Keezer/ tap wall setup?!

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kranak

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
Messages
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Location
Cleburne, TX
I've been working on a garage/guestroom/awesome room. I'm now up to the point of working on mechanical and would like some help planning a serving station. I have a good sized closet that I will put my chest freezer in, I currently own a 7cu holiday chest freezer that I would like to use. A couple of things I would like help with, and have been thinking about.

1.When I am not serving from the freezer do I need to build a collar, is the extra height still needed for internal fittings?
2.What would be the best way to set this up to function for both sodas and beer(indvidual regulators, hose length, etc)?
3. What would I do after each use to help clean the lines, do I have a keg with santizer wash to run through, etc?
4. Any other general pointers or cool features to plan into this.
5. Does the CO2/gas tank need to be in the keezer?

A few things I am already thinking of(which if they aren't the best idea please shoot some new ideas).
I am going to put conduit lines through the wall for my tubing. That way I can pull the lines out for replacement or cleaning purposes.
At the end of each side of the conduit I would like to have the lines terminate into a type of a wall plate with connections. So that I can quickly connect the keezer to the closet wall plate, and the taps to the cabinet wall plate. I think I'd like three standard taps and one nitro tap. I haven't decided if I'd like the taps in the counter top or in the wall. Any benefit with either way beyond a cosmetic decision.

I'm sure I'll be back with other questions. I'll include many pics along the way.
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Hey man... Looks like you have a pretty good plan coming together. I noticed you were in Cleburne. My wife grew up there and the In-Laws still live in town. I'm just the other side of Granbury from you.

One thing that I see is that you will need to insulate the beverage lines and have some way to keep them cold on their way to the taps. If not, the lines will warm up when idle and foam like a rabid dog when you serve the first several pints, till you get the lines chilled with beer from the cold storage. Consider getting some of this TRUNK LINE and incorporate a pseudo-glycol chilling system. You can use RV Antifreeze as a Glycol substitute. It is much thinner, non-corrosive, and MUCH safer! Basically trunk line works by sending chilled liquid out and bringing it back to a reservoir to be chilled and pumped back through the line.

As far as serving soda, I have known of guys buying brass taps to serve soda out of. That way it is EASY for kids do distinguish the difference.

Have you heard of The Cap and Hare Homebrew Club? It is a club in Fort Worth. I live in Lipan and make the monthly meetings. Believe me, it is worth the drive! Great meetings, great events, we host homebrew competitions... Lots of fun. Come join up man. What homebrew store are you using?
 
My wall insulation will be open cell spray foam. So the conduit will be completely enclosed in about 4 inches of foam. When doing the coolant system, do people normally use the same type of lines as the serving lines, or copper to help it transfer the cooling better?
edit:looked at the link. Interesting.

I have heard of cap and hare. I really have been meaning to come up to a meeting for a little while. I mainly have used AHS but I have been to Dr. Jeckell's a few times when I am in that area.
 
The blue and red lines are for coolant. The surrounding lines are beverage lines and are "cleaned in place". You would just make or buy a line cleaner to flush/clean serving lines with. Maybe what you would do is build your own trunk line in the conduit since it is being insulated inside the wall.

Check out Stubby's Texas Brewing Inc. It is just outside of Downtown Ft. Worth. MUCH closer than Pat's store in Arlington. Stubby has only been open about a year but he is doing very well at making sure he is well stocked.

Likewise, you can join up on the Cap and Hare website for free. We have a very active club forum. Jump on board. My screen name is Huaco there too.
 
I have a similar setup just a little less distance with that freezer if you want to fit 4 kegs in it you will need a collar, you would be able to fit 3 kegs on the floor and one on the hump. The 3 on the floor will allow the the lid to close without modifications but the one on the hump is 3 or 4 inches higher then the lid. What i did for my wall mounted taps is make a plate out of a piece of wood to mount the taps onto then i cut a hole in the wall big enough for the taps to fit in. I used fender washers and screws to attach the wood plate to the wall screwing through the sheetrock from the back side into the wood plate. I bought a 10 foot section of 1 1/4 pipe insulation and pretty much made my own trunk line like the one listed above, connected all the taps and made a box out of rigid foam to enclose the back side of the taps. You dont want to spray foam directly onto the taps you may need to access them at some point. Theres not alot of room left for a container of coolant if you put 4 kegs in it here is what i did to chill the coolant.
 
Thanks, I'll spend a little time stuffing your thread and seeing how I can apply to my setup. I'll most likely be back with some questions.
 
At what length from the freezer would cooling the lines not be quite as necessary. For example if I placed the taps on the wall directly behind the freezer?
 
My lines are 6 feet long outside of the freezer and without chilling them my first pint is mostly foam. After that they pour fine for a while until the lines warm back up. My freezer is directly on the other side of the wall my taps are on but it on the corner of the storage closet about 3 feet away from then and close to 2 feet below. If you dont do something to keep the lines cool you well get some foaming at first no matter how short the lines are.
 
Soda is very corrosive, you will want plastic taps for the soda. It will leach the lead out of a brass tap. Make sure the trunk line is rated for soda too. The place I used to work had to replace a 60' soda trunk because the rootbeer line was cross contaminating all the other flavors right through the walls of the tubing. The soda vendor replaced the trunk with some newer type.
 
I have a similar setup with about a 3' line. I am not able to keep the beer lines or the taps cold circulating air through PVC with a fan.

First half pint is foam then fine after that. Wait 10 minutes and the foam returns.
 
I haven't gotten to this part of my project yet. I just buttoned up all my electrical and home theater, and close to being done with plumbing. I'll get my in wall parts of the keezer done next, then Sheetrock. I glad to read the last post about the foam after ten minutes. I will keep looking into the multi lines with coolant. I think for the extra cost the long term will be much better. Might be an extra month or two of money funneling but that's part of the fun.
 
I was just thinking up something like this today.. trying to keep the freezer outside, but the taps inside. I was going to cut a hole though the wall and make an insulated run going straight to the collar. it would be less than 4 feet to taps. could make the hole as big as I wanted as long as it fit between the studs. then blow cool air though there with the help of a fan inside the freezer. inside the house I"d trim it out with wood, but make it removable, but the channel will be big enough to were I could pull lines out if I need to without removal. do you think additional line cooling would be needed?
 
I have a 3 foot run using 3" PVC wrapped in insulation. I have two beer lines running through the PVC and circulate cold air with a computer fan. It is not enough to eliminate foam on the first pour. The faucets stay at room temp. I usually pour about a half pint of foam and dump it out. Consecutive pours are fine. Wait 10 minutes and the foam returns.

I would like something that worked better than this. Also I can't fit two 1/6 barrels in my fridge so I am only able to use 1 tap.
 
That's a bummer to hear. I'm thinking more like 8 taps. But also more like a 8 or 10" insulated PVC run to allow plenty of flow. I'll need to figure something out though.. I had to do a lot of sucking up to talk my bride into letting me have 8 taps in her kitchen!! I refuse to go back down stairs!!!
 
Any news on this project? Pics? I'm planning a similar build and would love to see some pictures of this.
 
I'm surprised you guys are having so many foaming issues with short runs and circulating the air with fans. I have about a 2ft run with 2 lines inside a 1 1/2" PVC conduit with a fan pushing air through the conduit containing the lines. The lines/conduit goes into a relatively highly insulated (R-12) box inside the stud cavity to the taps that come through the wall. I also have a pvc conduit with a fan pulling air from inside the insulated box back into the keezer. I don't really get any extra foam on the first pour and the next pour is perfect.
 
For soda, make sure you're buying Bevlex line. The stuff seems to be industry-standard; very high quality dual-durometer line.

Stainless-steel faucets will be fine for soda too. Soda isn't acidic enough to corrode a perlick or even a standard faucet. Perlicks would be highly recommended though, just to avoid faucet stick.

A very easy way to distinguish soda taps from beer taps would be to make taphandles out of old action figures ;)
 
Sorry for the long gap in info. This project has gone slowly due to work and a beautiful new daughter. Just had the insulation blown yesterday, spray foam. love the stuff. Sheetrock starting tomorrow. I'm going to run the keezer through a common wall rather than running down the exterior wall. I still have some planning to do for that.

I have all the home theater wiring in. Boxes for the front speakers and sub. I wired for home studio use. One sub box to an isolation room, one to the main room for drum recording. I'm pretty excited about that part.

Baby steps but I'm moving forward.

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Looking real good man. Still hard to tell where the serving lines will be. Maybe its just because framed walls are hard to make out in picture. Is this an out building from your house?

I am going to have a family reunion in Cleburne in early June. I will have a keg or two of my homebrew with me. If you want to swing by, I will gladly pour you a few pints. We are going to be at Hulen Park. Shoot me a PM and I can fill you in on the details.
 
In the pic with the ladder. The ladder is in the closet that the freezer will be. A cabinet will be on the interior wall right in front if me. I will install all lines and equipment after sheet rock by making an access into the back of the cabinet from the closet. This is an out building. My house had a wrap around porch and no garage. So this is our garage and fun room. It would be great to meet up and try some home brew. I live just down hwy 4 from the park.
 
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