Show me your chest freezer keggers. Please?

I've decided that my circa 1979 upright freezer is an energy hog and I don't want to waste time fitting faucets on it. I'm ready to go out and buy a brand new chest freezer and I'd like to find one that will fit at least 4 cornies, 5 or 6 would be better. I noticed Lowes, at least my local, has only 3 to choose from. One small (probably hold two cornies) and two larger ones for $400 plus. I bet there's a sweet spot model out there that someone has already done the homework on. I'd rather not have to walk into a store with two cornies in hand if someone can dispense some knowledge on me. I use pinlocks (9" diameter). Thanks.

Take a tape measure with you, or cut out a circular piece of wood that is the diamter of a corny keg. That is all you are concerned with. Height won't matter because you'll have to build a collar for it anyway. A chest freezer isn't tall enough to hold cornies without a collar. You can then build the collar and integrate the taps into that. I've seen you on brewboard, search there for some totally awesome ideas. stout_fan has my favorite.

I also read a great idea... cut out a cardboard footprint of how many kegs you have and the configuration you want them and take that to the store with you.

Good idea on the cutout. I think I'll just make a bunch of 9" circles and take them shopping. I don't have any particular configuration desire other than being able to fit them. It would be great if they'd fit in the grid pattern rather than staggered because it's just a more efficient use of space. Either way, I'll know exactly how many it will hold.

Right, I plan on building a collar just to keep from modifying it anymore than I have to.

Here's mine. It's a 10 cubic foot Amana. It will hold 6 five gallon cornies and 1 three gallon corny, but no room for a CO2 tank.

EdWort said:

Here's mine. It's a 10 cubic foot Amana. It will hold 6 five gallon cornies and 1 three gallon corny, but no room for a CO2 tank.

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You'll just have to reconfigure to 5 cornies and a CO2 tank...

homebrewer_99 said:

You'll just have to reconfigure to 5 cornies and a CO2 tank...

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yeah, right now it has 3 cornies, a CO2 tank, and a bucket fermenter of Kolsch that is crash cooling. This is my carbing & chilling setup. SWMBO has authorized another chest freezer for proper fermenting temps since she want my son of fermentation chiller out of the living room and we're getting to the warm time of the year. She said "I want that thing out of here" and I told her it would not work very well in a 100 degree garage. She said "Then use a chest freezer" and I said "Great idea! Thanks Hon!"

I'm stoked. The garage will have a beer fridge capable of storing 6 cornies, a chest freezer for carbing & crash cooling, and finally a chest freezer for fermenting & lagering. I'll finally do some lagers this year.

It would not be hard to pipe C02 in through the back of the collar. Keep your big tank outside the chest. You may also want to make a couple of cut outs that are the size of your better bottles. It can't hurt to leave some ale out of the fridge to age while you have 1-2 lagers brewing away in the cooler.

on a side note... i'm not gonna be able to make it up to your place for another week or so. I was just out in san jose last week and i'm flying down to florida for another week on Wed. We'll sort out the keg thing then. Heck... if you have parts i'll help you put your chest together over some homebrews. Drinking homebrew while building stuff is the best!!

It might be as simple as changing out a few lids. I think I may have mixed them up in cleaning. I was mostly concerned with getting you lids with pressure reliefs because I didn't want a blown up keg incident on my conscience. After thinking more about it, it's a crazy concept. No way the reg would put out 100+ PSI. The tubing would go first anyway. PM me when the travel slows down.

I don't have any internal pictures of mine, but it will hold 7 full size cornies and 2 2.5 gallon cornies. Here are some images, which are also posted elsewhere:

I do so love the Pastors beer porn.

lmfao... huge!

The candle adds a nice touch

BP...that is so amazing.

You totally kicked ass on that thing!

Thanks. I do love it and the chalk board for names is SWEET!

BP. How do you keep your taps cold? Glycol and pump?

Evetually want to move up to a steup like yours. I have 2 tap (on a 3 tap tower- can only fit 2 cornies in the fridge) system at the moment (see gallery) with an option of running another line in from another cooler. Had thought of doing that with a chest freezer nest to it and then also having my carboys in there.

But when I move and hopefully get resttled into a decent sized place I'll probably to the chest freezer setup simular to yours.

Right now I don't do anything with them. It is only a 12" run and I don't find it to be a concern. I have a design using gylcol and a pump, with small ID copper tubing, but that is way back on the burners. Right now the upper box is well insulated and the radiant cooling through the bottom of the Tower/Box keeps things fine.

Oh, I also keep my CO2 outside the cooler.

Very Sweet Brew Pastor! Did you do the woodwork yourself?

It would be great to see some pics of the inside.

BP, that is the most rediculously needless thing I have ever seen!!!!!


Thank you. I now have something to work towards. A kickass beverage serving station to be the envy of the whole neighborhood!!!!

Can't get the pictures to post.

Here is mine;



Pictures are a little blurry.

Damn Pastor...all Perlick. Nice, I am drooling.:cross:

Here's mine. An Amana 14.8 cu ft chest freezer, 10# CO2 tank that fits perfectly on the compressor hump, and 4 Perlick faucets.

This was right after I built it. Now it's full of kegs, the side oak panels are attached, and the manifold is mounted.

They're all great. Innovation must be a traight of the homebrewing crowd.

One question (I think I know the answer).

I see a lot of probes for external thermostats. Is there no chance a chest freezer can stay at 32 degrees at the warmest setting or is an external absolutely necessary?

Has anyone tried?

Kudos to all...I'm next. :rockin:

I can't speak for all freezers, but mine froze water even at the lowest setting. I was hoping to avoid shelling out the cash for a controller, but this way I can use it for lagering and hit the temps within a couple of degrees.

You know the saying "keeping up with the Jones's". If I were to try that with you guys I'd fail miserably. Brewpastor your system rocks. You other guys have some great set-ups as well. Someday, someday....

Most chest freezers are just that, freezers! The lowest setting is still freezing usually... Mine got as warm as 15 degrees.

Nothing a ranco or similar controller can't fix, I got mine on Ebay for $25 shipped.

Is there aHOWTO or a Wiki for these? THis is fantastic. Would LOVE to do something like this and Kegerators are WAY too expensive.

sAvAgE said:

Is there aHOWTO or a Wiki for these? THis is fantastic. Would LOVE to do something like this and Kegerators are WAY too expensive.

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The DIY'ers can easily get more expensive too. I was originally going to use a much smaller freezer, but I figured why not do it right the first time.

...Then I decided why not just start off with Perlick's...

...Then, why not put some nice oak around the color to give it some style...

Good thing SWMBO wasn't keeping a tally of all the receipts

You're not kidding. I'm really wrestling with the decision on how large of a freezer I want and how many kegs I want tapped at one time while aging others.

I've already decided not to go with the Sanyo two-keg setup because I won't be trying to tuck it into my living space anyway. I'd just end up wanting more I think.

I currently have an IPA and Marzen tapped but I'm also going to have a Stout and easy drinker like a wheat or Pils to keg before the first two are kicked.

I'm thinking about getting a freezer that can support 5-6 kegs where I'll tap 4 at a time. I can either do some lagering on the extras or upgrade to a 5th tap. The trouble is, I don't want to monkey around subpar faucets and will be going to Perlick or Shirrons right from the start (OUCH $$$).

One of my biggest concerns is keeping the freezer small enough that I can wheel it into the yard for BBQs. Probably need some bigassed castors.

Bobby_M said:

You're not kidding. I'm really wrestling with the decision on how large of a freezer I want and how many kegs I want tapped at one time while aging others.

I've already decided not to go with the Sanyo two-keg setup because I won't be trying to tuck it into my living space anyway. I'd just end up wanting more I think.

I currently have an IPA and Marzen tapped but I'm also going to have a Stout and easy drinker like a wheat or Pils to keg before the first two are kicked.

I'm thinking about getting a freezer that can support 5-6 kegs where I'll tap 4 at a time. I can either do some lagering on the extras or upgrade to a 5th tap. The trouble is, I don't want to monkey around subpar faucets and will be going to Perlick or Shirrons right from the start (OUCH $$$).

One of my biggest concerns is keeping the freezer small enough that I can wheel it into the yard for BBQs. Probably need some bigassed castors.

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I have the Sanyo and love it...but I'm going to get a freezer too. I'll use the freezer for conditioning and eventually serving and rely on the sanyo for dispensing for the time being. I have the Sanyo on castors and it makes a good port-a-keg server. I figure with two, I can have different temps...one for lagering and one for serving. Now I just need to find a free freezer.

Bobby, if you want a nice session beer that is light and crisp for the summer, this Belgian Wit is an easy all grain.

Oh yeah Bobby, I hope to see some pics of that controller you outbid me for on Ebay...

You sure it was me?

Bobby_M said:

You sure it was me?

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Oops...it wasn't you it was Ryan

Ryan_PA said:

Ack, your the guy that cost me the additional 15 bucks. I thought I was really going to get it for $5

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So far I've been to Lowes, HD, Bestbuy and Sears and the selection is horrible. They all have either 5cuft or 15cuft and nothing in between. I'd go by online specs and such but the dimension data is always the outside and of course they never give you the dimension of the compressor hump which plays substantially in the number of kegs you can jam in.

While at sears I noticed a couple of closeout floor model kenmore elite 4.4cuft fridges for $150 each. Now I'm thinking crazy... maybe I'll get two of those for the portability. Ugh. Decisions.

Bobby_M said:

So far I've been to Lowes, HD, Bestbuy and Sears and the selection is horrible. They all have either 5cuft or 15cuft and nothing in between. I'd go by online specs and such but the dimension data is always the outside and of course they never give you the dimension of the compressor hump which plays substantially in the number of kegs you can jam in.

While at sears I noticed a couple of closeout floor model kenmore elite 4.4cuft fridges for $150 each. Now I'm thinking crazy... maybe I'll get two of those for the portability. Ugh. Decisions.

Click to expand...

Don't you have a little Mom-and-Pop place that you could go to? They'd prolly have better selection, and definitely better service, though they prolly couldn't compete on price..........If they don't have what you're looking for, maybe they would go the extra mile to find it for you.

I tried the two local joints I know of and they had zero chest freezers on the floor.

I think eBay/craigslist are the ways to go for freezers. I was watching them both and found my freezer on eBay for about half price brand new and never used. I had to drive to PA, but it was worth it since I could use a friend's van for free. The guy I bought it from had planned on making a kegerator himself but a new baby threw those plans out the window. I'm half tempted to email him a pic of my kegerator but I figure that might be too cruel

I had been watching ebay and craigs for way too long. Any newer ones I came across were either 5cuft or 20. I guess I'm being really picky, but I want the kegs to fit like a glove without wasted space.

I responded to two craigslist ads where the pics looked like freezers that would work, no dimensions or cu ft listed. I politely asked for the interior dimensions including the hump, and keep getting vague answers like "it will hold a LOT of food" or "it's like 5-10 feet". Huh? Please measure, I need a very specific size for my homebrew kegs. Answer: "The keg will fit but this is a freezer, it will freeze the beer". Ugh, shoot me now.

Anyway. On to the good news. I found that the Whirlpool 8.9cuft freezers that Lowes sells is PERFECT for 5 kegs. I use pinlocks which is a tight fit but it would still be great for ball locks, it would just have a little more space between kegs.

The freezer is 18" deep (the exact width of two pinlock kegs) and 27" wide in front of the hump (the exact width of 3 pinlocks wide). It's almost like they built it for kegger use. $268.

Now I just have to place my order for 4 shirrons. My credit card is about to melt.

I now wish I picked up a 10lb Co2 bottle instead of 20. I know I can plumb it outside, but it would be nice to have it completely contained so I could put wheels on it and make it somewhat mobil.