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Right alongside home brewing, owning a kegerator or beer cooler is at the top of many beer-lovers’ wish lists. Instead of trying to avoid overspending at a bar or explaining the differences between a beer garden and a beer hall to your friends again, you could enjoy cold beer on tap as easily as walking to your home bar. But before you invest, know that owning a home kegerator may require more labor than some beer fanatics have the time or passion for. So grab a beer and have a think about the downsides before investing. Aside from the obvious differences in your power bill, there’s the initial cost of the device as well as installation and maintenance requirements, any of which could throw a wrench into your home tap dreams.
The cost of a kegerator — a special refrigerator that holds and dispenses beer from a keg — varies depending on the type and features. Mini-kegerators start at about $50, though they can be as expensive as $500. And the average full-sized free-standing or built-in home units range from $600 to $5,000. It costs even more for additional taps (which average about $70 per tap line) and accessories like beer foam sensors, which can run about $60. And all of that’s before the installation costs, which can average upward of $1,000 per line, depending on the contractor, labor, and materials needed. Additionally, the average home kegerator requires a half-barrel keg, which runs about $100 anytime you need a refill.
If all that doesn’t sound like a lot of work, at least upfront, there’s also the cleaning, which you should do after each keg, if not every two weeks, to prevent bacteria from ruining the precious beer within. That means disassembling the device, then cleaning, flushing, and rinsing those beer lines and cleaning the faucets. All of that takes at least 30 minutes to an hour, regardless of usage.
Home kegerators may not be worth the commitment
Most kegerators aren’t exactly meant to be portable. They’re essentially coolers installed into the home, whether they’re placed indoors or outside on the patio. With this in mind, it might be worth considering what your goal truly is. If it’s simply to enjoy a delicious ice-cold beer, something as simple as pouring beer into a glass can make it taste better. If it’s to impress friends, you could opt for a beer tower. One like the P Polerden 3-Liter Tower Dispenser is compact and portable, requires far less maintenance, and can add some class and character to the home bar. If owning the kegerator is a must, consider a mini-kegerator like the TMCRAFT 128-Ounce Growler Tap System. These offer similar benefits to their full-size siblings and require less maintenance. The catch is that it’s limited to a single beer type, and while the smaller mini-kegs they require have become more popular, not every brewery offers them.
Something else to consider is that people are drinking less beer these days. Those who formerly relished craft brews have either moved onto other alcohol or are adopting a less sauce-heavy lifestyle. That goes hand-in-hand with breweries’ limited keg size options, as those refill kegs may be less available as decreased demand reduces supply. There’s something to be said for the cost savings having your own kegerator can bring. However, it’s likely to be more of a cost and commitment than some drinkers may anticipate.
