SWMBO not home? Build a keezer!

So here's my first real post on the forums. I guess I'm getting more serious than just trying to win some giveaways. Anyways, my wife took the kids to the in-laws for the weekend and I thought that would be the perfect time to build a keezer.

Not quite done yet, but here's my progress so far. I'm using a 7 cf GE chest freezer, Love TSX-10140 temp controller, and only a single faucet setup (for now).

I originally planned on just attaching the collar to the lid, but after I put the whole in for the temp controller, I realized I wouldn't be able to access the terminals. Oops. Now I'm planning on putting hinges on the lid as well.

My biggest issue right now is that I didn't plan this too well. The keezer is 80% complete but I haven't brewed anything to put in it when it's done! So I'll have any empty keg/keezer for a few weeks. Any suggestions for my maiden keg voyage?

i say brew what you like... I am a big fan of stouts, or it is the time of the year for holliday beers.

ahs session brews, grain to glass in two weeks

kosmokramer said:

ahs session brews, grain to glass in two weeks

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Do you have a link to the AHS Grain to Glass session brew? I'd love to get beer turned around that fast!

Wheat ales are great for quick turn around. Ferment for 10 days, drop it in a keg, put it in the fridge and connect the CO2. Three days later your ready to drink.

Grain to glass in 13 days!!

kosmokramer said:

ahs session brews, grain to glass in two weeks

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Never heard of a session brew. What's that?

joshstokes122 said:

Never heard of a session brew. What's that?

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Typically low abv beers that are easy to drink... so you can have several beers within a given session, yet still drive home...

From my personal experience with the keezer I built in June and am currently rebuilding, insulate the hell out of that collar, and make sure there are no air leaks.

The lumber I originally used was garbage, so I had an air leak which led to condensation which led to mold which led to me having to clean everything out. Also, the better insulation, the less stress on the compressor from turning on and off all the time.

turkeyjerky214 said:

From my personal experience with the keezer I built in June and am currently rebuilding, insulate the hell out of that collar, and make sure there are no air leaks.

The lumber I originally used was garbage, so I had an air leak which led to condensation which led to mold which led to me having to clean everything out. Also, the better insulation, the less stress on the compressor from turning on and off all the time.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I have some leftover 1" foam board insulation with aluminum backing that I used on my garage door that I think will work good for that. I also used a 2 in 1, stain-poly, on both the inside and outside of the collar. I was thinking that doing the inside too might help protect against any adverse affects of moisture.

For anyone out there that's used a similar temp controller and mounted it in the collar, did you put some type of enclosure around the backside of the temp controller? Any concerns about moisture there? I'm thinking about building a little enclosure out of the foam board to put around the backside of mine.

turkeyjerky214 said:

From my personal experience with the keezer I built in June and am currently rebuilding, insulate the hell out of that collar, and make sure there are no air leaks.

Click to expand...

One tip for this is to put a light bulb inside the keezer and close the lid and look for light escaping. This will help detect the leaks.

joshstokes122 said:

Thanks for the heads up. I have some leftover 1" foam board insulation with aluminum backing that I used on my garage door that I think will work good for that. I also used a 2 in 1, stain-poly, on both the inside and outside of the collar. I was thinking that doing the inside too might help protect against any adverse affects of moisture.

For anyone out there that's used a similar temp controller and mounted it in the collar, did you put some type of enclosure around the backside of the temp controller? Any concerns about moisture there? I'm thinking about building a little enclosure out of the foam board to put around the backside of mine.

Click to expand...

+1 on the foam - the R value of wood is like 2 or 3

Love controller thru the collar - yes, I built a box of wood (oversized) and screwed it down to the inside of the collar to cover my controller. (holes for wires, probe, of course). you can just see it on the inside corner here.

I ended up using some foam board on the collar. I had to trim it down to a couple inches shorter than the height of the collar because the lid was thicker where the the foam board was hitting it.

I also used the the foam board to make a compartment around the backside of the temperature controller and used some metal tape to seal it off from the inside of the keezer.

I also went with a double hinge approach so I can lift only the lid or the lid and collar. This wasn't my original intent, but after mounting the temp controller in the collar, I realized that I wouldn't be able to get to the screw terminals once I attached the lid to the collar.

I scanned the wiring diagram from the technical data sheet of the freezer and the temp controller and tried to put them together in a way that makes sense for people to follow how I did my wiring.

I removed the grate near the compresser and took a look at the freezer wiring. I removed the front panel and removed the connections to the light and temp controller. This gave me a perfect spot to tap into for my Love controller.

The light on the freezer ran on 110VAC so I just wired in there for my Love controller power supply. The black wire of the 110VAC going to the light was actually jumpered with a red wire to the temp controller. The tech data sheet listed this as black, so I made a change to that in my schematic. From there, I just ran the Love controller contacts down to the compressor where the old temp controller was wired in.