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Building the 2011 Beer Fridge
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First Step - Who's having a sale - go and buy a new Fridge |
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This is a mission critical step. Know your enemy... the big appliance sellers are always having sales but shop wisely, play one off against the other... never pay retail is our motto... As luck would have it we found the same model fridge as our current one, so we'll end up with an identical pair. So you're happy, you found fridge and paid a few hundred dollars less for it than you did last time. It's time to take it home and begin the build. You strip out all the shelving and baskets and cut 6 large holes in the door - there's no turning back. You now see the wisdom of not buying the extended warranty they tried to sell you......... try getting Fisher Paykel to honour the warranty on this fridge now |
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Let's address the main reasons for upgrading the fridge !
PressureWhat was it that annoyed us about our previous fridge? Well the most common complaint was that when the serving pressure was right for one beer, it might have been too much or too little pressure for others in the fridge so we were constantly releasing pressure or giving a squirt of CO2 to boost other kegs. We decided on a bank of 6 regulators, one for each tap. These were built into a box to sit below the drip trays and each regulator knob corresponds to the tap just above it. This way we'll put our lagers and ales at just the right pressure for each keg and know that we're not fiddling with all the kegs. These pressure regulators are Norgren made in the UK (although purchased and shipped from the US). They cost around $220 delivered. (Oh, that was for 12 - as we're going to remodel the current fridge too and retro-fit these regulators)
Drip TrayThe drip tray on the old fridge was made from a fridge door tray with a piece of aluminium drilled, cut and fitted to size. As it was full-door width too so cleaning was a pain. We needed smaller drip trays so it was off to the Stainless Steel fabricator and ordered new splash back and drip trays which would cover the full width of the fridge. We asked the workshop to bend the metal only, we preferred to bring it home and drill all the holes in the drip trays... yes that was over 600 holes in tough stainless! We also drilled the 6 larger holes for the beer taps. (once again we doubled the number of everything as we were getting the second set of parts ready to re-work the older fridge.)
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It was then the usual workshop construction |
 Inside shot of the door with 6 large holes |
 New stainless backing & bend to accommodate the drip trays. Underneath is the 6 Norgren pressure regulators |
 Shaping the timber so it will follow the contour of the fridge door |
 The stainless back piece & tray on its timber support fits firmly onto the curved fridge door |
 Inside the fridge the tap shank & beer line are fitted |
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 Each gas line has a non return valve |
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Drip trays fit neatly into the lower bent section of the one piece back plate. Each drip try has 51 holes in the diamond pattern - two drip trays fit neatly into the entire width of the door. |
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 How do you know what's on each tap? Oh that's simple - these laminated beer labels slip into a narrow slot within the timber light panel. |
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 This is the lighting affect at night |
 Tap handles are the finishing touch. Made from hardwood with threaded brass inserts. Stained and lacquered for durability |
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