My Keezer Build - First timer and a chick

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bommarkm

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2010
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Location
St. Louis
So I started homebrewing in August and it didn't take long for me to realize how much I hate bottling and bought a couple of kegs, then a chest freezer, and then I went crazy. I read tons of threads on here and compared everyone's keezer builds. I came up with my own plan based on what would require the least amount of tools and would be easiest for me to do. The only thing I've used up until now is a power drill.

I bought the 5.0 cuft Holiday Chest Freezer at Lowe's. I didn't want something too big and figured I wouldn't have more then three kegs on tap at a time.

I decided to build a collar that was attached to the lid because I have enough trouble lifting a keg and can barely get it in the freezer at it's current height. I don't want to have to wait for my boyfriend to be over to change out the kegs.

I got my perlick faucets, shanks, secondary regulator, and distributor from kegconnection. I bought my beer line hose from micromatic.

I knew I needed my collar to be 6 inches in height so I could put a keg on the hump in the freezer. I bought 1x6's at Lowes and my first mistake was not knowing that just because it's called a 1x6 does not mean it is 6 inches.
I ended up going back and getting 1x10's to make my collar.
 
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I tried using a power saw to cut the boards and the saw freaked me out so I did have my dad come by and help me cut the boards. That's the only thing I wasn't able to do on my own. I used liquid nails and clamps the boards and let it sit over night to dry.
 
I used screws to make sure the boards stay together and also put corner brackets on the boards. Then I used a light wood stain.


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Since the boards are less then an inch thick I decided to use foam insulation and attached it with liquid nails.

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I went ahead and cut the stripping off the lid and I really liked the idea of using chalk board paint.

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I used 3 coats of chalkboard paint.
 
I used liquid nails to attach the collar to the freezer lid and then reused the stripping from the lid. I used liquid nails and a couple of screws to attach that also.

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I installed the faucets, and used screws to put the secondary regulator and distributer on the collar. The distributer I bought was fairly cheap so it didn't come in a manifold so I used some kind of pipe brackets I found at lowes to attach it to the collar.

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Then I reused the freezer hinges and attached the wood collar.

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I connected all my gas tubing and put my kegs in the freezer.

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I haven't finished the beverage tubing. I'm going out of town for a week so the keezer won't make it's debut until Halloween. I didn't want to let everything sit in the lines for that long.

Tomorrow I'm going to attach a 19inch drip tray I purchased from http://www.barproducts.com for $24 with shipping.
I'm going to use epoxy to attach brackets to the front of the keezer and then attached the drip tray with velcro to the top of the bracket.
 
So far so good. Do you have a temperature controller?

Yes, thanks I forgot to mention that. I got the standard Johnson one. It's attached to the back of the collar and I drilled a hole in the back for the probe to go through. I used silicone calk to seal the hole after I feed the probe through it. I couldn't figure out how to seperate the copper wire from the temp box so I had to drill a large hole to feed the probe through so that's why I ended up using the caulk.
 
Nice work! Looks good. I quit brewing back in college because of bottling, haha. I came back to it AFTER I built my first kegerator.
 
I tried bottling one gallon of apple cider I made and it sucked!! Starting researching kegging right after that.
 
Looks great! Viva La Kegging!:mug:

EDIT... Oh and for the chalk board paint. I painted the top half of my keezer with it along with part of the top. I found doing the top half to be quite useful.

AllButTheDripPan.JPG
 
Tom, I think you were one of the ones I stole the chalk board idea from. I might paint the front later like you did. I haven't decided yet.

Thanks!
Kerry
 
Very nice work. I have one possible suggestion on the reused stripping (I say possible, because I don't really know what that stripping is like). It looks like where you have nailed or screwed it down, it is compressed, maybe allowing air to leak out. If the stripping is 4 sided; i.e., the side next to the wood collar is closed, you could drill a small hole in the exposed side, just large enough to get the nail or screw head through, and let the nail or screw hold down only the side of the stripping next to the collar, so it wouldn't comress the stripping. On the other hand, if the stripping is only three sided, ignore the above. :)
 
Did you use a different hose from the CO2 tank to the regulator. I want to keep my tank outside of the kegerator-to-be but I thought the pressure would be too much for the standard red gas hose.
 
Nice work!


Did you use a different hose from the CO2 tank to the regulator. I want to keep my tank outside of the kegerator-to-be but I thought the pressure would be too much for the standard red gas hose.

Those are secondary regulators in the pics. You have to have a reg on the tank to attach a hose (you are correct about the pressure).

Ed
 
Did you use a different hose from the CO2 tank to the regulator. I want to keep my tank outside of the kegerator-to-be but I thought the pressure would be too much for the standard red gas hose.

I did use the regular red gas hose to attach the regular to the secondary inside the keezer. I have the tank regular set at 30 psi since I have a keg of soda in my keezer and need the higher psi.
Do I need a different hose? I do have the CO2 tank outside the keezer. I couldn't fit it in the keezer with the regulator and the three kegs.

Oh and I did end up having to use 1/4" clear hose for my distributor because I'm an idiot and ordered it with 1/4" nipples instead of 5/16". I didn't realize my mistake until I went to install it last night. I didn't want the connection to be loose so I used some left over beverage hose that I wasn't going to use since I ordered 3/16" hose from micromatic.
 
Very nice work. I have one possible suggestion on the reused stripping (I say possible, because I don't really know what that stripping is like). It looks like where you have nailed or screwed it down, it is compressed, maybe allowing air to leak out. If the stripping is 4 sided; i.e., the side next to the wood collar is closed, you could drill a small hole in the exposed side, just large enough to get the nail or screw head through, and let the nail or screw hold down only the side of the stripping next to the collar, so it wouldn't comress the stripping. On the other hand, if the stripping is only three sided, ignore the above. :)

Thanks. I noticed that too after I attched the lid. I might remove the screws all together and see if it will stay on without them. I used liquid nails on the stripping but have never used anything like that before so I wasn't sure if it would be enough to hold it to the collar.
 
I just have to say that this board and everyone on here is awesome! I attached my co2 tank to a keg last week just to carb it and the tank was empty in 2 day so I thought I just didn't attach the hose well enough. Well after reading some posts about checking for CO2 leaks, I followed a member's suggestion and removed the connection to the kegs, turned on the pressure, and then closed the co2 tank. When I came back, the psi on the main regulator on the secondary dropped so I knew I had a leak. Turned out it was the main regulator. One of the connections above the shutoff valve wasn't tight enough. It never occured to me that my brand new regulator would be the problem.

Seriously, you guys are awesome!!

Kerry
 
I just have to say that this board and everyone on here is awesome! I attached my co2 tank to a keg last week just to carb it and the tank was empty in 2 day so I thought I just didn't attach the hose well enough. Well after reading some posts about checking for CO2 leaks, I followed a member's suggestion and removed the connection to the kegs, turned on the pressure, and then closed the co2 tank. When I came back, the psi on the main regulator on the secondary dropped so I knew I had a leak. Turned out it was the main regulator. One of the connections above the shutoff valve wasn't tight enough. It never occured to me that my brand new regulator would be the problem.

Seriously, you guys are awesome!!

Kerry

Kerry, I noticed you are in St Louis. Do you belong to one of local clubs? Also, we have a bulk buyer for malt, hops, equipment, etc in missourimaltsupply.com.

Great build! I wish I had room for a keezer like that!
 
Looks great! Good job! I want to get the chalk board tappers for my keggerator. And greetings to the STL brewers :) I had been wondering if there were any active brew clubs or anything in the area. What local clubs are there stlbeer?
 
Looks great! Good job! I want to get the chalk board tappers for my keggerator. And greetings to the STL brewers :) I had been wondering if there were any active brew clubs or anything in the area. What local clubs are there stlbeer?

Chapa,

The St Louis Brews, http://www.stlbrews.org/index.asp, is the largest with about 50 members meeting the first Thursday of each month at MO Bev located near Hampton and I-44. Porch time and samples from MO Bev are features.

The Garage Brewers Society, http://www.garagebrewers.com/, with meets in O'Fallon, MO at O'Fallon Brewery, 26 West Industrial Dr, O'Fallon, MO.

and

The East Side Brewers, http://www.eastsidebrewers.org/, which meets at Bigelo's in Edwardsville, IL.

All of these clubs are active in the area, participate in the annual St Louis Brewer's Heritage Festival, Soulard Oktoberfest, and other festivals giving information on brewing and handing out samples of home brew.

The most valuable part of any of these meetings is the interaction with local brewers. At the last STL Brews meeting brewer Florian Kuplent - formerly of AB-Inbev - talked to us about the new brewpub he's opening. Urban Chestnut Brewing Company. Beer Advocate picked it up - http://beeradvocate.com/news/2953125

Market disruption is a good thing!
 
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