A little help needed for keezer parts

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RBChallenger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Messages
95
Reaction score
0
Location
Tucson, AZ
So I have the freezer and the kegs, now I am looking to order the faucets and any associated pieces needed. I was looking at getting the Perlick faucets and SS 4" shanks. What am i missing here so I can order it all at once. I am inclined to use flared fittings throughout, unless there is a reason to use barbed connectors. Thanks ahead of time, looking forward to getting these ordered in my hands!!!

Perlick Faucets: Faucets & Knobs, Stainless Steel Body & Knob Lever: Rapids Wholesale Equipment

SS Shanks: Stainless Steel Shanks, 1/4" ID, 4"L: Rapids Wholesale Equipment
 
3/16" ID beer line, 10' per line. Star with 10' per line and cut off to increase flow. I usually end up using 7' or 9' depending on the line, they have different resistance by brand.

Some sort of Co2 setup, I recommend a 10-20lb tank as fills are way cheaper per lb with larger tanks. 10-15-20 tanks all have the same footprint, they have different heights. Fire protection shops seem to have the best rates for filling tanks and used cylinder prices.
A decent 2 gauge regulator, or maybe a double regulator depending on your preferences, and some sort of manifold to split the 1 or two pressures you want to use. Some would recommend a bank of secondary regulators to control easch line individually. That would be nice but not necessary. You want shutoffs for each line that have check valves.

You'll probably want a drip tray of some sort. There are some cheap ones and some really overpriced ones. Search this forum, lots of drip tray posts.

Connectors/couplers for the kegs you want to use. There are some cool flared fitting adaptors made to fit the commercial keg couplers in case you plan to buy one occasionally.

External Thermostat - there are a lot of ways to go about this, there have been some honeywells going cheap on ebay, there is the Love controller route, the Ranco digital, and the Johnson Controls. each one has there merits, the next one I buy will be a Ranco, they can be found for about $50. The honeywell and johnson controls units have an analog dial and a capillary thermo probe. The capillary tube is somewhat fragile, and the dials are fairly vague. I have a JC on my keezer and it's working fine. The Love controls look great but need some mounting and they do not come pre wired, although that's pretty easy to do. The JC is the only one that is pre wired.

I think that covers it. A small fan never hurts to keep the air circulated. Don't be tempted to drill the wall of the freezer, bring in everything through the lid or the collar if you make one.
 
3/16" ID beer line, 10' per line. Star with 10' per line and cut off to increase flow. I usually end up using 7' or 9' depending on the line, they have different resistance by brand.

Some sort of Co2 setup, I recommend a 10-20lb tank as fills are way cheaper per lb with larger tanks. 10-15-20 tanks all have the same footprint, they have different heights. Fire protection shops seem to have the best rates for filling tanks and used cylinder prices.
A decent 2 gauge regulator, or maybe a double regulator depending on your preferences, and some sort of manifold to split the 1 or two pressures you want to use. Some would recommend a bank of secondary regulators to control easch line individually. That would be nice but not necessary. You want shutoffs for each line that have check valves.

You'll probably want a drip tray of some sort. There are some cheap ones and some really overpriced ones. Search this forum, lots of drip tray posts.

Connectors/couplers for the kegs you want to use. There are some cool flared fitting adaptors made to fit the commercial keg couplers in case you plan to buy one occasionally.

External Thermostat - there are a lot of ways to go about this, there have been some honeywells going cheap on ebay, there is the Love controller route, the Ranco digital, and the Johnson Controls. each one has there merits, the next one I buy will be a Ranco, they can be found for about $50. The honeywell and johnson controls units have an analog dial and a capillary thermo probe. The capillary tube is somewhat fragile, and the dials are fairly vague. I have a JC on my keezer and it's working fine. The Love controls look great but need some mounting and they do not come pre wired, although that's pretty easy to do. The JC is the only one that is pre wired.

I think that covers it. A small fan never hurts to keep the air circulated. Don't be tempted to drill the wall of the freezer, bring in everything through the lid or the collar if you make one.

I do plan to get all of that, I do plan to go with a 10 lbs tank, a dual gauge regulator and a bank of 5 secondary regulators from Keg Works. What I was more referring to was what pieces do I need to complete the faucet assembly. IE. should I go with a barbed tail piece and where do I get that for a good price or should I go with a MFL tail piece and where do I get one. Thanks!!!
 
I would use the barbed tail piece, it's the other end that you'll likely be messing around with, so you would benefit from MFL there. I don't think you'll find much better prices than you did at Rapids. The price on the faucets alone is about 1/2 of the average price I see.
 
That's the same price I paid for Perlicks at Superior Products, and they don't carry them anymore. That's the best price I've seen on them as well.
 
Does rapids not carry the barbed tail piece seperately? I'd like to go ahead and go all stainless for that price. Anyone have a link to a stainless 1/4" barbed tail piece to go with it. If not, any protests to just buying the pre-assembled non-SS shank and tail piece? I assume 1/4" nipple would be the right size even though I'm using 3/16" beer line? Thanks a bunch, getting excited about building this finally!
 
Austin homebrew has Ss tailpieces.

I bought SS nuts for my shanks, and I realized they're not really needed. They never touch the beer, so they could be regular steel and be fine.

B
 
I solved the problem and went with the assembled setup from Williams Brewing (PERLICK FORWARD SEAL FAUCET WITH STAINLESS SHANK @ Williams Brewing). A little more expensive, but not much more and a complete kit. I also ordered several other things for the keezer build while I was there. Am I the only one that goes to buy faucets only and ends up wit a couple hundred dollars worth of other stuff (like aerators, etc)??? Oh well, its cheaper than when i get carried away working on the Vette!!!
 
Back
Top