Keezer

Some people hear the word "keezer" and think I'm completely botching the pronunciation of a term for the human rear end. Then I say "kegerator" and all of a sudden everyone knows what I'm talking about, even though it's an inaccurate term for the appliance to which I am referring. For the record, a kegerator is a refrigerator that has been turned into a home for one or more kegs, and a keezer is a freezer that has been turned into a home for one or more kegs.

Now that that's out of the way . . .

A few months ago I finished converting a chest freezer into a 4-tap keezer, which now resides in the garage. My brother-in-law, Shaun, was instrumental in its construction, which went something like this:

• Remove the lid from the chest freezer.
• Employ the services of a skilled craftsman relative who will likely accept payment in beer.
• Somehow talk that same person into giving you some beautiful "scraps" of reclaimed 2x12 redwood boards.
• Plane, cut, pre-drill holes, and assemble aforementioned boards to form the "collar" of the keezer.
• Stain and seal the collar.
• Attach drip tray.
• Affix plumbing, insulate the inside of the collar, install external thermostat, and reattach the lid to the top of the collar.
• Brew lots of beer, put it in kegs, and
• Presto! You no longer have a chest freezer, you have a keezer (and probably more friends than when it was just a freezer)!

No, this isn't original, and no, I'm not creative. I must give credit to my good friend, Kris, who built something very similar in Seattle for the inspiration as well as guidance as I stepped up my homebrew game. Hopefully this beautiful and functional appliance will one day have an inside home where it can be properly displayed.