I recently had a party and my wife said she was thinking about getting a keg. A friend had a mini keg at their party and is was OK but not the same as a pub. I looked into it a bit and i seem the mini keg dispensers use 2L kegs and don't require CO2. I read that the CO2 free feature affects the taste the beer by adding air. This sounds worse than drinking from cans. I tried to look into keg systems but it doesn't seem that keg parties are as popular as they are in the US. I figure I need a keg, hose, regulator, tap and CO2. In order to avoid a coolant modual I can put the setup in a mini fridge. This is when I came across the Keginator. This model is £580 and seems to work with Cornelius Style Kegs. This seems ideal for homebrew. Has anyone build a keg setup at home. Is it worth going DIY or is a prebuilt system the way to go? What do I need to look out for? I would be happy with a 1-2 key setup as I don't really need to have 3 beers on the go (I don't have that many friends, though a key might help).
I've been looking into exactly the same thing recently - I think the way to go is a keykeg rather than the traditional keg, as the pumping gas never comes into contact with the beer. I was recently at a beer festival where they'd kept some leftover beers in keykegs from February until May without any adverse effects to the flavour, all because it's been kept isolated from any external gas/liquid. You can hook it up with a 5/8" feed for gas, or they do a party dispenser which will simply fit to the top of the keg straight from the fridge. I have a couple of air compressors for garage tools etc, so the smaller one would be slaved into the setup for lazyness with a regulator, but you can hand-pump them as they only need air, not CO2. ETA: Hand pump: https://www.keykegshop.eu/dispensing/keykeg-party-pump.html and a keykeg itself: https://www.keykegshop.eu/keykeg/keykeg-20-slimline.html Note the outer polycarb shell and the inner foil bag.
I started out using a regular fridge (with all the shelves removed) and some picnic taps. It worked great for quite a while, but eventually I started on this project: It was easily worth it for homebrew, but I went from almost 300L/year at the peak to not having brewed in the last 18 months. I currently have a few commercial kegs on tap, but I really need to get back into brewing to justify keeping it around. Things to keep in mind: CO2 tanks need to be refilled and recertified(5 years here). Lines and taps need to be cleaned (I put cleaning solution in a corny and use compressed air to blow it through). First pour of the day can be a bit warm and foamy (homebrew isn't bad, but commercial kegs are carbed to push through 50+ feet of line, so YMMV if some pressure needs to be bled off). If you want commercial kegs, find a source first and compare the price. In my location, cans/bottles on sale are cheaper than a keg, but I know some locations tax kegs far less to keep the pub industry happy (I think I picked up that tidbit in Australia). If you have any other questions, feel free to ask
