Tom wrote to thank us for the inspiration:

Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration. I already had a keggerator at my house but wanted to bring the keg to the beach for the full moon party. I disassembled my keggerator and reassembled it in the trashcan. I decided to keep the ‘tower’ rather than going out the side which required a board and some drilling. It also makes it a bit top heavy, but works fine.

I already have some upgrades planned. I’ve already got big wheelbarrow wheels to replace the dinky plastic ones for easier beach rolling. I’m also going to add a plug at the bottom to drain the melted ice at the end of the party for easier clean up.

Tom actually had the wheels installed, but the axle bent when he loaded the keg. It was too late to get a new axle before the party, so he re-mounted the originals. But once he gets the new axle, the wheels here are going back on.

Here are a few pictures of the lid. I don’t have any problems flipping it open, though it is a bit top heavy. As for twisting the lid, the board provides plenty of support even though its just some cheapy particle board from an old desk. I attached it to the lid by drilling four holes and using cable ties as you suspected.

I was running out of time before the party and was just using quick and dirty methods. I had to cut the edge of the lid to make the board fit. I really should have broken out the circular saw and trimmed the board.  Oh well, this thing isn’t judged on style points.

As for crimping the hose, that took a bit of figuring. One hole I drilled in the board is above the tap because the hose was crimping. That meant that I needed to drill another hole so the hose could go down before it went up into the tower. In the end, it worked out well.

However, if I was to do it again, I probably would do the side mount since that is much ‘cleaner’ and the tower really doesn’t add that much. I was in a rush and keeping as much assembled as possible seemed like a good idea at the time. Later I figured out  how to disassemble the tower which would have made things much easier.

So that answers the question we’ve gotten about using a tower mount. Yes, it’s possible, but the side mount keeps the hardware out of the way of the keg.

Built for Portland’s Biketobeerfest — and can I just point out that’s the most awesome name ever? — this beast carries two full kegs, 25 pounds of ice, a pizza rack and a sound system.

As awesome as it is, it’s got a little drawback: Fully loaded it’s pushing 400 pounds. Even with two-wheel disk brakes, this isn’t something you want to take up and down hills.

When the beer is cold in the keg, but travels up a warm tube to the faucet, that’s what causes the foaming. By keeping the tubing inside the can, you don’t get that temperature difference before the beer hits your glass.

A good, heavy-duty can is a pretty good insulator, as long as you leave the lid down. With the smallest can that will work, all the ice you put in will stay on top of the keg, or right up against the sides where you want it. Go for a big one and the ice will just fall to the bottom.

You could probably fit everything in a medium-duty can that you can find for under $20, but it wouldn’t be very durable. Which just means you’ll get yourself stranded farther from your car.