He Built A Fully Functional Grill From A Beer Keg (And It Hooks Up To His Truck)

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If you're someone who loves to cook outdoors, you might have a pit from one of the best grill brands and go to work barbecuing for friends and family. Sometimes, though, you may want to show off your creativity beyond adding your own custom collection of spices to the food. An off-the-shelf grill is fine for some people, but it doesn't show off your style and DIY skills like creating your own barbecue pit.

Considering many people feel beer and barbecue are an inseparable pair, YouTuber Weld.com used the idea of this pairing to create a unique grill at a bargain price with a beer keg and other pieces of metal. (Some people may use a bottle of beer to clean a grill, but building a custom design out of a beer keg is definitely thinking outside the box.) He enhanced the design by adding a support to the grill that securely fits the hitch of a pickup truck for grilling wherever and whenever.

To save as much money as possible, start by searching for two free kegs at a local brewery. You'll need a half barrel and quarter barrel. Repurposing high-quality grates from an old smoker or grill provides more free materials. The DIYer also purchased about $35 of steel tubing, $50 of steel support bars, angle irons, and a sheet of diamond-plate aluminum, and a $30 sheet of stainless steel. The tools needed include an angle grinder, welding equipment, and a plasma cutter.

After collecting the materials, first, outline where the grill's door will go in the center of the half barrel, but do not cut it right away to avoid making the keg structurally unsound. Instead, cut off one end of the keg using an angle grinder to access its interior. After smoothing the cut end, weld the angle irons on the inside of the cylinder, which will act as the grate supports. Then cut the grill grates to size, for a seamless fit inside the keg, and rest them on the iron mounts.

The design called for attaching the second, smaller keg to the main unit to serve as a smoke box. This process started by cutting off the end of the smaller unit, and fitting the grates, just as with the larger barrel. To close the smoker, refit the quarter barrel's cap with a latch. Then weld the smoker to the side of the half barrel, combining the two kegs. Next, you'll need to add pipes for smoke outlets, a grill handle, and cut the main keg's door with the angle grinder. Once everything's in place, add the pipes to the truck's hitch and the connecting rod to the bottom of the grill, so the barbecue can hook up to the truck, becoming the star of the tailgate.

Before you tackle this project, you should understand that it's an incredibly complex process. You have to make precise cuts and welds, or the unit might not maintain its integrity. This might not be the best project for someone who is a novice welder. Although some people can pick up the basics of welding pretty quickly, it takes a lot of time and practice to become proficient. You'll want your keg grill to look great (which is part of the appeal of this project), but novices may struggle to make strong bead lines that also look good. You may want to practice on many other welding projects before tackling this one where precision and appearance are vital.

The keg design in the Weld.com video uses charcoal, meaning it's not one of those high-tech grills that's gaining popularity. If you'd prefer a portable grill that uses propane gas, you'd have to find a different custom design you could make or purchase a pre-made unit. Pre-made grills exist that have an attachment that allows you to carry them using a trailer hitch. One option, the Springfield Hitch-Mount Barbecue Grill ($326) costs more than this DIY grill made from kegs and it doesn't have a smoker box, but you don't have to learn how to weld.