Keezer Build - With a Twist

I've been looking at posts and plans over the past week or so for a keezer build. My fiancé and I are in the process of house hunting, and she's all for building a "pub room" if an extra bedroom/game room permits (no begging or pleading on my part, either).

My plans are to build a counter/bar that will allow me to place the keezer underneath it, with two tap towers on top of the bar (two faucets on each).

So here is my predicament: instead of installing the faucets directly to the wood collar of a keezer like I've seen in most plans, the lines would run from the keezer, out of the drilled holes in the collar, and up to the towers installed on the bar top above. This means I would have a section of lines exposed, which obviously means the beer in the exposed portion of lines would be room temperature. The only thing I could think of doing to help alleviate the temperature problem would be to build some kind of insulated arm that would encompass all exposed lines from the side of the keezer to the bottom of the bar, but that just seemed like it'd be ineffective and a huge waste of time. Does anybody have a recommendation for helping maintain a suitable temperature for the short amout of exposed lines?

The simplest solution is to wrap the lines with pipe insulation. That will minimize heat pickup while pouring.

Keeping the lines cold will require circulating coolant through the insulation and the towers.

Use a piece of PVC pipe for the lines and then fill with expanding foam insulation.

If wrapped in pipe insulation, wouldn't the cold beer in the lines stay fairly cool since the insulation is keeping the cool in and the heat out? So would there be a need to keep some kind of coolant circulating through there?

Also, would using 1x2 for the frame work fine? I'm worried about ensuring I have 1) enough air room around the keezer so it won't overwork the compressor, and 2) a bar that does not have to be abnormally tall in order to accomodate the keezer underneath it. I figure if the freezer itself is about 35" tall, adding another 2" for the collar would still allow me to build a normal sized bar with enough space underneath for air circulation around the keezer.

From your description it sounds like you're planning to put a keezer under a countertop. That means you'll have to pull the whole keezer out every time you need to get into it. So, the beer lines will have to be extra long to allow for you to pull the keezer out. You should consider going with a mini-fridge kegerator instead. The front door will allow you to access the inside without moving the kegerator and you can run the beer lines out the top to the towers. This will allow for a shorter length of beer lines. Insulating the lines will reduce the heat transfer, but after a period of time (dependent on your insulation) the beer will reach the room temperature. There are some really creative posts on how people have cooled their towers with computer fans and other devices that can help you with your design.

I did originally consider using two mini fridges (allowing the use of four kegs), but the chest freezer seemed to be an all inclusive piece where I could keep all kegs in one place with room to place an extra keg inside when carbonating or lagering.

I thought about placing the keezer on a large plastic drip pan with felt attached to the bottom for easy sliding, but you're right about the excessive length of hosing needed. It might just be easier to go with the mini fridges and avoid potential headaches with the keezer.

Have you considered having a section of the bar directly attached to the freezer lid? That way you could just lift up the bar to get to the inside of the freezer and you could put the tower right there on top, no need to have exposed lines.

Something like just incorporating this right into the bar.

EdWort said:

Use a piece of PVC pipe for the lines and then fill with expanding foam insulation.

Click to expand...

That sounds like the "simple yet effective" solution right there!

There is another potential solution that I've been considering for my basement. That is to convert the cabinet space to a refrigerated space. You could insulate the interior walls and the bottom of the countertop and place the compressor in the adjacent cabinet. You would also need a better sealing/closing mechanism than what is on most cabinet doors. You could even raise this section of the countertop higher than an adjacent sink. That would allow you to put in faucets that extend over the sink and use the sink as a drip tray.

Good luck either way.

EdWort said:

Use a piece of PVC pipe for the lines and then fill with expanding foam insulation.

Click to expand...

What about when its time to change the lines?

babalu87 said:

What about when its time to change the lines?

Click to expand...

A short piece of PVC pipe and expanding foam insulation shouldn't too expensive to replace along with the hoses. Buy one 10' section of PVC and cut it into many short sections. That would probably cost less than the hoses for one changeout.

It sounds to me like you're going for something similar to the epic project of Jester369.

His build is listed up in the sticky for "Project Locator" - but here's the link:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keezer-project-31221/

Thanks for all the responses! The keezer project is a little different look/function than I was going for. I'm looking at building a single bar unit and having some form of kegging system underneath. I'm just not sure having the bar, or section of the bar, lift up with the keezer lid is a practical build for my purposes. While I wish I could have the best of both worlds, as of now I think I'm just going to have to go with two mini-fridges or something.

As far as insulating the exposed lines, I might give this a try.