Happy Keezer day!

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Loup

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
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Location
Minnesota, Twin Cities area
Keezer day is my own personal holiday today.

Over the last few weeks (perhaps months even) I have been slowly collecting the bits and pieces to start kegging.

I started out with the dual kegging setup from Midwest. They even give you a full tank if you pick it up locally. I've then collected a couple more kegs since then, as well as a 4-way splitter and various other bits and pieces.

I even kegged 3 batches of beer without having a way to cool the beer. I had a batch of India Brown Ale, an Autumn Amber and a batch of cyser just sitting there, waiting to be consumed.

Just yesterday, the guys from the local appliance place delivered my 14.8 cu. ft. freezer. So this morning I hopped down to one of the local homebrew shops and picked up a temperature regulator and now have my three kegs all hooked up to gas and cooling down.

I will admit that I just couldn't wait, my wife and I tried out the kegs just a little bit ago. The beer wasn't cold yet, but it still tasted pretty damned good.

I'm going to be just using picnic taps for a while, but as my financial reserves begin to rebound from the shock of buying a chest freezer, I'll start to buy some real faucets and make my freezer look a little more like something that should be dispensing beer, instead of something that should be cooling half a cow.
 
Congratulations. I also had beer waiting when my keezer was completed. I found it to be great motivation for finishing the project.

Pictures?
 
I rather enjoy my picnic taps. they are easier to keep clean inside my keezer, and very easy to clean/sanatize.
 
OK, it's been a little over a year since I actually started this thread, but I've finally got my keezer more or less done.

These aren't the best pictures in the world, but I'm kind of excited about the fact that it's finally done, so these will have to do for now. I'll try to take some better pictures and post them here later.

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A little info on the setup.
It's a 14.8 Frigidair chest freezer.

There is enough room for 8 kegs without making any sort of collar, but two more kegs could be added with a fat enough collar (I didn't bother with this.)

Even though there is enough room to easily fit 8 kegs, I decided on only spacing for 7 faucets. I currently only have 6 faucets, but there is already a hole drilled in the center for a 7th. The hole is covered with a brushed stainless steel plate. I plan to put in a stout faucet for the 7th.

The tile is slate. I was originally a little nervous about how easy it would be to cut, how damage prone it would be and how easy it would be to clean. It actually cuts pretty easily, you only need to go slightly slower with a tile saw than you would with ceramic tile. It is somewhat damage prone prior to cementing it in place, I did have to re-cut one tile that broke just before installation, and of the 16 tiles that I purchased, two were broken in the box and another two broke while working with them. After cementing them in place they seem very solid. After sealing the tiles, they are easy to clean. The beer doesn't soak into the tile at all and a quick wipe with a rag cleans up any drips.

The cement and grout that I used were both acrylic based so they have a little bit of flexibility.

The visible wood is mostly solid white oak except for the white oak faced plywood for the panels on the sides.

The coffin is insulated with closed cell foam insulation.

I finished the wood with Sparurithane because it is supposedly more water resistant and won't turn white if exposed to water for a long time. I was told that polyurithane will turn white if it has standing water left on it for long periods of time.

The drip tray is 36" long and does drain. I have a hose going to a bucket inside the freezer for the drain. I was originally planning on buying a different drip tray, but the day I decided to actually pull the trigger on buying it, this one went on clearance making it cheaper than the one I originally planned on buying. The drip tray is bowled so it should drain nicely, but the floor is at an angle where the keezer sits so it tends to collect at the left end of the drip tray.

[edit]
Almost forgot one of the most important things, the current faucets are all Perlick 525SS stainless steal faucets.

Things I have yet to do:
buy beer gas setup and a stout faucet
buy/make some nice tap handles.

I also need to repair/replace one of my regulators. I had a dual regulator setup and one of the regulators failed, so I've removed it for now.
 
The color in the pictures isn't that great. The carpet is red, orange and black shag. The most accurate picture for the wood color is probably the second picture.
 
Man, that looks fantastic. If you're ever bored enough to want to help me build one that would be great. I don't have the wood working equipment I used to, but want something similar.
 
Man, that looks fantastic. If you're ever bored enough to want to help me build one that would be great. I don't have the wood working equipment I used to, but want something similar.

I don't even have the wood working or tile cutting equipment myself, I begged, borrowed or stole the actual tools needed, mostly from my father-in-law and one friend with access to a tile saw.

I did end up buying some floats and a couple of saw blades (concrete board chews up saw blades rather quickly.)

But thanks! I really had a lot of fun making it.
 
we got the first "real" use of our keezer over the weekend. just a few friends sitting around and getting up occassionally and pulling their own pint. what could be better!!

only 1 brew kegged currently but 2 more weeks - all 3 taps will be pouring!
 
I pulled apart the lid of the freezer, bolted the top onto the metal part of the lid and then reassembled the lid. I drilled four fairly large holes through the the whole top and lid for the beer lines and a fifth small hole for the drain. It's draining to a small bucket that is stored in the freezer.

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I currently don't have anything covering the insulation in the holes I drilled through the lid, but I plan to make some collars out of PVC at some point. It should be easy, they're 4 inch holes.

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For now, so I know which beer is which, I made little tents with the beer name and description. I set the tents on the top of the coffin.

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I think the colors are a bit better in these pictures.

[edit]
I guess I didn't really fully explain the first time. The lid is still using the original hinges from the freezer. The lid is incredibly heavy, so the springs won't hold it up anymore, but because the coffin itself is fairly heavy, there is a balance point, and I just pull the keezer the right distance from the wall so it just slightly leans against it. I usually stick a piece of foam between the coffin and the wall, but in this case I have a sock in between to keep the coffin and wall from scuffing one another. I have furniture moving glides under the base of the keezer, so it slides across the floor pretty easily, but the base is still heavy enough where it doesn't move with the lid resting against the wall.
 
I think the colors are a bit better in these pictures.

looks nice!

The lid is still using the original hinges from the freezer. The lid is incredibly heavy, so the springs won't hold it up anymore, but because the coffin itself is fairly heavy, there is a balance point, and I just pull the keezer the right distance from the wall so it just slightly leans against it. I usually stick a piece of foam between the coffin and the wall, but in this case I have a sock in between to keep the coffin and wall from scuffing one another. I have furniture moving glides under the base of the keezer, so it slides across the floor pretty easily, but the base is still heavy enough where it doesn't move with the lid resting against the wall.

That's what I was curious about - thanks!
 
Yes! That was awesome to see the top come up like that. Didn't expect that (even tho it makes perfect sense). Btw, how much does that top weigh?!?!?

The best part of the pics besides the carpet is that corded phone on the shelf.

Great looking build!
 
Yes! That was awesome to see the top come up like that. Didn't expect that (even tho it makes perfect sense). Btw, how much does that top weigh?!?!?

I haven't weighed the top fully assembled, but I'm guessing it's in excess of 100lbs at this point.

I have really narrow doorways in my house, and was doing most of the woodworking at my in-laws' house (my father-in-law has a lot of wood working tools, I really don't) so I built the counter and the coffin separately, and then transported them to my house as separate pieces, then tiled, then attached the coffin.

It is built in such a way that it can be disassembled. The only permanent thing connecting the pieces together is a little grout between the tiles on the coffin and counter. Otherwise, the counter can still be unbolted from the lid if I needed to do so, the coffin is bolted to the counter as well, so as long as I'm willing to redo a little grout, that can be removed, and the base and wood surround are just press fit, so they can be easily taken off if I need to.

The whole thing was so much work and turned out so nice that I wanted a way to get it out of my basement if I were to move.

The best part of the pics besides the carpet is that corded phone on the shelf.

Great looking build!

I think that's the original carpet from when the house was built. We're going to replace it at some point, but it's pretty low down on our list of things to do.

The phone is there because we didn't have any phone in our house, and if the phone rings and we're in the basement, we often wouldn't hear it ring, and when we did, half the time we couldn't get upstairs to answer the phone before it went to voicemail. The installation was kind of a quick, half-assed job, and I've been meaning to put in a wall phone, but haven't been annoyed enough by reaching up to the shelf to answer the phone yet.
 
Good job. That is really nice looking.

Do you have any problem with the temperature staying cold in your coffin?
 
Do you have any problem with the temperature staying cold in your coffin?

Not really, there isn't much line in the coffin itself to begin with, most of it is still in the freezer. The coffin is insulated and there are 4, 4-inch holes drilled through the top, into the freezer from the coffin.
 

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