my simple, 3 tap keezer build

I've been threatening for a while, and its finally time to start my keezer. I scored a small GE freezer on craglist for 80 bucks and got started this morning. I had a bunch of tongue and groove spruce leftover from another project so I decided to use it for this also.

I cut a sheet of plywood, mounted casters, then placed the freezer on the rolling plywood and began framing for the t and g.

I'm keeping things pretty simple. I left the back uncovered and used construction adhesive to glue 2x2s two the freezer body. The tongue and groove was then nailed to the 2x2 with wire brad nails. This way the warm air radiating out of the freezer can exit through a 1 1/2" airspace all the way to the back of the freezer. Here is a pic of the tongue and groove spruce in progress.

Next I mounted the plywood bartop to the freezer lid with a couple of t-nuts and four inch bolts, 4 inches wound up being way too long, so I ground them off flush. I'm really not happy with how secure it feels, so. I think I will go back and use a couple more.

For the trim around the top and bottom, I used the same lumber, only with the toungue and groove ripped off, and I like the way it turned out.

I have a keg cowboy conversion kit on the way to convert the tower on my my current kegerator to 3 taps, at which point the old fridge will be turned into a ferm chamber. I haven't reall started on the bar top yet...and seem to be having trouble getting pics up from the mobile app, so hopefully this works

Ok, not sure why that first pic posted so many times, sorry about that. The bottom is pretty much ready for stain. I hope to work on the bar top after work this week and will put pics up as things progress. Thanks to all who have put up keezer pics on this forum, I have taken ideas from lots of you guys

You can go back and edit them out...

Good start though! Looking forward to seeing how it ends up.

For some reason I'm not able to edit them from this damn phone, will try again when I get back to a computer...one question for you guys:

I recently had a few beers at a place with copper on the bar top, which I was planning on doing with this keezer. My only concern is that my tower is stainless. Do you all think stainless on copper will look silly? My feeling is that it is enough of a contrast that it will look fine, but I would like to hear other opinions...thanks...wnc

Subscribed! Looks great so far....love the T&G spruce! It would look pretty sweet with a coffin on top, but I suppose the tower will do. Can't wait to see it come together.

Thanks for the kind words..

I have waffled back and forth about doing a coffin, and decided against it only because I already have a tower and building the coffin would be out of my carpentry comfort zone. I'm going to have a long week at work, but still hope to get some work done...more pics to come

Hoppopotomus said:

Subscribed! Looks great so far....love the T&G spruce! It would look pretty sweet with a coffin on top, but I suppose the tower will do. Can't wait to see it come together.

Click to expand...

Also, just checked out your basement bar and keezer build threads...very well done sir. I love t&g, so easy to work with and I just redid my kitchen in it, so this keezer is going to match perfectly

Thanks......keep up the great work!

Well, after much thread trolling I have decided to go ahead and do a coffin for my keezer... I think I can handle the carpentry, and it will look cooler in the end.

Do any of you guys that have done them have any advice for insulating the coffin? Is it necessary to have a fan to get the cold air to make its way into the coffin?

I have had a hell of a work week, but I really hope to get this thing mostly done this weekend. Still waiting on my three way gas splitter from keg cowboy though...wnc

I strongly suggest 2 fans....one to pull cold air up into the coffin from the freezer and one to exhaust air back down into the coffin. Build the coffin box big enought to allow plenty of rigid foam insulation, so that you can create an air channel. I would build the box, then caulk every wood joint, then start layering rigid foam insulation. I know my keezer thread is ridiculously long, but I think I took pics. as I went.

I used 4" inductor fans wired together and a dual input/dual output temp. controller (Love TSS2), so that the fans are controlled independent of the freezer. Use a 4" bimetal hole saw to create the hole through the bottom of the coffin box and down through the freezer lid. Then install the inductor fans by cutting and bending down tabs in the duct work the fans are mounted in (easier to see on my thread than explain). You also need to cut another hole with a smaller hole saw for your beer lines to run up through the lid adjacent to the intake fan channel. Once the fans are installed, use rigid foam insulation (I used 1 1/2") stacked in layers to fill the entire bottom cavity. Use the 4" hole saw to cut two holes for the air channels (intake/exhaust) and the smaller saw for the beer lines. With each layer, gradually move the smaller beer line hole closer and closer to the 4" air channel until they merge, so the beer lines ultimately merge into the 4" intake port and up to the shanks. How you insulate the rest all depends upon where your access panel is in the coffin to work on the shanks and beer lines. Essentially you just want to keep piecing in insulation until most of the interior of the coffin is filled with insulation. It's more efficient to cool a small channel up to the shanks and back down to the freezer than the entire coffin cavity.

Like I said, I probably just confused the issue, but it you have some time to jump onto my thread, it should be more clear. Good luck!

OK....I'll save you some time. On my keezer build thread in my signature line go to pages 7, 8, & 9 to see how I drilled the holes and insulated. I started initially with styrofoam panel insulation, but ended up taking it all out and reinsulating with rigid foam, because the styrofoam was too brittle and kept breaking apart. Page 26 of the thread shows where I reinsulated with the rigid foam when I added the 4th tap. Hope it helps!

Thanks, the pics from your build helped a lot. Did the inductor fans come from lowes/home depot, or is that some kind of specialty item?

I purchased mine from HD. They are $28 each in the store, but on their website they are only $14. The manager at my local HD said that it is an error on their site, but since it was advertised at $14 on the website, he honored the price for me. Here's the link for HD:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&Ntpc=1&Ntpr=1

It was nearly 6 months ago when I bought them and they still haven't changed the price on the website. I also seen the 4" inductors for $17 at Menards a couple of weeks ago.....not sure about Lowes.

Good luck with the coffin build and let me know if I can help in any way.

I appreciate the info, you have already been super helpful

It's no problem....I'm happy to help.

Made some good progress today, the copper on the bar top looks awesome I think, the coffin is built and mounted but not insulated or ventilated yet, I also included a pic of my old kegerator just so you can see what I am replacing. Cheers...wnc

Got a little more done today, here is a pic of the finished copper backsplash

I love the tap handles. That's the route I plan to take. Did you find it difficult to drill the antler? Was it just a rack you had laying around or a shed?

Both were small sheds I found last year, the one in the center I found by itself and the one on the lefts mate will be on the right once my last shank comes in.

They are kind of aggravating to make, the best way to cut them off is with an angle grinder, which will throw dust that smells like burnt hair. I used a 5/16" bit to drill the holes, which tight and the treaded part of your faucets will tap the antler, the one in the center came off my old kegerator and has worked well for over a year. Glad you like them

My tap handles were going to be antlers like yours. I have a box of old racks from the smaller scrubby bucks that I have gotten over the years. I purchased the inserts from McMaster/Carr and realized what a pain in the a$$ it was going to be to drill out all 4 of them. I also couldn't get them angled/turned exactly how I wanted them, so I scrapped that idea for now. I've used antlers for several other projects, so I know what you are talking about with the burned hair smell.....frickin' nasty! I'm happy with the cedar branch handles that I built, but still have 4 more inserts if I ever decide to continue with the antler handles. BTW.....nice work so far on the keezer!

I've got a few sheds and a couple scrub buck racks. I'll make one and see how it goes. I've read a lot about the difficulty of getting them threaded correctly.

How long have you been working on the keezer? I'm about 5 months in to mine and have tiling left. It's been one of those 1 hour here, 1 hour there projects. Really wanting to finish it up!

I didn't use the inserts for the tap handles, If you give the 5/16th bit a slight "wiggle" to make the hole just over 5/16, the threads will bite right into the antler nice and tight. This would all be much easier with a vice, I don't have one so I used my brothers hands, it was not ideal.

I have two half days in my keezer, I wanted to get finished yesterday, but still waiting on the distributor and last shank. Also, the girlfriend had me busy with other stuff yesterday

I really loved this build

Thanks...it really looks way cooler in person than in the crappy cell phone pics I put up here. I was able to do it pretty cheap also because I had a lot of stuff on hand already. I'm out of town for a few days but hope to have it totally finished by thanksgiving, when my beer guzzling family will be in town

Here it is all finished. Finished up insulating the coffin today, I didn't take any pictures of that process, but you can see the foam snow in the background. Expecting my distributor and ranco on Monday or Tuesday. Then it should be draft beer glory. Any advice on where I should place the ranco probe? Ive heard they will cycle on and off a lot if you just suspend it in the freezer. I also ended up putting a spike antler on the left most tap, so now I have a one point, two point and three point antler from left to right. This is my way of labeling the taps as 1,2, and 3. I need to tidy up the tubing going up to the taps but I'll do that when I plumb the gas side...cheers...wnc

I put my Ranco probes up against whatever I'm trying to hold at temperature. I found this at Home Depot. It's a pair of 3 foot long 2" wide velcro straps. One will wrap around a corney keg holding a probe against it under a piece of insulation (and daisy chaining the pair works for my 6.5g carboys during fermentation).

Cheers!

Thanks...
I was thinking I would end up attaching the probe to the keg somehow. This has been a fun project, and I can't wait to draw the first pint from it sometime next week. Thanks for all the help and inspirational builds...cheers til next time

Looks fantastic.....very nice work! Post a pic. of your first pint.

I will, I kegged up a batch last night, my ranco and distributor STILL aren't in, so I am only running the freezer for a couple hours at a time to keep from making my beer "black ipa ice". I gave it a test run last night with starsan and found one minor leak that was in an extremely inconvenient place to get to, the insulation makes getting at the shanks from the rear a little awkward, doable, but awkward. The test run also proved that I WILL need a drip tray. Keg connection has a perfect one that I will be ordering today on my lunch break. Cheers first pint pics to come

Didn't pull a full pint because I knew it wouldn't be very carbed yet. Paper towel drip tray is also tacky as hell, but will have to do until the real thing gets here (ordered earlier today). Cheers

Ranco and distributor got here today and then I'm damned if my gas bottle didn't kick. The beer gods have not been on my side recently