Keezer Build Kenmore 8.8 cu ft

So I got a system back during Christmas that included 4 ball lock kegs, CO2 tank, and all that, and I've gone this long without having a way of getting them cold and serving them... until now.

A couple weeks ago I pulled the trigger and bought a black Kenmore 8.8 cu ft chest freezer from Sears while it was on sale and I'm just now getting around to starting the conversion to a keezer.

I started by building a frame out of 2x6's and mounting 3 inch casters. This raises the freezer by just over 6 inches.



I'll be keeping it in the garage for the time being until I can find a reasonable location to keep it in the house. Here it is all plugged up and working, attached to the STC1000 temperature controller.



I haven't ordered faucets or shanks yet because I'm waiting till I get some more cash to drop, but I'm planning on 4 Perlick 525ss faucets with stainless shanks. But until then, I'm just going to use the keezer as it sits now until I get the rest of the supplies.

So right now I've got the keezer running and holding temperature nicely, so I've loaded it up with a couple cases and two kegs that I've filled and have had sitting waiting for this moment. I'll hook up the gas system in the next day or so after I make sure the temperature is where I like it and have some draft beer by the end of the week hopefully. :rockin:

Here she is filled with 2 cases of a recent German Hefe, a keg of Simcoe IPA, and a keg of American Amber:


I'll add more to this once I get supplies and do some more work over the next couple of weeks, but here's some more details about the plan until then:

The keezer has plenty of room for my 4 kegs, it should hold 5, and a sixth could fit on the hump with the right size collar. I'm going to be keeping the gas system inside and have a 4 way gas manifold that I'll attach to the inside of an 8 inch collar I've got in the works. Stay tuned for more over the next couple weeks!

good luck with the build

I have been thinking about getting the same freezer, so will be interested to follow your project. Good luck with it. But I really like your bottle caps. Are those Clemson Tiger paws?

Yes they are, I got them last year to put on a batch and gave them out at tailgates during football season. They came from bottlemark.com, you can upload any image you want and have them printed out on a batch of bottle caps, a little pricey, but cool idea as a novelty.

Well, I am Clemson grad and they caught my eye. I used to bottle everything, but then got set up with kegs and I don't think I have bottled anything since. But those would make great gifts. I think I'll order some. Thanks - and good luck with your project.

Just wanted to add a quick update to this since it's been slow going working on this. The keezer is working well, I've been pouring drafts out of picnic taps now for about a week.

I've built a decorative base around the base to cover up the wood. I made it out of some pre-primed baseboard molding pieces from Lowes that I sprayed with Rustoleum's hammered black spray paint which matches the keezer sides perfectly. I'll post a picture of this tomorrow when I get a chance.

The biggest news is that I'll be ordering taps and shanks this weekend, so I'll hopefully be able to get this whole thing finished over the next two weeks.

Here's the photo I promised, could be better, but I couldn't get anymore lighting:

Another update this week. I've ordered the faucets and shanks, four perlick 525ss with stainless shanks, that should be here by Friday. In the meantime, I've started staining the collar that I've cut out of a nice pine 1x8. I'm using Cabot stain in Red Mahogany. I just finished putting the second coat on, and I think one more should be perfect before I coat the whole thing in a clear semi-gloss protective urethane. Also, I've been searching around and managed to find a couple nice commercial tap handles that I'll be using instead of the black plastic ones.

Before the second coat:


Tap handles, more on their way:

I recently built a keezer with this unit, and here's my advice:

1) you can easily remove the weather stripping from the lid. I did that, then silicone caulked my collar to the lid, and staple-gunned the weather stripping to the underside of the collar. So the collar goes up with the lid. Easier to add/remove kegs. But you have to slide the unit away from the wall and use a stick to support the lid when open.

2) be careful about faucet placement, because the lid has a lip that juts out. So if the faucet is under it and too high, your tap handle will hit that lip. I didn't realize this until it was too late.

3) I couldn't get more than 4 5-gal kegs on the floor, not sure how you could. But even with my 4" collar, I can easily get 4 5-gal kegs, the gas tank, and 2 3-gal kegs on the hump.

Thanks for the input. I've been going back and forth on how to do the hinge, but I think I'm leaning to the was you described. Good catch on the lid interfering with the handles, I'll have to check on that before I go any further. And I only have 4 kegs, so I know they fit on the floor and it looked like I might be able to fit a 5th but I wasn't sure.

I can't wait to have this all put together and functioning, should be done this weekend. The only thing left to buy is a piece of insulated sheathing to go on the inside on the collar.

Any idea how many kegs you can fit in this bad boy?

USMCPayne said:

Any idea how many kegs you can fit in this bad boy?

Click to expand...

See above for the answer.

I've only got four kegs right now, and they all fit with plenty of room on the floor. I don't think a fifth would fit there, but with a tall enough collar you could get five including one on the hump.

And a quick update on the progress:
The taps I ordered still haven't come in, they're scheduled to be shipped on the 20th. Also, I've gotten the collar stained and sealed.

Awesome progress. I dont have the same freezer (I have a 7.2cuft GE) but plan to start my collar build soon. I just got the STC1000 controller built. Keep posting your progress and any tips for the rest of us!

Yes please do. I just picked up a used Kenmore 8.8 for $120 and will be building over the next several months to a full keezer. For now it will probably just be used for fermentation as soon as I get another STC-1000 to put in it. I don't have kegging equipment but I can use it to ferment and to store beer.

About time for another update I think. I'm still waiting on my faucets and shanks... they got back-ordered again apparently. I ordered them on 6/1 when they were supposedly in stock. Come to find out they were on order to get them again on 6/20, well I called them that day and that date is now pushed back to 7/5... we'll see. For right now, I'm just pouring drafts through picnic taps, which is still awesome

I'll get some more pictures of the progress posted this evening. It's pretty much complete with the exception of the taps. I've got the collar installed and I've put insulation into it loosely. I've also installed the gas manifold. I found just last Friday a very cheap drip tray, so I'm in the middle of getting that mounted up. I've got extra bracket supports that I'm using JB Weld (love that stuff) to attach to the front face below where the taps will be. It's a 4x19 inch stainless tray that I got for $25 delivered today, fits nicely with a little extra room on either side of my faucets that I've got spaced 16" end to end.

Here's some new pictures I just took of the progress on the keezer. Even though I don't have the shanks or taps yet, I went ahead and attached the collar with the holes drilled in it. I made an insulating layer inside by making a double layer of 3/4" foil lined styrofoam sheathing, and right now it's just sitting flush against the collar, it holds itself up just by the nature of the tight fit, eventually I'll glue it to the collar itself. But that won't be until after I get the taps because I'll have to cut holes for the shanks to fit through the insulation.

Here's the exterior of the keezer, the collar is 1x8 pine that I stained mahogany and sealed with a gloss polyurethane.



You can see I've attached the drip tray. I painted the brackets with the same hammered black spray paint just to match the body. I attached them permanently to the steel base and to the keezer with JB kwik weld, which worked extremely well, that thing is solid as a rock and holds several full pints no problem. Just for kicks I ran a bead of clear caulk between the crack behind the tray to keep any beer from getting in and growing mold or anything.



I didn't think to get any shots of the inside, I'll add some of those later.

This looks great! I'm looking to do something very similar to this w/in the next year, but plan to save up for it first. Have you kept a running tab of costs? If so, would you mind sharing so I know what to be budgeting out?

Looking good! You are making great progress. I was wondering, did you attach your collar to the freezer or the lid?

Looks great, this is extremely similar to the plan I have in my mind. I picked up a used 8.8 for $120 on craigslist! It is a little dinged up and I had to rebuild the inside of the lid because the plastic was cracked where it mounts to the lid, but the compressor and cooling works like a charm (for now).

That's a nice score. I haven't kept a running total of everything since a lot of the materials I had laying around the house; various hardware, casters, lumber. Almost all of the cost of this build is in the freezer that I got new for $260 and the perlick stainless faucet and shank combo's, four of them for $210. The boards, insulation, stain, polyurethane, caulk, and temp controller build totaled around another $100-120. And then I got the drip tray for $25, bottle opener for $10, and a magnetic basket I'm using to catch bottle caps was $5. So all total that brings it to $630 plus time. Not bad for a 4 tap keezer that's also a pretty good looking, functional piece of art. And the pride that comes with saying you built it to all your friends is priceless.

I like the idea of the perlick stainless faucet and shank comb's. Its my birthday in a couple of months and I figure I can end up with a nice keezer. What did you do for the manifold, regulator, and CO2 tank?

I got the CO2 tank, regulator, 4 way manifold, gas lines and disconnects, liquid disconnects with picnic taps, and 4 kegs as a set from Midwest Supplies back in December as a Christmas gift.

It's finished!

Fedex stopped by this morning and it was like Christmas morning! A big package with perlick faucets and stainless steel 3/16" bore shanks and tailpiece combo's. I got everything all hooked up, ran some beer line (10' 3/16" clear tubing per tap), and attached the tap handles. As was pointed out earlier by someone, the tap handle closest to the center interferes with the lip on the lid of the freezer so I can't attach the handle I was planning on which is kind of a bummer.

Anyway, here's the inside where you can see the insulation blocks, as well as how I attached the manifold. The CO2 tank sits on the hump and can't really be seen. I just need to organize the gas lines a little better.



And here's the final look from the outside.



This has been a fun project, and well worth it. Looking forward to many years of draft homebrew

Nicely done. What's that board you've attached to the front for labeling the taps? I need to get some type of small board like that.

It's just a small dry erase board with magnets on the back, I can't remember where I got it. It was just sitting in the corner not being used anymore, so it was perfect for the job.

Are those 3 1/8" or 4 1/8" shanks?

Those are 4 1/8 inch shanks. I wanted to make sure they were long enough, turns out 3 1/8 would have been plenty long.

Can you please post images of the back so I can see how you dealt with the hinges?