Dilemma with kegging and setting up my bar

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dataz722

dataz722

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I have been planning on building a bar for some time now and I am about to actually do it. Before I had always decided that I was going just make a big cold box under the bar and keep my kegs and bottles and everything in there. I have recently changed my mind and am considering just having a couple mini fridges under the bar and keeping my kegs in the unfinished part of the basement. I would keep the kegs at room temp and run lines to a cold plate in one of the mini fridges. First, does anyone see any problems with using a cold plate like this? Second how am I going to balance the lines without having the beer either trickle out of the tap or have overcarbed beer. Will the higher temp of the beer balance it out alone or should I get 1/4" line? Will that even be enough? Any suggestions about this set up at all would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
check out my bar build.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-bar-build-tracking-my-progress-here-121928/

i originally was going to build a coldbox under the bar also, but decided to go another route, and thought about the coldplate idea, but i just built a keezer, kept it in a closet out of view, and ran my beer lines thru the wall. utilizing an extra keg in the keezer full of glycol, and running a pond pump in the bottom of that keg, and wrapping my beer lines around the glycol line, insulating it, etc. is working great for me.
 
Bobby_M said:
The detriment is more about lack of cold conditioning and lower gravity beers not staying fresh.
Click to expand...

I completly forgot about cold conditioning. I do have a fridge that I plan on using for fermenting and cold crashing. I guess I could toss the kegs in there for a couple weeks prior to tapping.

chainsawbrewing said:
check out my bar build.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-bar-build-tracking-my-progress-here-121928/

i originally was going to build a coldbox under the bar also, but decided to go another route, and thought about the coldplate idea, but i just built a keezer, kept it in a closet out of view, and ran my beer lines thru the wall. utilizing an extra keg in the keezer full of glycol, and running a pond pump in the bottom of that keg, and wrapping my beer lines around the glycol line, insulating it, etc. is working great for me.
Click to expand...

Then it comes down to a space problem again. I would just do the cold box in that case.
 
I'm also concerned about this: (its seems they don't recommend having water in contact w/ the cold plate, and air is an even slower temperature transfer-er)

In a cold plate cooler, the beer is run through a aluminum cold plate that is covered with ice. The ice coming in contact with the plate causes the plate to become cold, which in turn causes the beer running through the plate to become cold. It is important to continuously drain the melted ice water from the cooler, and periodically push the ice down on the cold plate surface as it will occasionally bridge up and lose contact with the plate. The typical 10" x 15" cold plate has 18’ of stainless steel tubing within the plate that that beer goes through. Cold plate coolers are only recommended for use when the internal keg temperature can be kept colder then 55° F. In such a case, beer can be beer continuously dispensed from the faucet at 36-38° F.
Use Tips
· Run beer through the system before adding ice.
- Fill cooler with crushed ice.
- Continuously drain melted ice water from cooler.
- Periodically push ice down on Cold Palte surface (ice will occasionally bridge up and lose contact with the plate).
· 30-35 lbs of applied pressure is reccomended. This amount of pressure is required to dispense 50-55° F beer. Less pressure is needed with colder beer.
Click to expand...


source: Beer Jockey Box - MicroMatic.com
 
What is the problem having it in water. I was planning on having it in a dish on water in the fridge. I have a single pass cold plate that I am going to using for a jockey box and that one is made of aluminum. Aluminum has no reaction with water so I don't see what the problem could be. Damn, I really might have to go back to the cold box plan which means I will have to change ALL of my plans again. Damn damn damn!
 
keezer with tap box built int bar. see mine in sig or of course Brew pastor and especially Jesters. That be finished more with a wood face and will push into a cutout of the actual bar. giving a continuous flow with the bar counter
 
I am just running into space problem and wanted to use the space under the bar for shelving.
 
How big of a bar we talking? You could always do wall shelving around it? Depends on the area it's going in I guess. Post the foot print of teh entire bar space, we can come up with something.
 
Well my basement is completly unfinished so originally I was thinking pretty damn big and it would not have been any problem. But the more I actually lay it out and think about it I still need space that can be used as a basement should be. I am thinking about just dividing the basement roughly in half which would leave me with an area about 18x12 ish. In this area I need to fit a sectional couch, a bar, a 90gal fish tank (which will be built into the wall), and a TV. I was thinking about making the bar the entire wall of the one side but lately have been considering just a little 4 or 5 stool corner bar.

I really need to get on google sketchup and draw a couple things out.
 
Baja_Brewer said:
I'm also concerned about this: (its seems they don't recommend having water in contact w/ the cold plate, and air is an even slower temperature transfer-er)




source: Beer Jockey Box - MicroMatic.com
Click to expand...

Meh I don't agree ,this is the problem if you run only ice in the cooler . Best to cover the cold plate with 3-4 inches of water then add ice.Water will wick the heat away from the cold plate . Just ice on top of something isn't a great conductor of heat there will be voids around the cold plate.Its just like putting your boil pot in an ice bath you need the water and ice.
 
springer said:
Meh I don't agree ,this is the problem if you run only ice in the cooler . Best to cover the cold plate with 3-4 inches of water then add ice.Water will wick the heat away from the cold plate . Just ice on top of something isn't a great conductor of heat there will be voids around the cold plate.Its just like putting your boil pot in an ice bath you need the water and ice.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.
 
dataz722 said:
What is the problem having it in water. I was planning on having it in a dish on water in the fridge. I have a single pass cold plate that I am going to using for a jockey box and that one is made of aluminum. Aluminum has no reaction with water so I don't see what the problem could be. Damn, I really might have to go back to the cold box plan which means I will have to change ALL of my plans again. Damn damn damn!
Click to expand...

The beer will quickly heat the water to its temp you need to have some ommph behind like ice warter
 
Here's some food for thought:

A single pass cold plate with a 1/4" OD product line that is 18' only contains a hair less that 5.5 ounces of liquid.

And you are going to be pushing at around 30 psi, and moving it through the cold plate pretty quick.

It just seems like the plate will heat up too fast and will be unable to cool the oncoming beer.
 
Cold plates are designed to be used in coolers with a lot of ice. If you add salt to the water you can maintain the water and ice mixture at 32°. Just be sure to keep adding ice during use. And rinse the Cold plate well after use also.
 
red82mtu said:
Here's some food for thought:

A single pass cold plate with a 1/4" OD product line that is 18' only contains a hair less that 5.5 ounces of liquid.

And you are going to be pushing at around 30 psi, and moving it through the cold plate pretty quick.

It just seems like the plate will heat up too fast and will be unable to cool the oncoming beer.
Click to expand...

I was just responding to the no water deal .. The beer needs to be cool when using a cold plate like under 60° say you buy the keg in the morning and serve all afternoon it would work fine . If the beer is warm then a 3/8" x 100' SS coil in a large jockey box with lots of ice is needed. The local firehouse has one they loan us all the time .
 

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