Whiskey Barrel Kegorator

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As soon as I saw the little blue VW sitting in the back, I knew I was going to like whatever you made, little did I know that I would be plotting ways to convince the wife to let me buy all kinds of goodies. I dont even keg, and I want to build this magical barrel of happiness.
From one mk IV GTi guy to another, well done.
 
Very cool, what a wonderful idea for an old barrel. The wine country folks should be having the brewers buying up there barrels.
 
More info from ShastyMcJasty, most of this can be found in previous post but this answer has a little bit more detail "It has had 6 kegs successfully through it and not a problem yet. The wood did shrink but not to the point where it is structurely compromised. If I did it again I would make some expanding rings to go on the inside wall. Would be very easy and would allow compensation for the wood shrinking. The fan the way it is seems to be plenty cooling for the load once it is up to temp. You would be very hard pressed to get 2 cornies in there. It may be possible if you make a low profile cold plate."

After a lot of debate and research I decided against building my rendition of this barrel kegerator because I didn't think I would be able to fit two cornys inside. This is a google Sketchup of what I wanted my build to look like.

Screen Shot 2012-03-30 at 2.45.58 PM.jpg


Screen Shot 2012-03-30 at 2.44.46 PM.jpg


Screen Shot 2012-03-30 at 2.44.30 PM.jpg
 
I've been lurking around here for a little while now and have felt that I have nothing worthwhile to contribute.. Until Now!

I thought some people may enjoy seeing the build of my kegorator and what went into it. If you're not one of those people scroll to the bottom for pictures of the finished product. If you are.. well then keep reading. (I apologize for the crappy cellphone pictures. It was all I had with me through out the process)

A few weeks ago I happened across a man in central Maine that declared himself as "Bob the Barrel Man". He sells used whiskey barrels from Jim Beam I guess. I thought they were cool.. So I bought one. Once I got this 120lb barrel home I realized I had NO idea what I was going to do with it. I have wanted a kegorator for a while now but wanted something different than the conventional style one (not that there is anything wrong with a conventional one). So I decided I was going to turn this barrel into my kegorator. One way or another it was going to happen.

f45ee725.jpg


First thing was to find a way to make this thing get real cold. So I found an old forgotten mini-fridge in my parents basement and yanked the refrigeration unit out of it in one piece. I really wanted to try and avoid recovering refrigerant and re-evacuating the system and recharging it. Thats a can of worms I really didn't want to open on this project. Before I took it out I let the fridge run a few days to make sure it could get cold enough reliably.

Next was to cut the barrel open. Apparently these barrels are under pressure or something. Maybe it was a little extra fermenting or a temperature change but when I drilled into the top it hissed for about a minute and filled my whole house and surrounding area with a STRONG smell of whiskey. Strong enough for a neighbor to come over and ask what smelled so good.

After removing the top, I cleaned the barrel out by scrubbing the walls and bottom with a grill brush and hosing it down. There was still some whiskey left and loose char from the barrel walls.

Next was mocking up the refrigeration unit and the platform that the keg would eventually sit on. It was beefed up much more than shown in the picture below.

a00c04b4.jpg


After this I figured that it was going to be getting pretty warm so it would need some sort of vent hole (a very poor one I may add) on the bottom with a fan to draw the hot air out. While I was down there I decided to add four castors to help make moving this thing around easier. This later turned out not to be strong enough with the load of a keg so I had to make a plywood reenforcement ring.

I bought the fan from Amazon for 15$ shipped. It is apparently suppose to be an automotive radiator fan. Since it was designed for a car I had to use a 120VAC to 12VDC adapter to convert the fan. The fan is wired into the power to the compressor, so as long as the compressors running the fan will be cooling. If this turns out to not be enough cooling I will add an independent control system for the fan with a thermocouple, but I wont cross that bridge until I need to.

db7d3170.jpg


Next was the inside lining. I found some galvanized steel sheets at Lowes for a reasonable price. All I did was drill some holes along the edge and pop rivet them together to get a circular lining as well as cut out a circle for the bottom platform.

With the cooling plate and thermostat

abc628c7.jpg


From here I needed to work on efficiency of the whole thing. I filled the gap between the steel and the barrel with R-30 insulation as well as stapled insulation to the bottom of the platform to help keep the heat from the compressor/condenser from getting through. I also bolted the cold plate to the side of the steel lining so it wouldn't flop around.

d3366f67.jpg


Here is a picture of the first test run

b0eac48e.jpg


This gave me motivation to continue, but the refrigeration unit was trying a little harder than it was in the fridge to keep the temp that low. I ended up caulking all the gaps I could find to help keep convection down as well as making a foil liner for the inside. There is also a top part of the liner that is not pictured. I also covered the gap between the barrel and liner with exhaust heat wrap.

4d410515.jpg


Finally was the top. As of now I am not 100% satisfied with the top and have some new ideas I am going to be trying out. But right now it is a piece of oak veneered plywood with a light stain and a few coats of polyurethane. I bought a brass tap from Kegworks as well as a 5lb Co2 tank and low profile tap.

Here is a picture of how everything fits inside. (sorry for the dark picture)

0196e323.jpg


It is kind of tight but it gets the job done..

And Lastly here are pictures of the finished product.

763dc2fe.jpg


And a picture of the first beer from it. I originally had the thermostat close to bottom to see what it could do. Later that day I got a glass at 30. After that I raised the temperature to 36. So far I am happy with its efficiency. While holding a temperature below 32 it turns on less frequently than the Sub-Zero fridge on the side of it in the picture. :p

de49edf0.jpg


At this point it has been running for two weeks with no problem and has had one keg successfully through it.

If anyone has any questions or would like better/different pictures I would be more than glad to help. Any other ideas/criticism would greatly be appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

-Tyler

I know this is an old post,but you got some mad skills,very nice
 
Tyler,

Thanks for posting this. I just a bought a whiskey barrel and want to build my own kegerator as well. What was the total cost to do this? I have a college mini fridge in my basement, will that be good enough to keep it cold? Also, was the 120VAC to 12VCD adapter strong enough? When you bought your fan, what kind of fan did you order?

What did you use to get the top lid of the barrel? Overall was the whole process to build this hard? I have never done anything like this before.

If you could change anything or do something different to make the unit more efficient/better, what would you do?

Thanks for sharing this, I hope to hear from you.

Cheers,
Michael
 
ShastyMcJasty... do you know the model fridge you used as the donor?

Great build!

Cheers!
 
Hello I would like more info about this build. What kind of refrigeration equipment did you use? Did you just use regular house insulation between barrel and steel liner? What type of material did you use one the inside of the steel liner? Did you insulate the lid? I would also love some more pics. I want to build this Thanks for your help Feel free to email me directly [email protected]
 
I've been lurking around here for a little while now and have felt that I have nothing worthwhile to contribute.. Until Now!

I thought some people may enjoy seeing the build of my kegorator and what went into it. If you're not one of those people scroll to the bottom for pictures of the finished product. If you are.. well then keep reading. (I apologize for the crappy cellphone pictures. It was all I had with me through out the process)

A few weeks ago I happened across a man in central Maine that declared himself as "Bob the Barrel Man". He sells used whiskey barrels from Jim Beam I guess. I thought they were cool.. So I bought one. Once I got this 120lb barrel home I realized I had NO idea what I was going to do with it. I have wanted a kegorator for a while now but wanted something different than the conventional style one (not that there is anything wrong with a conventional one). So I decided I was going to turn this barrel into my kegorator. One way or another it was going to happen.

f45ee725.jpg


First thing was to find a way to make this thing get real cold. So I found an old forgotten mini-fridge in my parents basement and yanked the refrigeration unit out of it in one piece. I really wanted to try and avoid recovering refrigerant and re-evacuating the system and recharging it. Thats a can of worms I really didn't want to open on this project. Before I took it out I let the fridge run a few days to make sure it could get cold enough reliably.

Next was to cut the barrel open. Apparently these barrels are under pressure or something. Maybe it was a little extra fermenting or a temperature change but when I drilled into the top it hissed for about a minute and filled my whole house and surrounding area with a STRONG smell of whiskey. Strong enough for a neighbor to come over and ask what smelled so good.

After removing the top, I cleaned the barrel out by scrubbing the walls and bottom with a grill brush and hosing it down. There was still some whiskey left and loose char from the barrel walls.

Next was mocking up the refrigeration unit and the platform that the keg would eventually sit on. It was beefed up much more than shown in the picture below.

a00c04b4.jpg


After this I figured that it was going to be getting pretty warm so it would need some sort of vent hole (a very poor one I may add) on the bottom with a fan to draw the hot air out. While I was down there I decided to add four castors to help make moving this thing around easier. This later turned out not to be strong enough with the load of a keg so I had to make a plywood reenforcement ring.

I bought the fan from Amazon for 15$ shipped. It is apparently suppose to be an automotive radiator fan. Since it was designed for a car I had to use a 120VAC to 12VDC adapter to convert the fan. The fan is wired into the power to the compressor, so as long as the compressors running the fan will be cooling. If this turns out to not be enough cooling I will add an independent control system for the fan with a thermocouple, but I wont cross that bridge until I need to.

db7d3170.jpg


Next was the inside lining. I found some galvanized steel sheets at Lowes for a reasonable price. All I did was drill some holes along the edge and pop rivet them together to get a circular lining as well as cut out a circle for the bottom platform.

With the cooling plate and thermostat

abc628c7.jpg


A partir de aquí necesitaba trabajar en la eficiencia de todo el asunto. Llené el espacio entre el acero y el barril con aislamiento R-30 y grapé el aislamiento en la parte inferior de la plataforma para ayudar a evitar que el calor del compresor/condensador pasara. También atornillé la placa fría al lado del revestimiento de acero para que no se volcara.

d3366f67.jpg


Aquí hay una foto de la primera prueba.

b0eac48e.jpg


Esto me motivó a continuar, pero la unidad de refrigeración se estaba esforzando un poco más que en el refrigerador para mantener la temperatura tan baja. Terminé calafateando todos los espacios que pude encontrar para ayudar a mantener baja la convección y también hice un revestimiento de aluminio para el interior. También hay una parte superior del forro que no se muestra. También cubrí el espacio entre el cañón y el revestimiento con una envoltura térmica de escape.

4d410515.jpg


Finalmente fue la cima. A partir de ahora no estoy 100% satisfecho con la parte superior y tengo algunas ideas nuevas que voy a probar. Pero ahora mismo es una pieza de madera contrachapada chapada en roble con una ligera mancha y unas cuantas manos de poliuretano. Compré un grifo de latón de Kegworks, así como un tanque de Co2 de 5 libras y un grifo de bajo perfil.

Aquí hay una foto de cómo encaja todo dentro. (perdón por la imagen oscura)

0196e323.jpg


Es un poco apretado pero hace el trabajo..

Y por último, aquí hay fotos del producto terminado.

763dc2fe.jpg


Y una foto de la primera cerveza de ella. Originalmente tenía el termostato cerca del fondo para ver qué podía hacer. Más tarde ese día tomé un vaso a 30. Después de eso subí la temperatura a 36. Hasta ahora estoy contento con su eficiencia. Mientras mantiene una temperatura por debajo de 32, se enciende con menos frecuencia que el refrigerador Sub-Zero al costado de la imagen.:pag

de49edf0.jpg


En este punto, ha estado funcionando durante dos semanas sin problemas y ha superado con éxito un barril.

Si alguien tiene alguna pregunta o desea imágenes mejores/diferentes, estaré encantado de ayudar. Cualquier otra idea/crítica sería muy apreciada. ¡Gracias por leer!

Salud,

-Tyler
 
Hola, mi nombre es Carlos de Seattle, WA. Me gustó mucho tu trabajo. ¿Podrías enviarme más información sobre cómo lo hiciste desde el principio hasta el final? Yo realmente lo apreciaría.
 
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