Oh sure there are several methods to knowing when your getting close to the wire. At my house we open the door and kinda give the keg a little shake. Short of letting us know if we are flat out about to be empty this method really doesn’t accomplish much.  At one point I think during a moment of brilliant drunkenness we decided if we put a scale down and let the keg sit on that we could determine when it was almost empty without having to shake it. We never really got around to trying that method. I digress.

The important think here is that once again the Linux community has found a serious shortcoming in the world and addressed it. Kegbot! is packed with some insane features. Not only will it tell you how much beer is left, but it will also monitor the temperature, tell you how much you have poured each and every time, allow you to setup various users to see who is drinking more than their fair share, and you can even have full control over the access of your taps.

The best part is the software is free! You will however need a few small parts for sensors and such, however the whole thing can be built for about $80.00 and in some cases you may have a few of the parts so you can shave that off as well.

If you want to read more about Kegbot! you can have a look here, and you can check back in a couple of weeks because as soon as I have a free weekend I will be setting this up on my own kegerator!

So with very little effort on our parts we purchased a keg conversion kit for around $100.00 bucks. The installation into the old fridge was super easy. We took out all the shelves, drilled a whole in the front for the tap, went to our local keg supplier, and within an hour had Miller Light pouring (didnt want to go expensive the first time). Adjusting the pressure was not that difficult, but it did take some tweaking to get the perfect pour. For anyone who wants to try this I recommend pouring into a picture to begin with, this will save you a ton of wasted beer.

The cost for buying beer by the Keg has saved us a lot of money, made for less bottles hanging around, and we actually think we drink less since we are no longer racing to see who can get the last bottle out of the pack.

Anyone else have any experiences with their own kegerators?