Black Dragon Homebrewery Virtual Tour!

bsay · 09-15-2008, 10:02 PM

Welcome to the Black Dragon Homebrewery virtual tour!

We'll start at the Brew Closet where the fermentation happens!

From Left to Right:
Cream Ale - Primary Fermenter
Hard Lemonade - 5 gal BB (the milk crate helps haul full BBs around)
Empty Secondary Fermenter

Above the fermenters in the brew closet is where the ingredients/equipment are stored in a four drawer shelf system.

Notice my high-tech climate control system on the right (AKA furnace/AC unit).

From the fermenters, the beer goes to one of two places...

#1 - The bottle room

Notice the vacuum in the lower right...I'm hard up for space in the apartment right now.
My brewing pot is also housed here, I love that brewing pot.

bsay · 09-15-2008, 10:02 PM

The other place that the beer can go is to the Kegerator!

I can hook up two of those kegs to gas at a time in my Holiday 5.0 cu. ft. converted freezer. With the triple gauge regulator, I can carb one beer while serving the other. Right now there is an Oktoberfest on tap in the Black Keg. Gotta have a magnetic bottle opener handy as well. In the future, I'll have glasses and a place for caps in there, since this will double as my bar fridge for awhile.

Having different colored tops means no messy tape on the kegs. The freezer can also fit thirteen bottles (six in a carrier, though you can't pull it out full due to the CO2 lines) and 8 loose bottles.

Close up of the stored bottles:

Notice how the "R" on the regulator dial matches up with the "R" on the gas disconnect. I bet I could fit another bottle next to the Boulevard bottle in the lower right. There are four bottles under the 6-pack, and I could probably squeeze a 5th bottle down there if I needed to.

Close up of regulator:

The ziplock container holds my yeast. Right now I have a pack of WB-06 for my upcoming wheat beer, and a packet of Munton's Premium Gold dry yeast as my general backup yeast. There is also a pack of champagne yeast for the upcoming Ed's Apfelwein.

Ceedubya · 09-16-2008, 05:41 AM

looks nice, I am striving to get mine to that point. then from there, who knows?

scinerd3000 · 09-16-2008, 06:52 AM

no collar for the kegorator?

bsay · 09-16-2008, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scinerd3000

no collar for the kegorator?

Nope, everything fits just fine without it. I will be adding a collar when I get some faucets, and that's only in order to mount them. I am hoping to build a wheeled base here soon for it though, we'll see when I have the time and someone to borrow a saw from.

If you're tight on space, get the Holiday 5.0 cu. ft. You can have three active kegs and your CO2 all in one place plus room for lots of bottles.

Until I exchanged my CO2 tank, it would even fit down between the three kegs, but I don't know if that would have saved much room once the regulator was installed.

Overall, I love the setup, and SWMBO appreciates that it takes up very little space in the apartment. Especially since it's at her place until we get married, since that's where we do all of the cooking (read: beer brewing).

RockfordWhite · 09-16-2008, 07:44 PM

On the holiday do you think if you built a high enough collar you could fit a 4th keg and have the CO2 on the outside?

bsay · 09-16-2008, 11:07 PM

If you had the CO2 on the outside, yes. It would have to be a fairly large collar though, at least 8 inches (but I'd have to measure to be sure). If you're looking for more than three kegs in a Holiday 5.0, I'd say just get the next size up. No matter the collar height (unless it was tall enough to put the CO2 on top of a keg) you won't be able to get 4 kegs and a CO2 IN the 5.0 model.

RockfordWhite · 09-17-2008, 02:10 AM

Would it be too much trouble to ask you to measure that out. I too live in an apartment and am shopping for a kegerator with a small footprint... 3 kegs almost has me hooked to buy, a 4th would be a sale...

bsay · 09-17-2008, 02:44 AM

I'll get the tape out....measurements coming in just a few minutes...

measurements are in:
The hump is 11" tall.
I have about 3" extra clearance above each keg including disconnects and hose bend.
So i would use NO LESS THAN an 8" collar (preferably a 10")

Hope that helps.

adrock78 · 12-24-2008, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsay

measurements are in:
The hump is 11" tall.
I have about 3" extra clearance above each keg including disconnects and hose bend.
So i would use NO LESS THAN an 8" collar (preferably a 10")

bsay,
First of all, your setup looks great!

I'm new to the forum here but looking to get back a little more serious with homebrewing and venture into kegging. So far, that Holiday freezer looks to be the way I'm leaning. Can I pick your brain a bit?

I've seen another example on this forum somewhere where someone added a collar to this freezer and ran the faucets out the side of the collar. For my setup, I was hoping to run a 3-faucet tower out the lid instead. Any issues drilling through the lid on this model freezer (aside from not being able to go back to just a freezer again once the deed is done)? Assume all the coils are in the sides so nothing in particular I would need to watch out for? Is there enough clearance under the lid to avoid getting a kink in the lines on the way up to the tower or would I really need to fabricate a collar to make it work right? Also, I'm interested in someday down the road adding a stout faucet and a nitrogen setup in addition to the straight CO2. The center of the freezer in your setup looks pretty spacious where you have the 6 pack holder setting. Is there enough room in the center there for a 5lb nitrogen tank as well? Or would that be pushing my luck?

Thanks in advance!
Adam