Kitchen tap build: best way to cool keg lines

[GillesF]

Hi all

We will renovate our kitchen soon, this renovation will open up a lot of countertop area. I have convinced my girlfriend two install 2 beer taps on the wall of the new kitchen extension. Below is an image of the new kitchen area:

As you can see, the taps will be installed above the new countertop on a concrete wall facing the garage. The shanks will go through the wall towards the garage where it will be connected to kegs. In the garage, it will look like this:

Connecting the taps to the kegs is pretty easy but I'm hesitating about the best way to chill the keg lines. I have several options:

A) Install the kegerator inside the cabinet and use something like this Glycol Pump Kit For Kegerators & Short Draw Draft Systems --> I'm not sure if this will be enough to keep the lines cool?
B) Purchase a glycol chiller and use a glycol trunk lines: Glycol Trunk Line --> much more expensive and I'm not sure if I can install kegs AND chiller inside the cabinet? The added benefit is that I can use the chiller for fermentation, since I will be investing in a unitank next year.
C) Put he kegerator against the wall where the tap connection is --> cheap since the length of the line outside the kegerator is kept at a minimum but I lose the cabinet on the left of the image above. It's not possible to make a corner cabinet and have the kegerator inside a cabinet at this location because the garage is positioned 2 steps lower than the kitchen.

All input is welcome!

Thanks,
Gilles

 

[redrocker652002]

Watching this one to see where it goes. I would love to get my wife to buy into this idea. LOL.

 

[SanPancho]

if that is your layout and what you have to work with, i would put an upright freezer outside the kitchen, cut a big ass 4" hole in side of freezer to run your lines through using a 3" pvc/abs pipe section. and i'd use a little 12v dc fan to blow cold air from freezer into the tubing. its a standard procedure for this sort of stuff. very easy to do. dont get a chest freezer, it'll be too short. and most have their lines in their walls. standing freezer much easier to work with here. plus bigger door, easier to move kegs in and out, etc.

then you just need to figure out drainage for your drip plate.

and make sure you get a freezer where the lines are in the back of the freezer, not the sides. its pretty easy, you just look for one where the coolant lines are inside the unit.

 

[Broken Crow]

^^ That right there! Simplest and most practical solution...Only thing I'd add to that is a decent temperature controller.

 

[GillesF]

Watching this one to see where it goes. I would love to get my wife to buy into this idea. LOL.

I told her she could do whatever she wanted with the kitchen if I got two taps. Easy deal lol!

if that is your layout and what you have to work with, i would put an upright freezer outside the kitchen, cut a big ass 4" hole in side of freezer to run your lines through using a 3" pvc/abs pipe section. and i'd use a little 12v dc fan to blow cold air from freezer into the tubing. its a standard procedure for this sort of stuff. very easy to do. dont get a chest freezer, it'll be too short. and most have their lines in their walls. standing freezer much easier to work with here. plus bigger door, easier to move kegs in and out, etc.

then you just need to figure out drainage for your drip plate.

and make sure you get a freezer where the lines are in the back of the freezer, not the sides. its pretty easy, you just look for one where the coolant lines are inside the unit.

I have considered that (see point C) but I would lose the entire corner since the space between the stairs and the cabinet is quite small, smaller than it looks on picture. As a result I wouldn't be able to open the cabinets. Perhaps if I move everything to the left and install a larger cabinet with sliding doors and next to it the sink but I'll have to check.

 

[OleBrewing]

What would be the total run of un refrigerated line? If a couple feet is it then I think you are making more complicated than it should be.
Insulate the lines and have a partial bleh poor til the cold stuff comes.

 

[GillesF]

It's about 220cm or 86,61 inch

 

[Climb]

As you are standing in the kitchen, facing the door to the garage, can you locate the beer faucets/taps to the right of the garage door? Then locate a fridge/freezer directly on the opposite side of the wall, in the garage.
If you are thinking about serving and fermenting in the same fridge, consider a side-by-side. Serve out of the freezer compartment and ferment in the fridge compartment.
Good luck with the remodel.

 

[SanPancho]

I told her she could do whatever she wanted with the kitchen if I got two taps. Easy deal lol!



I have considered that (see point C) but I would lose the entire corner since the space between the stairs and the cabinet is quite small, smaller than it looks on picture. As a result I wouldn't be able to open the cabinets. Perhaps if I move everything to the left and install a larger cabinet with sliding doors and next to it the sink but I'll have to check.

order/install your base cabinets without doors. it'd be open shelving storage, which means you could still reach into the corner if you need to grab something back there. since this is the garage, i'm assuming it wouldnt be a big deal to have open shelving.

 

[LogicalBrewing]

As you are standing in the kitchen, facing the door to the garage, can you locate the beer faucets/taps to the right of the garage door? Then locate a fridge/freezer directly on the opposite side of the wall, in the garage.
If you are thinking about serving and fermenting in the same fridge, consider a side-by-side. Serve out of the freezer compartment and ferment in the fridge compartment.
Good luck with the remodel.

Derailing a bit, but how do you do temperature control in such a setup?

 

[SanPancho]

Derailing a bit, but how do you do temperature control in such a setup?

theres really two methods. make the whole thing a fridge/ferm chamber basically. or, i sorted mine so that i still have a freezer side and a fridge/ferm side.

there's threads here about folks doing the first one. i had a thread somewhere here about doing the second, so i still had a freezer for hops, yeast bank, etc.

 

[Climb]

Derailing a bit, but how do you do temperature control in such a setup?

As SanPancho mentioned there are several threads on how to convert a side-by-side to a kegerator/fermentation chamber. In short, the implementation of the conversion depends on the design of the side-by-side you are converting. What I have found is that most mid-range priced side-by-sides control the amount and frequency of cold air being blown from the top of the freezer compartment to the top of the refrigerator compartment to cool the refrigerator compartment. They also have one or more return vents, usually at the bottom and often in the crisper drawer, that allows warmish air from the refrigerator compartment to return to the freezer compartment.
My implementation uses a single stage controller to control the temperature of the freezer compartment by turning on and off its AC power. And a dual stage controller (STC-1000+) to control the temperature in the refrigerator compartment by turning on and off a DC fan that blows air from the refrigerator compartment back to the freezer compartment just below the condensing coils in the freezer. This dual stage controller also controls a small AC heater that has an integrated fan. It applies AC power to the heater when the refrigerator compartment needs heat. I manually adjust the return vent at the bottom, where the crisper drawer was and the original vent at the top since that damper was originally controlled by a bi-metal thermostat that I removed. I close these vents when I want the refrigerator compartment on the warm end of the temperature range and open them when I want refrigerator compartment on the cold end of the temperature range; i.e. cold crash.
I use the freezer compartment to serve kegged beer at about 40 F and use the refrigerator compartment to ferment in from 44 F to 80 F.
This isn't the best solution for power efficiency, but it is great on space efficiency.

 

[LogicalBrewing]

Oh cool! That's clever. And good to know. A lot of side-by-sides on craigslist in my area recently, and I've been dismissing them as solutions to my problems. Might hafta rethink that.