Glycol Chiller for Serving?

[dawsh2]

If I built an insulted cabinet to hold some kegs, or a cabinet per keg, and ran glycol through each keg with something like a coolstix[0] mounted on a tri clamp corney lid [1], how inefficient would this be compared to a normal kegerator or keezer, provided it was equivalently insulated (i.e, R-25 or more)?

0: https://www.morebeer.com/products/b...MIgNup9K7ShAMVaC-tBh34zAjFEAQYAiABEgLFT_D_BwE

1:
https://www.amazon.com/stainless-Co...3140313#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div

Side question, why is the spool on the lid linked above so long? Anyone know where I can get a shorter one? I know I’ve seen them for sale, and I don’t want to do a weldless install. I have torpedo kegs and with how long this is, it’d make it so they aren’t stackable.

 

[Whisky River]

I think you would struggle to maintain serving temps unless you had really good insulation, probably thick insulation right on the keg and some kind of enclosure. From what I hear the Coolstix (which are a great idea) struggle to get 5 gallon fermentations down to lagering temperatures in the 50’s. I wouldn’t think they could get down to cold crash/ serving temps in the 30’s.

 

[dawsh2]

I think you would struggle to maintain serving temps unless you had really good insulation, probably thick insulation right on the keg and some kind of enclosure. From what I hear the Coolstix (which are a great idea) struggle to get 5 gallon fermentations down to lagering temperatures in the 50’s. I wouldn’t think they could get down to cold crash/ serving temps in the 30’s.

Yeah I was planning on an enclosure. I’m now thinking a tri clamp bulkhead on the lid will be really fiddly in such a tight space. Those lids are already hard enough ti get on as is. Is there a different port or fitting that might work better for this application that’s compatible with coolstix?

 

[Ballaratguy]

Kegking in Australia have made a couple of glycol chillers and when coupled with a wrap (very similar to the cool zone wrap) and have frozen a fermenter full of water. Kegking tell me that a wrap with a glycol chiller is more effective for cooling than an internal coil). Easy to put a wrap and hook a chiller onto that

 

[JAG_CRABSBrew]

I think you are exploring a creative solution. If you really like building things it would be a good puzzle to sort out. There are some issues with getting the glycol cool enough and modifying the kegs. Probably you will be searching to source various fittings.

If your goal is to put homebrew on tap in a simple way I have found one or two kegerators with blowers to get the cool air up into the towers works very well. It looks awesome when you invite folks to try your beer. There is always someone selling a kegerator on a social media marketplace I have seen. Look at the the social media owned by a short college dropout zillionare with a blue F logo.

The same can be said for a freezer converted to a keezer. You can find dudes selling them or it isn't hard to build one.

In either case, you will manage ice build-up. Usually defrosting on occasion does the trick.

 

[dawsh2]

Yeah a cooling jacket would be more efficient indeed, but I didn’t have any luck finding such. Can someone provide a link? Ideally it works with torpedo kegs as well as corneys.

 

[Whisky River]

Yeah a cooling jacket would be more efficient indeed, but I didn’t have any luck finding such. Can someone provide a link? Ideally it works with torpedo kegs as well as corneys.

Using the google search engine to look up “keg cooling jacket” brings up these
https://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html

 

[Ballaratguy]

Yeah a cooling jacket would be more efficient indeed, but I didn’t have any luck finding such. Can someone provide a link? Ideally it works with torpedo kegs as well as corneys.

Google cool zone jackets

 

[Ballaratguy]

Using the google search engine to look up “keg cooling jacket” brings up these
https://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html

I can tell you from experience that the cool zone cooling jacket work a treat

 

[Whisky River]

I can tell you from experience that the cool zone cooling jacket work a treat

It’s good to hear some first hand experience with them. I have wanted to try them for a while now but unfortunately my chiller uses a diaphragm pump which they say could supply too much pressure.

 

[dawsh2]

I almost went with the cool zone, but I don’t like that they aren’t insulated, so I’d have to insulate over them. I’m still kinda leaning toward the coolstix, takes up less space when not in use and seems less finicky overall (with the coolstix, I can just put on the insulation jacket and drop the stick in - seems neater than the cool jacket with another layer over it, and should store nicer). Idk, I’m just drawn to the idea more.

At any rate, I still need to build my glycol chiller, just rolling things over right now. I think I’ve completely abandoned the idea of using glycol for serving though, for now anyway. It would cost more in materials than a secondhand mini fridge. But I’ve bookmarked the idea mentally.