phreaky
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, been working on an upgrade to my kegerator, going on far too long now. I've finally reached a point I'm happy to share it, so here it is in all of it's glory. For starters, I'm running 10 faucets on a long draw trunk line, about 30 feet away from the 3 door cooler where my beer kegs hang out. I've got a glycol chiller with a 10 gallon bath I'm using to keep all of the lines cold. To top it all off, I've got 10 swiss flow meters hooked up to a RaspberryPints installation, with a digital menu displaying whats on tap, and how much is left. I decided on a long draw system mostly because I wanted my basement to be free from compressor noise and heat. Keeping it in the garage helps keep all of that in check. On with the pictures.
It all starts at the glycol chiller. Found it on craigslist for 50 bucks, and everything worked good, and was still in good shape. It sat for a few months before I hooked it up, and even though the pump worked when I bought it, it decided to freeze up while it was sitting. I replaced it with a March pump I had sitting around which will help me on the electric bill a little bit, and still flows enough to keep everything cold. I also built a custom shelf for it and mounted it and the pump directly to the concrete wall to eliminate as much vibration as possible.
From there it flows to the three door cooler via a trunk line I built. Very simple, just a send and a return, wrapped in armaflex pipe insulation. Once inside the fridge, it joins with the trunk line for the beer. For gas, I keep four pressures running at once. A low at 10 psi for serving, a mid at 15 psi for high carb beers, a high at 30 for carbonating beers, and a 75/25 Nitro at 35 psi for anything nitro.
Inside the fridge is where you'll find the 10 flow meters. They interface with a RaspberryPi and an Arduino to keep track of beer poured. Here is also where all the lines terminate. The trunk line is made up of 1/4x3/8 Bev-Seal Ultra barrier tubing which has a glass lining in it to help make it easy for cleaning. It's also the perfect size to fit directly into the flow meters.
From there the trunk line heads into the basement and to the bar. Once everything was in place, I did a pressure test, and almost every single line leaked where it attached to the tower. The tower I have only has smooth stainless lines coming out, not barbs, and when combined with the super smooth glass lining in the trunk line, even when I double clamped the lines they leaked. Most long draw systems need some sort of a choker in place at the very end to keep pressures in check, but since mine was so short, I was trying to skip using them. The leaks forced me to though, so after a bit of work, every line got a barb splice and a short piece of vinyl BevLex to bridge the gap between the lines and the tower, like the red line in the pic. Crisis averted.
With all of the leaks resolved (and tested at 40psi for several days), I was confident enough to seal it all up and insulate it. First each bundle was wrapped with tape in a few spots to hold it tight, then wrapped with plastic saran wrap to seal it off. After that came a wrapping of aluminum foil duct tape to further seal condensation out. Finish it all off with some more Armaflex insulation, and then a vinyl tape wrap. Also in this pic, you can see my pressure regulator for my glass rinser, and the drain for it as well.
And finally, for the icing on the cake, the bar itself. It's still a work in progress, but I had to get some beer flowing so I could finish working on it. On the list for it still is finishing the cabinets that I haven't painted yet, some sort of wall treatment which will probably be reclaimed wood, and some shelves for all of my glassware.
So that's my setup. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out, and very ready to finish up the bar so I can get back to brewing.
It all starts at the glycol chiller. Found it on craigslist for 50 bucks, and everything worked good, and was still in good shape. It sat for a few months before I hooked it up, and even though the pump worked when I bought it, it decided to freeze up while it was sitting. I replaced it with a March pump I had sitting around which will help me on the electric bill a little bit, and still flows enough to keep everything cold. I also built a custom shelf for it and mounted it and the pump directly to the concrete wall to eliminate as much vibration as possible.
From there it flows to the three door cooler via a trunk line I built. Very simple, just a send and a return, wrapped in armaflex pipe insulation. Once inside the fridge, it joins with the trunk line for the beer. For gas, I keep four pressures running at once. A low at 10 psi for serving, a mid at 15 psi for high carb beers, a high at 30 for carbonating beers, and a 75/25 Nitro at 35 psi for anything nitro.
Inside the fridge is where you'll find the 10 flow meters. They interface with a RaspberryPi and an Arduino to keep track of beer poured. Here is also where all the lines terminate. The trunk line is made up of 1/4x3/8 Bev-Seal Ultra barrier tubing which has a glass lining in it to help make it easy for cleaning. It's also the perfect size to fit directly into the flow meters.
From there the trunk line heads into the basement and to the bar. Once everything was in place, I did a pressure test, and almost every single line leaked where it attached to the tower. The tower I have only has smooth stainless lines coming out, not barbs, and when combined with the super smooth glass lining in the trunk line, even when I double clamped the lines they leaked. Most long draw systems need some sort of a choker in place at the very end to keep pressures in check, but since mine was so short, I was trying to skip using them. The leaks forced me to though, so after a bit of work, every line got a barb splice and a short piece of vinyl BevLex to bridge the gap between the lines and the tower, like the red line in the pic. Crisis averted.
With all of the leaks resolved (and tested at 40psi for several days), I was confident enough to seal it all up and insulate it. First each bundle was wrapped with tape in a few spots to hold it tight, then wrapped with plastic saran wrap to seal it off. After that came a wrapping of aluminum foil duct tape to further seal condensation out. Finish it all off with some more Armaflex insulation, and then a vinyl tape wrap. Also in this pic, you can see my pressure regulator for my glass rinser, and the drain for it as well.
And finally, for the icing on the cake, the bar itself. It's still a work in progress, but I had to get some beer flowing so I could finish working on it. On the list for it still is finishing the cabinets that I haven't painted yet, some sort of wall treatment which will probably be reclaimed wood, and some shelves for all of my glassware.
So that's my setup. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out, and very ready to finish up the bar so I can get back to brewing.
