Midcentury Modern Keezer/Beer Fridge and/or Ferm Chamber Build

[skoodog]

Hey guys,

Longtime lurker, first time poster. From constant perusals of this subforum and desire to shun the burden of bottling, I have decided I really want to build a keezer for my mancave. Only problem is that I want this to look nice to avoid the wrath of SWMBO (plus, if I'm honest, I'm a bit of a poof when it comes to having a nice place to enjoy a beer). So after picking up a cheap chest freezer off CL and hours of unskilled tinkering on Sketchup, I've come up with my model (built to scale):

And from the back to see supports:

The idea is to build the structure with various sized furring strips, an Ikea counter top, and the front of the cabinet be a plywood base that I can attach to my fridge door. Hinges at the corners will flip up the counter top near the supports to access the freezer for keg changes, etc. and then add the actual faucets into the wall it's up against. My man cave is a converted sound studio with blue jean insulation so I figure my lines should stay pretty cold despite the brutal TX summers beating down on the outside wall.

The cutout in the counter top is sized for half a bamboo bathmat over a drain tray draining out through a tube in the wall into the hop bed outside. The therm controller for the keezer would sit on top of the fridge/ferm chamber space with supports. I"m thinking about putting the cabinet itself on hidden casters in case I need to easily move it out if I need to make repairs to the fridge/freezer.

All of you have vastly more carpentry/engineering skills than I could ever have...any ideas/thoughts/warnings on my set up? I'll provide pics once I start doing the assembly!

Thanks in advance!

 

[dnslater]

I cannot see your images.

 

[thelastleroy]

I cannot see your images.

This. I like what I'm reading though. Photos as "attachment"?

 

[skoodog]

Let me see if this works...View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439081022.667425.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439081038.395860.jpg

 

[BullGator]

Couple of thoughts:

If you have it on casters and have tap lines going through the wall, that would significantly complicate things.

You would need to insulate the lines well as they go through the wall. I mean really well. Might want to consider a fan to blow cold air from the keezer up along your lines.

Not 100% sure this will be a problem but you may want to run some cleaner through your drain line from time to time. Not sure your hop plants will like that. Perhaps just running a bit of water through more often would help with this.

 

[skoodog]

Couple of thoughts:

If you have it on casters and have tap lines going through the wall, that would significantly complicate things.

You would need to insulate the lines well as they go through the wall. I mean really well. Might want to consider a fan to blow cold air from the keezer up along your lines.

Not 100% sure this will be a problem but you may want to run some cleaner through your drain line from time to time. Not sure your hop plants will like that. Perhaps just running a bit of water through more often would help with this.

Re: casters, can you elaborate how it would complicate things? I figure I want to build a piece that can roll out if needed, but it will probably never be moved. I figure I can match up some PVC piping to the wall (that's how I've seen others do it) and run lines up through that. Great call on the fans though.

I can run the drip line out past the hop beds to my lawn, which I care significantly less about than the hops. Probably running rubber tubing or even a garden hose.

Thanks for the comment!

 

[BullGator]

Re: casters, can you elaborate how it would complicate things? I figure I want to build a piece that can roll out if needed, but it will probably never be moved. I figure I can match up some PVC piping to the wall (that's how I've seen others do it) and run lines up through that. Great call on the fans though.

I can run the drip line out past the hop beds to my lawn, which I care significantly less about than the hops. Probably running rubber tubing or even a garden hose.

Thanks for the comment!

It's something that I am trying to figure out myself. My keezer is on casters and I move it back and forth all the time. Mainly when I put kegs in and out since my keezer is double hinged and I always have to move it forward to open the bottom part. The problem depends on how you plan to run the beer lines through the wall. Most folks I have seen use around 3" dia. PVC where they run the lines through with some sort of return that has fans to circulate the cold air. I guess I kind of assumed you were going to go that route but reading your post again, I don't see where you said you were going to do that (maybe I just read that in since I am most likely going to go that route). Well, if the PVC is hard plumbed to the wall like most folks, the casters won't do much good. If you were just going to wrap the lines with insulation, then with enough slack, you should be fine. I am just worried about foaming and my run will be around 4 ft so that's why I am thinking something other than insulation is best for me.

I have an 10 hour drive tomorrow so I'll be spending most of it thinking about the best way to do this. Let me know what you think.