How to Build a Keezer: Unleash Your Inner Craftsman with this DIY Beer Fridge

Sections:

  1. The Gas Setup
  2. Keezer collar
  3. Insulating the keezer collar
  4. Add a fan and other updates

When you think of a kegerator, you normally think of an old clunker of a fridge in the corner of a frat house, covered in bumper stickers and stale Natty.

Your kegerator should add style to your place. It should turn heads and get people talking. The type of kegerator I will teach you to build, known as a keezer, will do just that.

Then it’s up to you to fill it with great beer, but I’m sure you can handle that.

Picture of a keezer with collar for homebrewing

This page is the starting point for building your keezer. What follows are the steps I wrote about the build as well as parts lists for the kegging setup I use.

Make sure to scroll the the bottom of the page to check out pictures of the build as well as keezer picture submitted by readers who built theirs from my instructions.

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Parts for the gas side

Parts for the beer side

Other Accessories and Resources

When you lose a loved one it’s hard to take your mind off the hurt and pain. Ever since my kegerator died, I’ve missed its presence in my living room. The glistening tower, the fresh homebrew only a handle pull away. Once you go tap, you never go back. So it’s time to build a new kegerator.

Chest Freezer or Fridge?

I’m going with a chest freezer, which will make this a “keezer”. For one I just think they look better as kegerators. They look like a nice piece of furniture while a refrigerator looks like well, a refrigerator with a faucet sticking out.

They are also more energy efficient since they open from the top which prevents the cold air from escaping.

This will be a four keg set-up. More than that is more than I want to deal with. As easy as people make kegging appear, there is actually a good amount of work involved with keeping the whole system clean. Four is enough to keep up with my brewing schedule but won’t become a hassle to maintain.

On my trip to K-Mart I sized chest freezers using cardboard cutouts that represent the keg footprints. I came across a sexy 8.8 cu. ft. black Kenmore that spoke to me. Sure enough, it will fit 4 kegs as long as I use a collar (see below).

Kegs

Kegs are pretty simple. For homebrewing you’re almost always going to be using Corny kegs. Officially called Cornelius kegs, Cornies were used for soda at restaurants before they were replaced by those cardboard box and bladder things. Now they are very popular among homebrewers.

The keg you’re probably most familiar with is the Sanke, or Half Barrel keg. In college I spent a lot of time inverted over one of these. The picture below is very useful for distinguishing the different keg types.

Keg Sizes
The “Home Brew” keg is called a Cornelius (Corny Keg)

Corny kegs are split into two categories depending on how the gas and beer lines connect: pin lock and ball lock. There’s really no advantage to one or the other, and Wikipedia tells us that Coca-Cola used pin locks while Pepsi used ball locks. Fun fact.

Since I already have two pin-lock kegs I’ll be using those. To keep things consistent I’l