DIY cooling system

[Whitey70]

So, the other day I was walking thru a flea market (great place for finding kegging stuff), and I saw a grey block with 12 nozzels on it. Odd looking thing, 13"L x 8"W. I asked the guy what it was, and apparently the old school cornelius soda machines used to run the water/syrup mix thru this thing which was on ice, and it would cool the liquid to serving temp by the time it passed thru it.

The first thought in my head was.......JOCKEY BOX!!

then as I was prepping my hapless cooler for it's transformation, a thought occured to me. Couldn't I use this instead of a glycol chilling system. If I have my kegs in my basement, wrap 10' x 7 beerlines in some a\c insulation, run it up thru my wall, into a "kegerator" which would essentially be a small chest freezer with a thermostat that this 'chill block' (I don't even know what it is called) would be in, then have a tower on top with the taps.

Would this work? My basement is 70F thru the year, if I opened up a vent on the ducts, I could prolly get it down to 60F. So, I guess what I'm wondering is, if this chill block was in a freezer at say 30F, and the block was the same temp, would it be enough to drop the temp 30-40F by the time brew ran thru the block's system?

Or would be better to run it thru the block before the brew heads up stairs?

Sorry if this is convoluted, I hope it made sense.

 

[nasty_rabbit]

What yo have is called a "6 product Cold Plate". I got one for FREE from a friend that got out of the catering business (just had to throw that in). From the research that I have done, it should cool ambient temperature beverages to drinking temps with one pass. The information that I have seen describes using it packed in ice but I guess a freezer would achieve the same results. If you do use ice keep it raised off of the bottom of the cooler, do NOT let it sit in the melted water in the bottom, as it will promote foaming. My thought is that closer to the spigots would be better that further away. If you do place it in a freezer use caution drilling holes in the cabinet, there are gas (freon) lines in the walls and nicking one would wreck the whole project.

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

You will need some thermal mass in contact with the block to get it to chill a reasonable flow of fluid.

If your keg is at 70 F, the pressure will need to be well above 30 psi to keep it carbonated. That's a lot of pressure. You will need a lot of 3/16" beer line...

You want to get the beer below 40F, but not below 32. Depending on exactly where you get it, you will need to adjust the pressure to have a reasonably carb'd beer. It'll be a constant balancing act to keep it from being a foam monster.

Bob

 

[Whitey70]

Thanks for the replays. I'm not sure what thermal mass means?

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks for the replays. I'm not sure what thermal mass means?

It means you can't just suspend this block inside a freezer, it needs more efficient thermal conduction than air can provide, so it needs to sit in an ice bed...

Cheers!

 

[Whitey70]

So would putting it on an ice bed inside a freezer work? With the freezer keeping the ice frozen?

 

[Whitey70]

Also, would there be any alternatives to an ice bed? Couple large frozen gel packs perhaps?