Kegerator in Japan

To those of you that are not familiar with kegerators, it is a refrigerator that has a tapped keg of beer in it with the beer routed to a valve and spigot so you can pour the beer.  Kegs at your average party are normally dispensed by pumping air into the keg to get the beer out.  This works for a couple of days, but the air spoils the beer after that.  So, to get the long term use out of a keg of beer in a kegerator, you need to pressurize it with CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) instead of air. You do this by using a bottle of compressed CO2 which is at a couple thousand pounds of pressure and then regulate it down to 10 psi or so.  In the states, you go down to a bottle shop that does welding gasses and the like and they'll fill up your bottle for a small charge.  In Japan, it's different.  Here's my story:

They sell Kegerators at the Exchange.  I was enthralled with the thought of having one and I developed all kinds of debating points on why we should have one to win over Caroline (depending on your marriage, these are not things you should buy on a whim, bring home and say to your spouse, "Look what I found..."  It's a family decision.)  The argument that seemed to win Caroline over was the fact that dispensing beer from a keg eliminated recycling beer bottles and cans.  Since garbage sorting and delivery is labor intensive for every household in Japan, to eliminate one source is worth while.  (I personally believe the better argument is the fact that draft beer tastes better than bottled, but, like I said, "It's a family decision").

Having already been faced with many challenges doing "normal" things in Japan, I wanted to research out if the kegerator could be supported in Japan.  The kegerator at the Exchange comes with a CO2 bottle and regulator along with the tap, valves, and hoses to make it all work. Since it would be hazardous to ship the CO2 bottles full, you buy them empty and you need to get the bottle filled and then put a keg in the fridge to get the thing to work.  So, there are 2 supply questions to answer:  

1) Can you get a keg of beer in Japan and do they fit the tap that is in the kegerator?

2) Can you get the bottle filled with CO2?

The keg were pretty easy.  The Exchange sells Miller and Budweiser full size kegs and pony kegs.  Since they are American beer, it's a cinch that the tap will fit the keg.  It took me a week or so to work out their paperwork, though, since the paperwork you sign to get the keg says that you'll return the keg within 48 hours or be charged $10 a day.  This would have put unhealthy pressure on me to drink all the beer quickly and, really, just flew counter to the intent of a kegerator which is to have a keg of beer on tap for a month or longer. It took talking to several of the supervisors and managers at the Exchange, but they were eager to adapt and eventually fixed the paperwork so I could keep the keg a bit longer term.  OK, first question answered!

The CO2 was hard.  Really hard!  As it turns out, the Japanese will not fill gas bottles that aren't theirs.  It's not just a matter that the fittings are different. Even if you came up with adapters, they are very reluctant to fill a non-Japanese bottle.  Even if you give up the provided American bottle and get a Japanese CO2 bottle, then there is the fact that the fittings are very different and adapters aren't really available.  So, now the regulator that comes with the kegerator isn't useable and you have to find a Japanese one.  Japanese regulators also have different hose sizes, so you need to replace hoses too.  I had the Exchange guys working on this one too, but they were coming to the same conclusion. "OK, I'll just get a Japanese CO2 bottle and regulator.  OK, where do I get it?"  I asked at the restaurants on base to see where they get their CO2 (they use if for their draft beer and soda machines).  Turns out that the Coca-Cola company that supplies their soda also gives them bottles of CO2. They won't just sell the CO2 to a private individual though.  I did finally figure out that the liquor stores do sell the CO2 and loan you a bottle with a deposit, but I didn't have a clue where to start looking for a regulator and hoses...  Also, this was starting to look expensive.  The kegerator was $500 to start with and then I needed to buy an unknown regulator and some hoses...  I suspected that was going to cost an additional $150 or more...

One lead I had on all this was a bar owner that had bought one of the Exchange's kegerators. The guy at the Exchange mentioned who it was and through an acquaintance, I was introduced to Bubba who owns Bubba's Bar and Grill in Yokosuka, where you can get frog's legs when they are in

 season (I wonder if he does them sushi style...).  Anyway, he had bought the kegerator and went through all the pains

 described above on the CO2 supply issue, but since he runs a bar, he has a Japanese beer supplier that has all the parts, pieces, and supplies so Bubba was able to get a Japanese regulator and hoses that would connect to the Japanese CO2 bottles that the supplier provided.  Turns out the kegerator wasn't really as useful to Bubba as he'd thought, so he wanted to sell his kegerator.  He was selling it for $400 which is $100 less than the Exchange was selling it, and, more importantly, it was already modified for Japanese CO2 and he even arranged for a full CO2 bottle to go with it. Sold! "Honey, look what I found..."

It was the first item we moved into the house!  We actually used it as a refrigerator for our food until the base delivered the real refrigerator.

The learning curve continues, though...  It turns out that the pony kegs that the Exchange sells are plastic kegs.  Pretty cool innovation, but it takes a thicker wall of plastic to hold the pressure, so the keg is physically larger to hold the same amount of beer as compared to the old standard aluminum kegs.  Avanti, who makes the kegerator, apparently didn't see this one coming, because it didn't fit!  I got it half way in and it stopped going in since it was wedged between the sides.  I shoved a bit harder and it moved farther in.  It took a lot of work of shoving, jostling, and coaxing.  William shoved on it with his best 4 year old grunt while 

I took a break.  When I was ready to start working on it again, I asked William to step aside so I could get both hands and a foot on it.  As I started shoving and doing my own grunting, I felt William's hands on my back, pushing me with a grunt as I pushed the keg in...  Between the two of us, we got it in till it hit the back, but it sill wasn't in far enough to close the door!  I was seriously considering sealing the 1 inch gap of the door with duct tape!  I felt around the back of the keg to see if there was more room to gain.  It turns out that one of the ribs of the keg was hitting the compressor box which is at the bottom back of the fridge.  I figured that if I could lift the keg up about 6 inches (or decifeet...), I could get it to go in a bit further.  So, after all that work of shoving it into place, we pulled it back out, found a bin to turn upside down, set the keg on it and shoved the entire thing back into the fridge.  With a little extra coaxing, the door finally sealed shut!

There is still more to work on.  The Avanti thermostat has a quirk in that you can set any temperature down to about 40F, but any farther and the motor sticks on and cools the kegerator down to 26F or less where beer will freeze.  I think 36F is the ideal beer temperature, so this is a real issue! Bubba heard wind of my plight and is working on getting a temperature controller from his beer guy.  He's also working on getting a regulator with gauges, a longer hose, and a variety of taps to allow tapping Japanese beer...  Hmmm, my first keg of MGD is empty, I wonder what a keg of Asahi Super Dry would cost...  Will it fit...