I've neglected the dispensing side of brewing

[Bovril]

OK, so I can make an OK all grain brew...sometimes I bottle and sometimes I keg. When I keg I have a simple chrome tap that fits directly onto the corny Keg.....easy to clean and does the job. However, I have never really thought any more about dispensing. Some of you chaps and ladies on here have fantastic set ups with long beer lines to fantastic taps, you use kegorators etc (my kegs sit in a garage which is 12-14 c most of the year. Have I got room for improvement and where could I go? Obviously it is fine what I have, but I do feel i'm missing out on presenting my beer via some nice taps etc.

[Jim]

You might make your set up look better with a separate tap and beer line, but it wouldn't make a lot of difference to the poured pint (except maybe you could increase carbonation without getting a load of foam with a longer beer line).

Probably the ultimate step is to get a beer engine - that can be tricky to get right though, and usually you waste some beer (which obviously bothers some people more than others).

[Bovril]

cheers Jim, Much appreciated

[Raize]

I just got a free chest freezer and made it into a six-keg kegerator. It's a brilliant improvement.

[Bovril]

I just got a free chest freezer and made it into a six-keg kegerator. It's a brilliant improvement.

how does that work? how do you get a freezer to hold a temp of say 6C? I've always been confused by that...could understand a fridge being used but not the freezer option....sorry if this is a daft question

[Buckie Brewer]

Just think of a freezer as a more effective/efficient fridge, you use a third party temperature controller usually but not always a STC 1000, to control the freezer which switches on and off the power to it to maintain the set temperature.

[Raize]

Just think of a freezer as a more effective/efficient fridge, you use a third party temperature controller usually but not always a STC 1000, to control the freezer which switches on and off the power to it to maintain the set temperature.

STC-1000 is a fun little thing for £6.50. I got one for my kegerator and now I've got two more on order from China for a fermentation freezer and a mash temperature sensor.
You have to do the wiring yourself but it's really simple and there's only a couple of solder joints (or you can just use some kind of connector block if you can't solder it).

I would 110% recommend a chest freezer as a kegerator and not an upright fridge. The main reason is access to the disconnects on the kegs. It takes a LOT of force to pull the disconnects off and it's incredibly awkward if the space above is restricted. Also the chest freezer is better insulated.
The only bad part is that you have to lift 20kgs of keg over the side to get it into the freezer. If this is a problem buy a barbell and do some pressing.