly behind my basement bar.  To make the connection to the fridge, all I need is two 90 degree turns.

Basic Equipment

6' 2 inch diameter PVC

2 - 2 inch PVC "street elbows"

2 inch hole saw

10' - 1inch vinyl tubing

silicone

Not so Basic Equipment

3 Tap Draft Tower - Although I love Micro Matic and have bought from them before, I ended up buying my tower from the Beverage Factory.  I was a little concerned about the height of the taller towers, as my optics are fairly low on the back wall.  Second, the price was excellent. 

36' 1/4" ID vinyl tubing - The pre-installed 5 foot beer lines were not long enough to make it all the way to my kegs.  To avoid dispensing problems, I needed to make my lines 12 feet each, which resulted in 36 total feet.

12 CFM Blower - Although Micro Matic sells it, I found the exact same blower for $47 less at Grainger.  Score.

First, the step I call "no going back".  I drilled a hole in the countertop.  Due to a pre-existing stud wall, my tower is slightly off center across the face of the bar countertop.  I'm fine with that, as I was not in the mood to re-build a wall.

With a new hole in the countertop, I needed to drill a hole through the back wall.

This was easier said than done.  I ended up making a second hole in the wall, as I found it difficult to completely make everything line up the first time.

After shooting through the cabinet backing and wall, I had access to the furnace room and the fridge.

In theory, the fridge will "never move", meaning my PVC line is permanent.  However, knowing my house, how I know my house, this is pretty much a pipe dream.  No pun intended.  If I am forced to move the fridge, I can pull apart the PVC from the fridge and move it where I need to.  In fact, I opted not to cement the PVC, just because I know at some point I'm going to be dissembling this thing for one reason or another.  To keep the PVC whole, I wrapped them in duct tape.

With the second 90 turn towards the fridge, I connected the last piece of PVC and then siliconed it to keep the fridge air-tight.  By far, the hardest part was running the beer and cooling lines.  Instead of purchasing the $50 worth of 1 inch cooling hose, I opted for 1 inch braided vinyl.  Although this was the cheap option, it was also, I think, the more difficult option.  Vinyl on vinyl isn't exactly smooth moving fun.  Think of skin on a waterless waterside.  Same thing, minus the human screams.  In the end, I thought about lubricating the lines, but wasn't sure if I wanted all of that goop in the PVC.  In hindsight, I should have.

With all of the lines run, I neeed a little more to run the one line to the blower, so I scabbed on an addition piece of 1 inch vinyl.  The blower runs off a 110, so i had an additional hole drilled in the fridge to run my power source.  The cable is terminated into the blower itself.  Also, the blower is situated as far from the PVC as possible so that it picks up cold air and doesn't simply return the "warmed" air coming right out of the pipe.

To preserve some fridge space, I opted to mount my CO2 cylinder on the outside of the fridge.

I used two barb fittings and a 4 inch nipple to connect the cylinder to the gas manifold.  Word of warning, be sure to use teflon tape or joint compound on your connections so that CO2 doesn't escape and drain your tank.  You know, cause I've heard it sucks and from looking at the picture above, it's obvious I took a stupid shortcut.

With everything connected, here are the three cornys crammed into the fridge.

And finally, the most important part, the finished tower.

It's pretty amazing how the tower stays cool.  So far, the pours have been great, too.  I had one frustrating leak on the center tap that I had to dissemble everything to fix.   It was a huge pain in the ass and the one reason why I was initially against the draft tower and wanted wall mounts.  Thankfully, all is well now.

I've since replaced the stock black handles with my picture handles from my outdoor jockey tank. My plan is to aways have at least two home-brews on draft and one commercial craft beer. My Arrogant Bastard is just about out, so I'm making plans on its replacement and on procuring the official tap handle too.

This project has been a long time coming and although not super cheap, I'm sure it is money I will recoup one day through either enjoyment or a home sale.  I told Zoë, to the right buyer, this would easily push them into the "buy" column.  For now, I'm just going to enjoy my pours of draft beer and relish the fact I can do it and not have to worry if the cat is headed towards the litter box, too.