[brewinhard]

You could try the swamp cooler method for your fermentations although it is a bit of a PITA.  Then you could just use your chest freezer for serving from your keg(s). 

Or brew lagers and ferment them at 48-50F in your chest freezer and also serve your beer at that temp from the same freezer. 

Neither are ideal, but will suffice.

I don't see these two possibilities as an improvement. 

Not an improvement but will make it possible to pull off the task at hand.

[homoeccentricus]

I do have the impression that you Amurigans serve beer on average at a much lower temperature than us, the proud people of Belgium. 90% of the beers I drink I do not put in the fridge but get them from the basement. Why couldn't I put kegs in the basement?

[erockrph]

I have a chest freezer + temp controller that serves double-duty as both my kegerator and fermentation chamber. It is far from ideal, since I can't practically use it for both functions at the same time. At some time in the future I plan on acquiring a real kegerator, but I will make do with what I have for the time being.

If you want to serve your kegs at cellar temperature, then there's no reason why you can't. Just keep in mind that carbonation is a function of temperature, and you may see variable carbonation if you have big swings in temperature. That may also affect line balancing if you need to pressurize to different PSI values (or whatever your metric equivalent is) in different seasons.

[brewinhard]

I do have the impression that you Amurigans serve beer on average at a much lower temperature than us, the proud people of Belgium. 90% of the beers I drink I do not put in the fridge but get them from the basement. Why couldn't I put kegs in the basement?

This was what I was trying to refer to in my original post.  That if you wanted to serve your beer warmer, then you could also ferment a lager and serve your beer at the same temps (around 50-55F) in your single chest freezer. 

[leejoreilly]

I ferment in buckets, and maintain my fermentation temps by using a cold water bath with a wet towel covering the top of the bucket and some plastic juice bottles (nearly) filled with ice, as needed. I can easily keep my temps down to 60 - 62F in the dead of summer, in my basement (in Michigan). I transfer from bucket to keg (through a CO2 blanket) just using an auto-siphon. While this may not be a best practice for avoiding oxygen exposure, it has worked well for me so far (years).

+1.  I did the same for a couple years and had good results. Takes a little discipline the first few days of fermentation to keep the frozen bottles changed but I made good beer.

I found that if I changed the bottles (two at a time) morning and evening, my temps would stay pretty constant. Must be the large thermal mass of the water. I usually use this technique for maybe a week or so, then take the fermenter out to sit in the basement (usually about 65-67F) for a week or two longer to finish up.

[leejoreilly]

So this is what I would have to get for a minimal setup (apart from the keg itself)?

https://www.brouwland.com/en/pdf/058.200.7.pdf

1 x filled, 2 kg CO2 cylinder.
1 regulator with 2 manometers.
2 quick disconnects.
Tube + ‘Picnic’ tap

Plus new o-rings to replace the smelly old ones.

Anything missing? I really don't know anything about this stuff. Is there a good manual somewhere?

I'd recommend ordering a larger CO2 tank. I use a 20 lb tank (which is about 9kg in the rest of the universe, I guess), so I have to change out tanks MUCH less frequently (maybe every 2 years or so). Of course, my tank is external to my kegerator, so storage size isn't an issue.

[klickitat jim]

So this is what I would have to get for a minimal setup (apart from the keg itself)?

https://www.brouwland.com/en/pdf/058.200.7.pdf

1 x filled, 2 kg CO2 cylinder.
1 regulator with 2 manometers.
2 quick disconnects.
Tube + ‘Picnic’ tap

Plus new o-rings to replace the smelly old ones.

Anything missing? I really don't know anything about this stuff. Is there a good manual somewhere?

I'd recommend ordering a larger CO2 tank. I use a 20 lb tank (which is about 9kg in the rest of the universe, I guess), so I have to change out tanks MUCH less frequently (maybe every 2 years or so). Of course, my tank is external to my kegerator, so storage size isn't an issue.

Agreed with larger, but also check with whoever your gas supplier is before buying one. Often they simply exchange empty for full, and the deposit for not having an empty may be less than buying new. Then you dont have to say goodby to your shiny new tank...

As a side note, I'm strongly considering selling my entire keg system. Two perlick kegerator and 7 empties. I dont mind the bottling process, and I feel I have better control over carbonation. Kegging has too many moving parts and possible infection points for me. Plus lately about 50% of my beers are sours, so I run the kegs empty and they sit for 4-6 months... when I go back to brewing normal beer, at two batches a month it takes a while to get 7 kegs full again.

[HoosierBrew]

I found that if I changed the bottles (two at a time) morning and evening, my temps would stay pretty constant. Must be the large thermal mass of the water. I usually use this technique for maybe a week or so, then take the fermenter out to sit in the basement (usually about 65-67F) for a week or two longer to finish up.

Yep, same thing I did.