Alaska keezer build... My first attempt

Williams 728
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I put my probe in a glass of water in the freezer, some say that taping the probe directly to the keg under bubble wrap or some other sort of insulation is best, and it may be but I found it to be cumbersome moving kegs around. One time I put a keg in just after racking, and without thinking I taped the probe to it. The controller thought the temp in the freezer was 68 and ran continuously to cool that keg down, in the meantime freezing my other two kegs. I hope that makes sense
 
yep, makes sense. I didn't freeze any kegs but almost made the same mistake.
what type of prob do you have? I am using ranco controlers and didn't think the probe's were waterproof, but I could be wrong.
 
I have a johnson on my keezer, started out with a two stage ranco, then decided that I didn't need that much control and bought the johnson. Saving the ranco for when I finally get the space to put another fridge in the house for fermentation (I am insanely jealous of all you brewers with garages or basements)
 
I have a Johnson on mine. I do believe the probes are waterproof. Also, I agree with it being a pain to tape the probe to the keg each time. You are gettin basically the same reading by puttin it in water. Think I'm going to go that route. Just waiting for KEG COWBOY to deliver the rest of my goods! I'm gettin thirsty...
 
isn't johnson made by ranco or vice versa? maybe not, but I think the probes are pretty much the same arn't they? is the johnson probe waterproof?

I agree, had a two stage ranco on my keezer and swapped it out with a single stage ranco to use the two stage on my fermentation chamber (chest freezer).
 
I don't know who makes what, but the probes certainly aren't the same. I can post pictures to prove it if I need to, but I don't think I do
 
So bottom line, the Johnson temp controller probes appear to be waterproof. That is all I need to know.
 
907_fellow said:
So bottom line, the Johnson temp controller probes appear to be waterproof. That is all I need to know.
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I have had my johnson probe submerged in water for a year and haven't had problems yet
 
wncbrewer said:
I don't know who makes what, but the probes certainly aren't the same. I can post pictures to prove it if I need to, but I don't think I do
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I didn't mean for that post to come off as snippy or rude, I apologize if it seemed that way
 
Took a break from slaying the salmon this afternoon to work on the keezer. Got the top half trimmed out, and most of the bottom done. Ran out of trim unfortunately so I will have to drive back to town and get more tomorrow to finish the bottom up. Also threw a coat of polyurethane on the top. Pretty happy with the way it looks.
image-3084544957.jpg
3 tap conversion from keg cowboy will ship on Thursday so just waiting on that to complete the project. A week and a half from now it should flowing beer!
 
Ya I am happy with it. The polyurethane gave the pine a good look. The black trim looks good, but it's a pain to sand and paint.
 
907_fellow said:
Ya I am happy with it. The polyurethane gave the pine a good look. The black trim looks good, but it's a pain to sand and paint.
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Keezer's looking real good. I know what you mean about sanding trim. I just built an aquarium stand for someone, and I probably put 6 hours just into sanding it to get it nice enough to take the stain, have clean smooth edges, and have the corners blend well. Thank goodness for palm sanders...
 
I didn't take nearly that much time doing it and it doesn't look perfect, but I'm to the point I just want to finish her up. Plus the polyurethane I'm applying goes over everything and makes it so you can't see the imperfections.
 
great build, you oughta stuff one of them salmon and use it as a tap handle.

just kidding, but seriously looking forward to seeing the final work.
 
907_fellow said:
I didn't take nearly that much time doing it and it doesn't look perfect, but I'm to the point I just want to finish her up. Plus the polyurethane I'm applying goes over everything and makes it so you can't see the imperfections.
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Unfortunately I'm a helpless perfectionist. I only stopped after 6 hours because my wife said that the guy buying the stand probably couldn't tell the difference. Which was true :).

I'm sure I'll be even more anal if I ever get around to building a keeper for myself.


BOT, it is looking really good. I like the contrast of the black trim with the light T&G pine.
 
rekoob said:
hmmm, I will have to take a look at my probes, maybe they are waterproof.
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It just dawned on me that we could be talking about two entirely different controllers. I have the analog johnson, the probe on their digital one could very well not be water proof.
 
How heavy is the freezer top with the tile? That is the main thing that scared me away from tile in my build
 
I have read forum posts saying they are waterproof and some saying they aren't. People have ran them for years in water/gel with no issues. Just to clarify, I have a Johnson's digital temp controller. Not real sure which route I want to go now...
 
The top is heavy, I won't try to argue that. I hesitate to say that is entirely the fault of the tile, as I ended up having to put 2 peices of plywood on the top to recess the top of the bolts I sent threw the freezer lid. If I made another trip to town to get the proper hardware, I wouldn't have had to do this, but I am lazy. The coffin may also be overbuilt, as I could have got away without using 2x4"s. All and all, I plan on putting some kind of actuators like on the trunks of SUVs. That is farther down the line, I just want it to flow beer right now!
 
I saw a manual thermometer the other day that was quite nice. It is a food termometer stuck through the cap of a liquid yeast package (tube with a screw on plastic cap) that was filled with glycol.

Why couldn't you do the same with the temp probe? It would take alot of the temp swings out of the temp sensing.

This was being sold for beverage fridges.
 
That would work. I'm just not sold on the idea of placing the probe in the water as the best way to controll the temp properly. I have a dual probe thermometer I am using the monitor both the coffin as well as the bottom of the keezer. It would seem placing the thermometer probes in water and monitoring those temps while leaving the Johnson's probe in the air would be the best method. At that point, it will be just tweaking the temp set point to get my thermometer reading where I want them. If that makes any sense...
 
907_fellow said:
That would work. I'm just not sold on the idea of placing the probe in the water as the best way to controll the temp properly. I have a dual probe thermometer I am using the monitor both the coffin as well as the bottom of the keezer. It would seem placing the thermometer probes in water and monitoring those temps while leaving the Johnson's probe in the air would be the best method. At that point, it will be just tweaking the temp set point to get my thermometer reading where I want them. If that makes any sense...
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You could try paint some clear nail polish on it, or spraying it with multiple coats of clear spray paint. That should seal up any tiny holes that could introduce water. Or maybe try coating it in petroleum jelly?
 
Did a little work on the coffin tonight. Here you can see my fan set up. One pullin air into the coffin one pushing air back down inside. Serious amount of air gets moved with this set up.
image-1808499779.jpg

Here is the back of my keezer, with my temp controller, power strip for fans and LED light, as well as dual probe thermometer.
image-618992687.jpg

And finally, the insulation I put in the coffin.
image-3602546476.jpg
 
Planning on finishing the trim tonight after work and continuing to apply polyurethane. Will post more pictures later.
 
Threw the rest of the trim on tonigt. Got the first cost of poly on the bottom of the keezer. Also, finished the coffin insulation as well. Decided to put my temp probes inside the ice pack gell. Seems like a good idea. I placed the gell inside some glass chemistry containers an sealed the probes inside with shoe-goo. Guess we will see how that works.
image-618854371.jpg

I cut out a spot in the insulation and have the container recessed down inside. It's snug and won't move when the lid is lifted to access the inside of the keezer.
image-3316858899.jpg
 
Added the 3rd coat of poly last night. Everything is done as far as I can go until my parts arrive from KEG COWBOY. It was suppose to ship yesterday but still haven't hear from them. An the wait begins..

image-1231834342.jpg
 
Another question... How often is everyones freezer cycling per hour? For how long is it on? I have the Johnson's temp controller with my set point at 37 degrees. Just curious if anyone has logged this info on there coffin-keezer set up.
 
Guess that's not too much of a concern. Keg conversion kit should be here in the next couple days... Super pumped.

I now have a growing desire to start home brewing and fully utilize my keezer to its full capacity. I have been reading up and looking at starter kits but haven't found one that has made me full the trigger. I want to have atleast 2 glass carboys and primarily go right to kegging rather than bottling. Maybe bottle a 6 pack out of each batch to throw in the crawl space and keg the remaining brew.
 
I never really paid much attention to how often my keezer cycled until you asked. I heard it kick on last night and run for 4 or 5 minutes, didn't hear it again all night, but I was drinking and the olympics were on. That said, my analog johnson only has a 4 degree differential, so it would be more if that was tightened up some.

Congrats and welcome to the homebrewing community. It would almost be a shame not have homebrew on tap in such a nice keezer. This place is a wealth of information
 
Ya my differential is set at only like 2 I think. It kickes on every 10 minutes or so for 4-5 minutes. Once it's full of kegs, it will probably help my cycling and I could loosen up the differential as well. Just so my freezer doesn't take a s-*t
 
Got bored tonight. Built a holder for my co2 tank out of wood. It just wedges in tight, not fastened to the sides of the freezer but it doesn't move because it's wedged in so tight.
image-3378842777.jpg

You can see my thermometer probe as well as my temp controller probe mounted on the side of it as well. They are just electrical taped into a couple 25 ml chemistry containers with nothing inside them right now (water/ice pack gel). Might do that later if I decide to go that route.
image-3018647389.jpg

One question... I had my keezer running empty for a week and noticed about a 1/4 of frost around the top half of the keezer. Does anyone see any issues with having my co2 tank right up against the wall of the freezer? Will the co2 get too cold??
 
Does anyone see any issues with having my co2 tank right up against the wall of the freezer? Will the co2 get too cold??
 
My tank has lived inside my keezer with no issue. It is also right next to the freezer wall. One thing to consider though .. temperature will affect your regulator gauge, more specifically the gauge that reads tank pressure. As the tank cools, the gas will contract and the pressure will read low even though there is plenty of gas in the tank. In my experience, my tank pressure gauge reads pretty much the same regardless of its level until right before it runs out, which usually only happens in the middle of a party or bbq. I can usually get around 10-15 5 gallon kegs out of a tank depending on carb level and what beers I'm running. You should also google draft line balancing. Having balanced lines helped a lot with head retention and my chase for the "perfect pour". I cant remember the formula off the top of my head, but there are online calculators to help you figure how long and what diameter your lines should be given the tempertature of your freezer, keg pressure, and headspace between your kegs and taps.

I like to serve at 12 psi at 38 degrees, so for me I could either run 1/4" lines at nine feet of line or 3 feet f 3/16" line. I went with 3/16 because I didn't want to have a mile of beer line wrapped up inside my freezer. I hope I didn't make this sound overly complicated, it really isn't. It will make a huge difference in the quality of your pour though. If a google search doesn't yield anything helpful, let me know and I will try to dig up the calculator I used...cheers...wnc
 
Very informative information there. Very much appreciated. I have the basic concepts down so some of the more advanced ideas is exactly what I am looking for. I kinda see it like I have spent a lot of money to make this keezer so at this point, I want everything to be as good as I can possibly make it. I have embarked on the never ending quest for the "perfect pour" haha.
 

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