New Keezer and Collar Question

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iXanadu

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I scored an XL freezer and 10 corney kegs from CraigsList this week and want to finish the collar while waiting the arrival of all my gear.

1) I have 8 shanks and 7 Perlick faucets (Saving 1 for a Nitrogen setup) coming in and hope to build the collar while waiting. Searching here on HBT I've found that I want to drill 1" holes. How far should I space the holes?

2) I had originally planed to run 8 kegs, and put the regulator on the "hump". Because I'm using the shorter pin-lock kegs, the collar allows me to put a keg there. Should I use the hump for an additional keg or other cold storage and put the tank outside? (I've read the inside/outside articles and get it that it doesn't matter - I"m just looking for comments if this were your setup).

$75 Freezer & $20ea corney kegs.
img_0180.jpg


First coat of paint, and the start of a Collar
img_0184.jpg
 
First off nice score! Secondly in my personal opinions since you have all that room I would just keep the tank in the freezer for simplicity sake. But really it its against a wall and you wont see the tank anyways then just drill another hole in the collar and plumb it in from the outside. Im anal retentive about seeing all of the hoses going into the keezer so option A would be my choice.
 
i agree with wedge. since you have all that room in the keezer, it's easier to make it look "clean" by keeping the tank inside.

and... i'm jealous. nice score.
 
Thanks for the opinions guys - I keep going back and forth from inside to outside. I'm "thinking" about building a mount on the inside over the hump that will hold the 5' C02 Tank in such a manner that the gauges will be collar level. The total setup will be

Tank->2 gauge regulator->3 reg. secondary -> two 4 valve manifolds.

picture-2.jpg


Anyone have experience and can offer advice on how far to space out the taps? I have 8 3" shafts coming and will mount 7 Perlick 525SS's and 1 Nitro tap.
 
I haven't got mine assembled yet, but if I was you, I would place a "t" between the primary regulator and your secondary regulator, for keg charging, line cleaning, etc. The way you have it set up, One of your regulators isn't doing anything.
 
If you've got the space why not go with a 20# tank. It's about the same height as your kegs and with 7-8 kegs you're going to need a lot of co2. A 5# tank isn't going to last you very long. Watch CL and the classifieds on HBT, you should be able to pick one up pretty cheap.
 
I haven't got mine assembled yet, but if I was you, I would place a "t" between the primary regulator and your secondary regulator, for keg charging, line cleaning, etc. The way you have it set up, One of your regulators isn't doing anything.

I'm brand new to this so I might be way wrong, but the "utility" uses require adjusting the PSI a lot. The tutorials I seen here and on youtube show disconnecting or "shutting off" air to the downstream system when you do this. I don't want the bother. Additionally, if I get a beer that can't won't cooperate with the group-a or group-b psi, I'll use this 3rd reg for it. I hope to add additional secondary banks down the line so I have a lot more control per tap but this exercise very quickly ate up my budget.
 
If you've got the space why not go with a 20# tank. It's about the same height as your kegs and with 7-8 kegs you're going to need a lot of co2. A 5# tank isn't going to last you very long. Watch CL and the classifieds on HBT, you should be able to pick one up pretty cheap.

I might have time to change the order (I haven't gotten the ship notification yet). How many kegs will I get out of a 5' tank, for some reason I thought it would go 12ish?
 
Thanks for the catch. I actually spoke with the store today and my order won't go out until tomorrow. I've updated the tank to 20 pound.

Bob
 
Nice score!

You may find that you:
A) Don't need 8 taps at a time and
B) Need a couple of spots in the keezer for 'on-deck' kegs...so there is a smooth transition when you float a keg.

So 6 or 7 taps might be enough.

For reference, these are Perlicks spaced @ 3" apart, center-to-center. This is just a 7 cu. ft. model that holds 6 kegs.

Keezeroutside1.JPG


Good luck...you'll love it!:mug:
 
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