Origins of the Brozone, and Building a Kegerator out of a Freezer Chest

Pat and I were talking one day last year about what I could do with my basement, it was a big, open space that really was only being used for storage and a garage space/woodshop... and the dream was born.  After multiple pitchers and cigars at Greater Trumps (our local and one of our favorite cigar bars) we came up with the idea of building a man cave of sorts... complete with wired in surround sound, ceiling ventilation for cigar smoking, flat screens on the walls, and a bar to enjoy our delicious homebrews.

                                                (The space before we started construction)

Now the plans changed multiple times before we started construction, and in the end we still ended up with a phenomenal space, we just nixed the air filtration station, moved the bar around, and decided to add kegorator so we could start kegging our delicious beers.

I found a freezer chest at Lowes that was large enough to fit 3 Corny Kegs, Kegging components, plenty of bottles of beers, and hops for future brews.  I took the top off of the freezer chest, spray painted the body black with appliance paint, and covered the front with wainscot.

After the wainscot, I added a riser with 2x4's to attach the tap handles and lid, and stained it with a red mahogany strain.

After completing the kegerator, it was time to frame out the bar, set the slate tiles, build in a custom slot for a mini-fridge, wrap in wainscot, and stain with the same red mahogany

The finished product, stained, lacquered, and the slate is covered with a protective coating.  I initially put in slots for three tap handles, for the time being I have two taps and have plugged the third hole.  There is a heating duct that looked like a waste of space, so I added some blackboard paint and put in a blackboard to list all of my bottled and kegged beers.

Currently I have 5 types of bottles and three different brews on tap, the picture above was taken right when the brozone was completed.  I got to break in the room with the BCS National Championship game... unfortunately we all know how the game ended, regardless watching the Ducks play for the Natty was a perfect way to break in the room.