billybryson54
Well-Known Member
A little over a year ago, I built my keezer and I love it. I've used it when I host parties and that's where I discovered most people can't properly pour a beer to save their life. When I added my drip tray into the top tile, I ordered one that was 2 feet long, and without a drain, and when it comes to several people improperly pouring their beers, I was having to mop out the tray every hour or so because it filled up that quickly. I finally decided enough was enough, and started coming up with ideas on how to add a drain, but one that looked clean, Hidden if possible, and did NOT drain into the freezer itself. After much thought, and a whole lot of homebrew, an idea came to me, and it's a winner for my keezer. With my drain line, it is fully functional, but you can't see it at all from the inside of the keezer, it drains through the back, and into an airtight bucket. You will have to excuse my lousy pictures, and there isn't many of them but I will do my best to explain. Here is how I did it:
First, The Victim:
Next, go to Beveragefactory.com and order one of these:
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/driptray/parts/P306.shtml
After it came in the mail, I carefully cut the grout out around my drip tray using my oscillating Multi-tool with a grout blade...sorry, no picture here, but once it was done, the tray was out and ready to go to work
I found the exact center of the tray and drilled it out with a stepped bit. I don't remember exactly the size, but see how the drain plug has a tapered nut on the top, I went up half the thickness, and measured the diameter. I believe it was somewhere around 5/8's of an inch.
Next, I used a variation of the $4.87 Keg tool. I took a long 3/8's bolt with a washer on the top, and slid on a 1/2 inch drive/ 7/16's short socket. Again, no picture of this but I will take one and put it up a bit later. The idea here was to "Press" the socket through the hole I drilled, creating a flared opening. The reason I did this was because with that size of a socket, the socket naturally tapers to the size I wanted, and I didn't have to go run out and buy parts since I already had it. If you decide to go this route, I suggest flaring it just a tiny bit at a time. Keep taking it off and checking your opening because if you go too big, then you're screwed. The idea here is to get the tapered nut that sits on the top to sit inside that flared opening, and sit just a slight fraction of an inch below the surface of the remaining tray. If it sits up high, nothing will drain, but if you go too low, that could cause additional problems later depending on what kind of keezer you have. I will repeat: Take your time on this step. Once you are done, test fit your new drain piece to make sure everything fits and lines up properly my piece looked like this:
Next step was to take it back apart and reinstall the tray(Temporarily) back in the keezer. I drew on the keezer lid itself where the hole belonged in the drip tray I just made, so after finding center of that hole, I took the tray back out, and drilled a 2 inch hole right through the lid of the keezer. now this is where things may get tricky depending on your keezer. My lid is metal on top, plastic on bottom, with fiberglass insulation between the two. You want to drill your new hole through THE METAL LAYER ONLY. ONLY the first layer. Can't stress that enough so again, TAKE YOUR TIME.
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6003/f9o7.jpg
Once your through the first layer, take out the piece that pops off when you drill, and test fit your tray again, this time with the drain assembly mounted to the tray. Make sure you have enough clearance but if you followed my instructions so far, you should have no problem. After that's done, I took my stepped bit again, and drilled about a 7/8's hole(Give or take) Right in the back of the lid, on the side. The idea here is that the drain line will be hidden from sight, even when the lid is open, because it will be sandwiched between the metal outer layer, and the plastic inner layer. So even when the lid is open, you will never see it.
Next step isn't necessary, but after looking at my fiberglass insulation I found it to be pretty disgusting, so I went an extra step and threw out the old fiberglass, and replaced it with 1 inch rigid insulation, and filled in all the cracks with low-expansion "Great stuff" expanding foam. Sorry, no picture, but if you want more details on how I did this I'll be happy to help
We are close to the end. Find yourself a length of vinyl tubing, 1/2 inch ID. I used about 8 feet on mine. Run a grommet through the hole you drilled in the back of the keezer, and push in your tubing.
http://imageshack.us/a/img33/2691/16a5.jpg
If you choose not to take off the plastic inner layer of your lid, then you will need to take your drain line and push it far enough through the lid that you can grab ahold of it and pull it through the 2 inch hole that you drilled. This can be tricky with the fiberglass in the way, but if you have an electricians "Fish-tape" that will work to pull the line through. You only need enough so that you can comfortably push the tubing onto the end of the drain plug's hose barb. Add a hose clamp to your new line, and reinstall your drip tray however you choose. The hard part is now over! Now the question is, where do you want this to drain to? Well what I did was I got a gray 5 gallon bucket and lid from Lowes(This is a permanent fixture next to my keezer, and it sits next to a concrete wall, that's why I went with a gray lowes bucket because it blends with the wall better than an orange home depot bucket) I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the lid because I wanted this tubing to be extremely tight with no air leakage. Then I drilled a second hole in the lid, and added a small rubber grommet(About the same size as one that accepts an airlock) In the grommet, I installed one of our sanitary air filters meant for when you're aerating wort. The thought process I had here(And so far it works) is that I would fill the bucket with about a gallon of star san, to keep mold down. The purpose of the air filter is to allow excess pressure from the bucket to escape, but now allow the bad-smelling stale beer stench to fill the room.
As I said, this involves some work, and you do have to permanently modify your keezer by drilling holes, but it only costs about 20 bucks and it is so convenient, I don't know why I never did this before. Thank you for reading, I hope my instructions were clear but feel free to ask with any questions. I'll take some more pictures of the finished product later and post them, but in the meantime, I hope this helps. Happy brewing!
First, The Victim:
Next, go to Beveragefactory.com and order one of these:
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/driptray/parts/P306.shtml
After it came in the mail, I carefully cut the grout out around my drip tray using my oscillating Multi-tool with a grout blade...sorry, no picture here, but once it was done, the tray was out and ready to go to work
I found the exact center of the tray and drilled it out with a stepped bit. I don't remember exactly the size, but see how the drain plug has a tapered nut on the top, I went up half the thickness, and measured the diameter. I believe it was somewhere around 5/8's of an inch.
Next, I used a variation of the $4.87 Keg tool. I took a long 3/8's bolt with a washer on the top, and slid on a 1/2 inch drive/ 7/16's short socket. Again, no picture of this but I will take one and put it up a bit later. The idea here was to "Press" the socket through the hole I drilled, creating a flared opening. The reason I did this was because with that size of a socket, the socket naturally tapers to the size I wanted, and I didn't have to go run out and buy parts since I already had it. If you decide to go this route, I suggest flaring it just a tiny bit at a time. Keep taking it off and checking your opening because if you go too big, then you're screwed. The idea here is to get the tapered nut that sits on the top to sit inside that flared opening, and sit just a slight fraction of an inch below the surface of the remaining tray. If it sits up high, nothing will drain, but if you go too low, that could cause additional problems later depending on what kind of keezer you have. I will repeat: Take your time on this step. Once you are done, test fit your new drain piece to make sure everything fits and lines up properly my piece looked like this:
Next step was to take it back apart and reinstall the tray(Temporarily) back in the keezer. I drew on the keezer lid itself where the hole belonged in the drip tray I just made, so after finding center of that hole, I took the tray back out, and drilled a 2 inch hole right through the lid of the keezer. now this is where things may get tricky depending on your keezer. My lid is metal on top, plastic on bottom, with fiberglass insulation between the two. You want to drill your new hole through THE METAL LAYER ONLY. ONLY the first layer. Can't stress that enough so again, TAKE YOUR TIME.
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6003/f9o7.jpg
Once your through the first layer, take out the piece that pops off when you drill, and test fit your tray again, this time with the drain assembly mounted to the tray. Make sure you have enough clearance but if you followed my instructions so far, you should have no problem. After that's done, I took my stepped bit again, and drilled about a 7/8's hole(Give or take) Right in the back of the lid, on the side. The idea here is that the drain line will be hidden from sight, even when the lid is open, because it will be sandwiched between the metal outer layer, and the plastic inner layer. So even when the lid is open, you will never see it.
Next step isn't necessary, but after looking at my fiberglass insulation I found it to be pretty disgusting, so I went an extra step and threw out the old fiberglass, and replaced it with 1 inch rigid insulation, and filled in all the cracks with low-expansion "Great stuff" expanding foam. Sorry, no picture, but if you want more details on how I did this I'll be happy to help
We are close to the end. Find yourself a length of vinyl tubing, 1/2 inch ID. I used about 8 feet on mine. Run a grommet through the hole you drilled in the back of the keezer, and push in your tubing.
http://imageshack.us/a/img33/2691/16a5.jpg
If you choose not to take off the plastic inner layer of your lid, then you will need to take your drain line and push it far enough through the lid that you can grab ahold of it and pull it through the 2 inch hole that you drilled. This can be tricky with the fiberglass in the way, but if you have an electricians "Fish-tape" that will work to pull the line through. You only need enough so that you can comfortably push the tubing onto the end of the drain plug's hose barb. Add a hose clamp to your new line, and reinstall your drip tray however you choose. The hard part is now over! Now the question is, where do you want this to drain to? Well what I did was I got a gray 5 gallon bucket and lid from Lowes(This is a permanent fixture next to my keezer, and it sits next to a concrete wall, that's why I went with a gray lowes bucket because it blends with the wall better than an orange home depot bucket) I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the lid because I wanted this tubing to be extremely tight with no air leakage. Then I drilled a second hole in the lid, and added a small rubber grommet(About the same size as one that accepts an airlock) In the grommet, I installed one of our sanitary air filters meant for when you're aerating wort. The thought process I had here(And so far it works) is that I would fill the bucket with about a gallon of star san, to keep mold down. The purpose of the air filter is to allow excess pressure from the bucket to escape, but now allow the bad-smelling stale beer stench to fill the room.
As I said, this involves some work, and you do have to permanently modify your keezer by drilling holes, but it only costs about 20 bucks and it is so convenient, I don't know why I never did this before. Thank you for reading, I hope my instructions were clear but feel free to ask with any questions. I'll take some more pictures of the finished product later and post them, but in the meantime, I hope this helps. Happy brewing!
