Upright Keezer, 8 taps, 11 kegs

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benco said:
Thanks to everyone for your help! It's pretty much done, except for filling it up with beer!!! I'm only doing 6 for now and keep my co2 in fridge! Thanks!!!

Where did you get your hardware? How long are your shakes? Can u share the measurements on the stand?

Looks awesome!
 
Where did you get your hardware? How long are your shakes? Can u share the measurements on the stand?

Looks awesome!

I know you were quoting benco, but since this is my build thread and mine is setup the same, I'll give you my dimensions.

The shelf is 17" deep x 27" wide x 29.5 high. My shanks are 3.5" w/ 90 degree tail pieces. Most likely any 3" to 4" shank will work.
 
I got my perlicks. 525 ss 4 inch shank and tail piece combo set for 56.99 each, a good price. I think they had them for 54.99 Black Friday deal. I got all other misc. parts at keg connection.
 
benco said:
I got my perlicks. 525 ss 4 inch shank and tail piece combo set for 56.99 each, a good price. I think they had them for 54.99 Black Friday deal. I got all other misc. parts at keg connection.
rhe perlicks are birdman brewing!
 
benco said:
I got my perlicks. 525 ss 4 inch shank and tail piece combo set for 56.99 each, a good price. I think they had them for 54.99 Black Friday deal. I got all other misc. parts at keg connection.
the perlicks are birdman breiwing.
 
I needed extra tap space over Thanksgiving so I converted my upright freezer that I've been using for fermentation, into a dual purpose fermenter/keezer using John W.'s excellent inspiration. I needed at least four more taps for beer, so that's what I added. I also added a wine tap, and spaced them all so that I'd have room to expand. I painted the freezer black to help dress it up a little. I used perlick 525SS faucets along with a the stainless rotary valve tap for the wine (I got this from Micromatic). The wine sits outside the freezer in a 2.5 gallon keg, and the line is fed through the freezer to the tap. I used 3 1/8" ss shanks with 90 degree tailpieces like John did. I used some branding on demand (BOD) handles (also from Micromatic) so that I could label the beer. This was a great project that only took a couple of weeks from decision point through ordering and building to being able to serve out of it. It's great to see people's faces when they come into my basement and see 8 beers and a wine on tap!

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I drilled 4 holes through the back wall. One hole is for my temp probe and the other 3 are for gas lines. I used 3/8" SS tubing bent in a 90 degree radius to poke through the back wall. I then crimp on the 5/16" gas lines to the SS tubing on both the inside and outside. This makes it clean on the inside and also gives the bend on the outside to minimize the space behind the keezer so you can push it all the way against the wall.
Gas_Lines.jpg

JonW
just ordered everything to build one of these as well - how did you determine where it was safe to drill the holes in the back wall? Does this freezer have cooling lines in the sides?
 
JonW
just ordered everything to build one of these as well - how did you determine where it was safe to drill the holes in the back wall? Does this freezer have cooling lines in the sides?

The side have coils - which is why they'll heat up a bunch while the freezer is cooling.

For the back, almost the whole back panel is an air channel. You'll see on yours that the air is pulled in from the bottom and is pushed out the top. As long as you're not drilling in the lower hump area where the chiller coils are, you're safe. Take a look at my pic and drill in the same general area right above the hump. You can remove the hump cover to see where the components are inside if that helps you.
 
JonW
just ordered everything to build one of these as well - how did you determine where it was safe to drill the holes in the back wall? Does this freezer have cooling lines in the sides?

I drilled through the floor of the freezer for my build. I unscrewed the back protective cover over the coils, and found a spot to drill through. Then I routed my lines up through a slot in the cover.
 
I went with the Johnson digital controller and having some trouble. I've been keeping it around 34, in my garage. I have 2 beers on tap, the two kegs are on the upper shelf. My beer line is freezing up! Twice already. It's 3/16 bev line about 8 ft. Am I keeping it to cold or something else going on, any ideas? Thanks!
 
I went with the Johnson digital controller and having some trouble. I've been keeping it around 34, in my garage. I have 2 beers on tap, the two kegs are on the upper shelf. My beer line is freezing up! Twice already. It's 3/16 bev line about 8 ft. Am I keeping it to cold or something else going on, any ideas? Thanks!

34 is too cold for most beer unless it's american adjunct(piss) lager. I keep mine at 40.
 
34 is too cold for most beer unless it's american adjunct(piss) lager. I keep mine at 40.

I keep mine at 34 also, but that is for 2 reasons. 1) It allows me to have really short lines of the accuflex bev seal lines (which has very little resistance due to the glass barrier) 2) allows me to lagger beers

Sure, I have to let most beers sit a minute or two before they are ready to drink. I can live with that.
 
I went with the Johnson digital controller and having some trouble. I've been keeping it around 34, in my garage. I have 2 beers on tap, the two kegs are on the upper shelf. My beer line is freezing up! Twice already. It's 3/16 bev line about 8 ft. Am I keeping it to cold or something else going on, any ideas? Thanks!

For my tastes 34F is a little cold, but you can definitely make that work. Are the beer lines sitting on the floor of the freezer or near the back? I've had this happen to me before. Try to move the extra slack in the lines as close to the door as possible, and keep them off the floor of the freezer. Also, there will be cold/warm spots in the freezer. Maybe consider adding a fan that runs all the time to help keep the temp even. Another good thing to do is set your temperature probe into something with some mass, so that it will read more closely to the keg beer temperature and not the air temperature. I put my probe in a used White Labs yeast vial filled with sand. I placed this on top of one of the kegs on the lower shelf near the back. This should also keep the fridge from cycling on and off frequently.
 
SWMBO is NOT happy with you folks now that I have read this thread and found the 20.5 cf Frigidaire on sale at Lowe's!
 
I've been considering this build for quite some time. I probably won't have 8 taps but will have the available space for lagering/aging. I like the small footprint it offers.
 
I bought the smaller 14 cu ft model (it was available on craigslist) and can squeeze 9 in without messing with the door shelving. Will the wire shelf handle the weight of 4 pin locks or did you do the wood reinforcement to ensure it was secure?
 
I bought the smaller 14 cu ft model (it was available on craigslist) and can squeeze 9 in without messing with the door shelving. Will the wire shelf handle the weight of 4 pin locks or did you do the wood reinforcement to ensure it was secure?

I wouldn't trust the wire shelf by itself, but that's just me. With 6, it was definitely a no-go, but with 4 you might be OK.
 
I bought the smaller 14 cu ft model (it was available on craigslist) and can squeeze 9 in without messing with the door shelving. Will the wire shelf handle the weight of 4 pin locks or did you do the wood reinforcement to ensure it was secure?

With the 14 cu ft model, you having any issues height wise stacking 2 layers of kegs?
 
With the 14 cu ft model, you having any issues height wise stacking 2 layers of kegs?

Using pin lock kegs there wasn't any issue. It is a bit tight, but with the middle shelf still in, you can get 4-5 on the floor and 4-5 on the shelf. If you go with 5 on either one you have to remove door shelving. There's about an inch of space above the tops of the kegs on both levels.

Ball locks are too tall though and won't work in this to stack.
 
Using pin lock kegs there wasn't any issue. It is a bit tight, but with the middle shelf still in, you can get 4-5 on the floor and 4-5 on the shelf. If you go with 5 on either one you have to remove door shelving. There's about an inch of space above the tops of the kegs on both levels.

Ball locks are too tall though and won't work in this to stack.

Can you take a picture sometime to show us what it looks like? Also, any chance on interior dimensions? I'm really interested in the possibility of an even smaller footprint.
 
I found a freezer on CL last week. Looking forward to starting this build. I have most parts but still need a few items. I'm glad I bought my parts over the last six months and not all at once especially with a Brewhemoth arriving in the same week. My freezer was manufactured Sept 2012, very clean and only $275 on CL. Thanks Jon.

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I had time over the weekend to install the Co2, drill the door and mount the drip trays. Thanks to Jonw and other posters in this thread for all the inspiration and help. I ended up going with 2 three port drip trays because this model freezer has a vertical door divider on the inside that I wanted to avoid. Also thanks to the heads up from jeffcosgrove, I was able to avoid the vertical wiring in the door. Originally I was not going to populate all the faucet ports (just four to start) but as I thought it through I decided to do all the drilling at one time so 2 more shanks and faucets are on the way. On the fourth shank I over torqued the little sleeve at the faucet end and broke it. They are a little hard to find but I have more of those on the way as well.

Thank You HBT!

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Quick questions.


1) Do you still have to bypass the defrost if you use a Johnson controller?

2) I know the smaller freezers won't let you stack ball locks, but how many can you get on the bottom layer? I was thinking having 5 gallon ball locks on the bottom and 2.5 gallon ball locks and/or bottles on the top. Would that also allow a lagering carboy on the top shelf with the smaller freezers?



My cousin is looking to add a keezer to his brewery and I'm trying to get him to buy my chest freezer. If he does, I may go the upright route.
 
1) Do you still have to bypass the defrost if you use a Johnson controller?
Yes, it's suggested that you bypass the defrost for any controller you are using.

2) I know the smaller freezers won't let you stack ball locks, but how many can you get on the bottom layer? I was thinking having 5 gallon ball locks on the bottom and 2.5 gallon ball locks and/or bottles on the top. Would that also allow a lagering carboy on the top shelf with the smaller freezers?
I don't know the size of the smaller freezers, so I can't answer that. I will leave that as an exercise for you. :mug:
 
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