Second keezer for lil brother

Neither of my two keezer builds would have been possible without the documented builds on this site, thanks.

My lil brother saw my keezer and wanted one. Initially he wanted one similar to my own but I talked him out of it. He wanted a two tap coffin with room for expansion. One will be designated for a commercial keg and the other a corny keg. He does not brew but helped make a break in batch of brown ale.

Of course he wanted an expensive wood, cherry, a tile top and something similar to the inlay I did on mine.

Since Cherry plywood is very expensive I opted for some birch plywood that I could stain cherry. One side of the plywood was nice and white ready for staining. When I turned it over the second side was a lot darker with some interesting grain. After experimentation with a variety of stains with and without sealer and they were all too red. I then tried plain old poly, on the dark side and it’s a close match.







The coffin and top trim were built so that I only had to cut one tile on each side of the recessed part of the coffin.

When it came to building the coffin I bought a pocket hole jig which made things a lot easier. I recommend it to anyone attempting one of these builds. I bought the cheap one which was not cheap at $40 but worth every penny in saved time. I also used an aquarium temp controller installed in the back of the coffin.



I had never done an inlay before I made the one on my own keezer. Now that I did one I wanted to try something else so after watching some videos on Celtic knots I figured I would try that. After one practice piece my daughter and I made this.





Initially a carved cherry burl shamrock that was going to be glued in the middle of the knot. After seeing the finished piece my brother thought it would take away from the knot so two clovers will be glued to the coffin, one on each side.

The tile is just dry fit because I have a few more coats of poly I have to apply to the top. I will be using a fairly new product to glue the tile down instead of thinset. It’s a rubber membrane that the tile sticks to so that you can grout immediately.

Can I be your little brother too?

Looks great!

Very Nice! Love the knot!

Thanks for the comments. I'm putting on more coats of poly now so I can start the tile.

purplehaze said:

The tile is just dry fit because I have a few more coats of poly I have to apply to the top. I will be using a fairly new product to glue the tile down instead of thinset. It’s a rubber membrane that the tile sticks to so that you can grout immediately.

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Do you happen to have a link to the stuff you are using to glue the tile down? I think I may have heard of this before.

I have not used it yet, still applying poly to seal the top. If your interested I will have extra.

Bondera was bought at Lowes and is more expensive. This is the one I will use due to the gluing surface being flat.

http://www.bonderatilematset.com/



Simplemat was bought at HD was cheaper at $19. This will not work for tile as small as mine. Instead of the entire surface being sticky its basically small intermittent lines of glue. Use this stuff with 1" and larger tiles or they will be uneven due to the gaps in the glue.

http://thesimplemat.com/

Well I finally finished this thing. I ended up using the Bondera to secure the tile to the top eliminating the need for thinset. It was easy to use, worked well and saved some weight. The two unfinished tap handles are on there because it looked weird without them.



It doesn't look it but quarter barrel will fit on the compressor shelf with two staggered corny kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank on the floor.





I needed a permanent way to prop the lid open safely. A piece of scrap wood just would not do. I ended up getting two identical car hood props from the junk yard, straightened them out with a hammer and cut to size.

Your a hell of a big bro! Wish I had that kind of relationship with my big brother, but we have very little in common anymore. Very nice work.....congrats on another well done keezer!

Damn, adopt me........

When ya gonna build mine "bro"

Does the line near the top stay cool?

Wow, this is gorgeous. Definitely inspires me to upgrade!

That is some extremely nice inlay.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes the beer stays fairly cold at the top due to the copper and insulation. I did not take any temps, just made sure there were no leaks. Since this won't be picked up for another day or two I can check the temps tomorrow and post them.

I did post the temps for the other keezer I built with a similar but different setup.

purplehaze said:

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes the beer stays fairly cold at the top due to the copper and insulation. I did not take any temps, just made sure there were no leaks. Since this won't be picked up for another day or two I can check the temps tomorrow and post them.

I did post the temps for the other keezer I built with a similar but different setup.

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Probably not a big deal, by it might foam up when you first pour it.

Well I checked the temp of the e-bay controller tonight and compared it to the beer temp. It ended up being pretty close to my original keezer temps using glycol filled tube within a tube.

e-bay temp controller = 35 F

8oz of ale = 38 F

I think I can live with a three degree increase and there were no foam issues with such a small differential.

Did you carve the knot inlay?

I wish I could take all of the credit for the carving but my daughter helped me. She picked out the design, transferred it to the wood and steadied my hand while carving. It took some time but it was easier than I thought it was going to be.