For years small craft breweries have broken my heart. They change keg size offerings, discontinue specific beers, or run into production constraints. All understandable, but hard to be at the receiving end of this disappointment. For the most part I could always try to source 1/6 barrel kegs, but they are a terrible value if you really like the brew and reorder it regularly. A 1/6 barrel cost per pint may be $1.50. A 1/4 barrel for the same beer may be $0.25+ savings per pint. A 1/2 barrel might be closer to a buck. Keep in mind these are for some fairly mid-to-high priced craft beers.

Higher cost, more cleanings, more swapping kegs - it's simply nicer to buy larger sized kegs. My first Kegerator build could only fit 1/4 barrels, so that's what I went with. I had found an AWESOME beer from Karben4 in Madison WI. It's called Fantasy Factory and it's high up there (BA Score 92). After a few months of ordering 1/4 barrels of FF the supply died down. Turns out they were not shipping 1/4 barrels to the Milwaukee market anymore. Great. I ordered a few of kegs of K4's Tokyo Sauna while I patiently looked for larger kegerators.

After a few months I found one on Craigslist. It was a Haier model that could support 1/2 barrels. I upgraded the tower to a 3" stainless steel model with a stainless steel shank and moved over my other components. It's roomier inside and has great cooling capabilities.

Long live Kegerator 2.0.