Going to make a 'Keezer'

Ok, so all this talk about kegerators has me fired up to make myself a beer serving station of my own. I want to be able to have 5 taps going at any given time, so I'm going for a chest freezer. It's going to be on casters hidden behind a skirt so it can follow the party Thin granite veneer on the top and backsplash, with a SS drip tray. Here is a rendering I made up based on the freezer I am considering:

THE KEEZER

That looks a lot like the one Brewpastor built. When I finish finishing my basement, I'm planning something similar, but I want it to be incorporated into a bar.

why have it on castors? You gonna wheel it outside or something? A keezer of this size is going to weigh a considerable amount... like figure the weight of a freezer, plus possibly 5 full cornie kegs. Thats like 400lbs...

rdwj said:

That looks a lot like the one Brewpastor built. When I finish finishing my basement, I'm planning something similar, but I want it to be incorporated into a bar.

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Yep - saw his rig on another thread and though "niiiiiiiice"

sirsloop said:

why have it on castors? You gonna wheel it outside or something? A keezer of this size is going to weigh a considerable amount... like figure the weight of a freezer, plus possibly 5 full cornie kegs. Thats like 400lbs...

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A couple of reasons for the casters. First, the top is basically attached to the lid of the freezer, so when the top is opened, the tower is going to end up hitting the wall unless it can be pulled out. Second, I would like the option of having it outside, or even inside in multiple locations (right next to the poker table for poker night! ) The casters I have picked can easily handle 400 pounds.

sweet design. I am in somewhat agreement with the above comments as far as the castors though, and if you do use them they better be some damn mega sturdy castors at that.

Is this going to be in a basement? Garage? Livingroom? Where and how far do you think your going to wheel this baby around?

I like the faceless model, he looks like he is performing a Drunk Driving test in that pose. lol

EDIT: you must have been typing at the same time. disregard previously answered comments. (open mouth, insert foot)

I have to build a custom dolly for my kegerator for the same reason.

Added bonus: With the kegerator on a dolly (and wheels) the taps are higher (less bending over). :rockin:

Please, Please, Please keep us up to date with your build of this. A nice how to would be great as this is exaclty what I would like to do.

Mine will go in my garage but the casters will make it easy to move it around.


Edit: which model freezer are you currently considering?

jdoiv said:

Please, Please, Please keep us up to date with your build of this. A nice how to would be great as this is exaclty what I would like to do.

Mine will go in my garage but the casters will make it easy to move it around.


Edit: which model freezer are you currently considering?

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I do plan on do some sort of blog on this, with pix and drawings and so forth.

As for freezer model, I am looking at a Frigidaire that is between 9-10 cu ft. It's used, but only a year old, and they are asking $100. The same basic design would work for any chest freezer - the tap tower might not go all the way to the edges with a wider one, but that's no big deal - or you could just have more taps!!

You may already know this but a lot, if not most or all chest freezers use their exterior skin as a heatsink which is why they are warm to the touch on the outside. This means that if you attach wood panels to the exterior without building a frame that allows for a few inches of space all the way around, you could end up burning out the compressor in the freezer. With that said, their would also need to be some kind of ventilation to allow the heat to escape in some way.

Hmm. I actually was not aware of that. The little freezer I do have (not the one I would use for this purpose, has a vent on the back that I (perhaps incorrectly) assumed was the sole heat exhaust point. If need be, I can certainly provide extra space around the freezer, just means a bit bigger finished unit. I will certainly look into it - Thanks!

link will take you to the guy from www.alenuts.com talking about his bar that was featured in BYO. He has quite a few build pics on his site of that bar as well (same guy who designed the Brutus Ten). It's a really cool set up and he talks about how he ventilates the chest freezer under the wood panels with a small fan...pretty neat.

Yeah, I'd love to see the progress on this thing... BTW, what did you use to make the illustration? That's not freehand (freemouse?) is it?

The question is, why would you NOT want your kegger on wheels? I too plan to build mine on wheels. The freezer will usually live in the garage and wheeling it to the yard would be pretty common for BBQ's. Not only that, rearranging the garage is a favorite pass time for me. Since I have to go over grass, I'll probably use 6" wheels on axles on one end and 3" swivel castors on the other. If it takes two people to move, so what.

It looks like he used Google Sketchup (free) just like I did for mine...

Bobby_M said:

It looks like he used Google Sketchup just like I did for mine...

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Bingo!

It has a little bit of a learning curve to it, but it's the most intuitive 3D sketcher I've ever used. Hey, the price is right too!

Bobby_M said:

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I like the way you split the riser. I was planning on building mine and sealing all on the bottom. The way you have it lowers the keg loading/unloading height. Nice.
Are you using a 4" or 6" riser?

Sorry for the stupid Q.

I'm guessing the collar on the freezer is required somehow? Do you need it so the kegs will fit? Can you just put a tower on the top or put the taps out through the front of the freezer?

The riser makes it so you don't have to poke holes in your freezer, the taps mount in it. Seems like it wouldn't be necessary if you used a tower, but through the front might also poke holes through the refridgerant lines. It also lets you open the top of the freezer closer to the wall than if you had a tower.

Seems like it would also be easier to cut some wood and drill holes in it than drilling holes in the freezer.

Yeah, it lets you take the collar off and return it to a plain, unmodified chest freezer in the future which may be important to you.

I'm actually not going split collar anymore. I'm going to make the collar part of the lid, moving the seal from the lid to the bottom of the collar. The faucets and lines will still raise up with the lid but I won't have any of the sealing issues foreseen in the split collar design.

My collar is actually only 2-3/4" high. I used a 1x6 piece of Poplar that I ripped in half. I'm making a video diary of the conversion for your youtubing pleasures.

Bobby_M said:

I'm making a video diary of the conversion for your youtubing pleasures.

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You rock! :rockin: