Serving Wine from the Kegerator

We Have Successfully Converted The Kegerator into a WINE Dispensing Unit

Due to a request from a vineyard, we started development on a system for delivering wine utilising the Kegerator.

The Concept:

Use the Kegerator and by utilising alternate parts such as a cornelius keg, twin taps for say, a Sav and A Chardy inside the fridge or a White and Red (sitting outside the fridge, tube holes are builtin).

The gas needs to be different, nitrogen was selected as it is inert and oxygen free. This needed a different regluator and line splitters for the gas to supply 2 kegs.

Read on for More Info

The Theory

The theory was simple;

• use a different gas (we don't want CO2 bubbles)
• change out the regulator to match the gas
• Use different keg(s) as they need to be refillable by the vineyard
• Swap out the keg couplers and tubing to match the number of taps wanted
• Swap out the singletower for a twin 
• Fill the kegs - we chose apple juice for the first test, 20L.
• Connect up, turn on, burp the keg to ensure all air is gone
• Test, Test, Test

The Practice

The Kegs

In practice, it was a simple as that. We sourced Cornelius kegs from our local Auckland supplier, washed and sterilised them with Sodium Metabisulphite, triple rinsed with water, then Brewcraft Keg and Line Cleaner both available at your home brew shop.

These kegs have a nice easy opening mechanism and a seperate gas in and liquid out coupling system, requiring a bit more tubing. Also note if you want the 2 wines you need to add a gas line splitter (simple).

The Gas

As mentioned, nitrogen was selected, you can use argon but it is more expensive. Although we do supply owner CO2 bottles, due to the testing process in NZ it will be a while until we can provide Notrogen owner bottles.

We sourced our hire bottle from BOC and purchased a nitrogen regulator for stock.

Putting It All Together

This is a sample picture of our Kegerator with the 2 cornelius kegs and a twin tower. The gas bottle it too large to fit in with this configuration and so is hidden round the back. There is a small pipe hole standard in the kegerator to allow this.

Ready to pour 2 white wines......

At this stage of testing we are heading to the Auckland Home Show so have re-configured our test kegerator.

We have 1 keg filled with apple juice with nitrogen and 1 keg with ginger beer with CO2 gas.

Due to the same basic items needed for wine delivery bar the 2 kegs, the price is the same as the standard draught beer dispensing kegerator however the follwing configuration differences apply.

• No gas bottle included - must be hired by purchaser
• Nitrogen regulator included (no Co2 regulator)
• 2 Cornelius Kegs supplied - Secondhand but in good working order  
• 4 Ball lock couplers, tubing and line splitter supplied
• Twin Tower/taps included

Regards

Pete