My New Keezer...

Just finished converting a Frigidaire 5.0 cu ft freezer...three Perlick taps, and built the collar out of maple....all done in my apartment...

Installed love controller as well....

Slick!! I love the little 5 cu ft freezers for the footprint they take up and still offer room for three kegs (two on the floor and one on the hump?).

If I were going chest freezer for my draft serving, that's the route I'd take.

Nice. Pics of the co2 and hose set up?

Looks great! I think this will be my next big project. Can you post pics of the inside? Also how did you install the Love control without hitting any coils?

I'll post more pics soon....

I just got the CO2 and in the process of mounting it...

@gmoney51 - Where I mounted the Love Controller is below the hump...and behind the wall there is a big empty space which houses the compressor....

There was a small rectangular amber "on" indicator light on the front there and I removed it and used the existing hole as a start point to make a bigger hole for the love controller...

I then wired in everything and the 5' temp probe was long enough to get me about 18" of length into the chest cavity....

As for the "Schlitz" Logo...I found a vectored logo on the web and I have a friend that owns a graphics sign shop and he printed it out on adhesive paper so its peel and stick....

There is a website with vectored logos and you can download them for free....being vectored means you can scale them to any size without loss of resolution...

I'll post pics by this weekend showing everything...

As promised here are more pics of the inside...

The finished product....



The Love Controller Mounted...there is a cavity behind it that houses the compressor. So i removed a "on" indicator light and made the whole big enough with tin shears...and then got a black wall plate and widened the square...




I took the advice of the forum and went with the perlicks...very nice and smooth...Two are for beer and one is dedicated for root beer...I love root beer and Sprecher's makes the best IMHO..but I am going to try my hand at it....brown sugar, honey, vanilla....mmmmmm..and since I also make my own ice cream...




Inside the Keezer...with the 8" (7.5" actual) collar made of solid Maple. I used four coats of white enamel on the inside, and four coats of clear satin water based polyurethane on the outside (Used water based so it would not yellow). I can get 3 corney kegs in there and hopefully a 3 gal. one...


Another view...



Here I bought a 12Vdc computer fan from a surplus store for $2.75 and I added two ceramic magnets by epoxying them on...now I can mount it any where I want in any orientation and it moves the air around nicley...and since its only 12Vdc...no shock hazard....
BTW that little thing dangling above the fan in my hand is the temp probe from the Love Temp Controller.



View of the backside of the shanks...



Close up of the regulator bracket I made to hold the regulator...I have two...this one is set at 10PSI and splits into two for the beer....and the other one is on the external CO2 tank set at 30 for the soda keg...the 30PSI comes in and splits off to the other regulator where it is regulated down to the 10PSI...

Crimsonwine said:

I took the advice of the forum and went with the perlicks...very nice and smooth...Two are for beer and one is dedicated for root beer...I love root beer and Sprecher's makes the best IMHO..but I am going to try my hand at it....brown sugar, honey, vanilla....mmmmmm..and since I also make my own ice cream...

Click to expand...

Very nice!
Say, have you found an outlet for the Sprecher syrup at a reasonable cost? The prices I've seen are way up there compared to the cheap stuff. Maybe not since you are considering making your own. If you come up with a good recipe, please share.

That is a REAL nice Build!!!! I am about to build one just to house the kegs. do you think I could get 4 in then? Where did you get the temp controller?...that is sweet

Quaffer said:

Very nice!
Say, have you found an outlet for the Sprecher syrup at a reasonable cost? The prices I've seen are way up there compared to the cheap stuff. Maybe not since you are considering making your own. If you come up with a good recipe, please share.

Click to expand...

I see locally Brew and Grow has it for $20.95 a gallon...and I was at Midwest Supplies in Minneapolis had it on sale for $17.95 I believe... But a four pack of 16oz. bottles sells for $3.88 at Menards...

Here is the recipe I used...for 5 gallons and I think it turned out really close to Sprechers...I Keg carb...so I do not know about yeast....

When you open the extract bag you will get a strong wintergreen aroma..which I hate...and thats why I don't drink A&W...so I was concerned..but after mixing up the batch it is not noticeable...

1 - 4oz of Gnome Root Beer Extract

6 cups of cane sugar (I used "Sugar in the Raw", it is $2.88 a 2lb box at Wal-Mart, 1 box is like 5 cups...)

2 cups of light brown sugar

3 cups of clover honey

4 tbsp of malto-dextrin

1 tbsp of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Heat up 1 gallon of water to 150F and add sugars and dissolve
2. Take off stove and add Root Beer Extract and Vanilla
3. Let rest to room temp and store in refrigerator over night
4. Add 4 gallons of water to keg…refrigerate and carb over night

NEXT DAY…

Add the 1 gallon of extract to carbed water and re carb to 30psi

Note: Steps 3 and 4 are optional...you can mix it up right away after its cooled if you want...

Let me know if you try it and like it....

Planeinsane said:

That is a REAL nice Build!!!! I am about to build one just to house the kegs. do you think I could get 4 in then? Where did you get the temp controller?...that is sweet

Click to expand...

One thing I learned is all 5.0 cu ft freezers are not created equal!....def. measure out the one you are gonna buy regardless...each brand is different...

I COULD get 4 kegs in there if I didn't have the shanks in the way....

I should of got a 7.0 cu ft....but I do live in a small apartment and well...you have to manage where you put things...

As for the Love controller I bought it from Cole-Parmer

Here is a link to it...and Damn! your in luck they have 15% off going on right now!!!

http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/product_view.asp?sku=9352000

Thanks for the compliment...

That looks great! What is the model of that freezer? Is it this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Frigida...hite/9756985.p?id=1218202122611&skuId=9756985

mcberry said:

That looks great! What is the model of that freezer? Is it this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Frigida...hite/9756985.p?id=1218202122611&skuId=9756985

Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment....

that link is same size and brand..but a newer model (mine is a 2007)..and the temp control is on the front where mine was on the side...

I do caution you that you measure it before you buy...not all 5.0 cu ft freezers are the same size floor area....I have to squeeze the two kegs into my lower area to fit....

where is your tank? what do you have between your tank and your regulator? you can't hook up gas hose directly to tank right? that's high pressure?

sorry, a bit confused here, i was looking for a way to get my regulator inside my keezer but not the tank.. couldn't figure it out, unless you just have another regulator on tank, and hose in between.. but that's an extra cost.

metaltim said:

where is your tank? what do you have between your tank and your regulator? you can't hook up gas hose directly to tank right? that's high pressure?

sorry, a bit confused here, i was looking for a way to get my regulator inside my keezer but not the tank.. couldn't figure it out, unless you just have another regulator on tank, and hose in between.. but that's an extra cost.

Click to expand...

My CO2 tank is external. I bought a a dual CO2 regulator and one is on the tank externally. Then the hose runs into the keezer and connects to a two way manifold.

from the manifold one hose goes to a keg. the other to another regulator with a "Y" on it which feeds two other kegs.

I set the external regulator to 30PSI because that feeds a keg with soda (root beer) and also provides the 30PSI to the internal reg. which is set to 5PSI to feed the two beer kegs...

I hope this makes sense....

Let me know if you need pictures...