Back in the brew game- Keezer build

[golfguy819]

Due to being stationed overseas for a few years, I had to give up brewing. But now that I'm back, I've decided to get back into it and finally decided to build a keezer while I'm waiting for my equipment to get in. I picked up a 6.8 cu ft chest freezer from Home Depot on Saturday for $158 and got to work. I decided to go with a single 1" red oak collar and line it with 1" insulation.

Now onto the build. Here's the freezer w/ the plank setup on it for a visual

The built collar

Had to leave a gap on the back in order to get the lid to fit on properly

The lid attached

The inside

Sitting on the freezer w/ insulation

And finally all mocked up waiting to be sealed. Went with a red oak stain followed by a coat of glossy polyurethane.

The shanks are ordered and the temperature control unit will be here this week. Once I get both in, I'll get it finished up and will use it for a temporary fermentation chamber until my first two batches are done fermenting. Then I'll lower the temps to serving temps in order to get it ready for kegging and to cold crash my fermentors. More pics to follow.

 

[hunter_le five]

So.... would you say that you're "back in the game"?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/back-brew-game-keezer-build-481226/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/back-brew-game-keezer-build-481225/

Nice build, looks good so far.

 

[Jman_01]

Looks nice! I have a freezer stashed in my basement for when i do this someday.

 

[golfguy819]

So.... would you say that you're "back in the game"?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/back-brew-game-keezer-build-481226/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/back-brew-game-keezer-build-481225/

Nice build, looks good so far.

Haha, if you ask my wife, she'd say yes because of all the money I've dropped on my kit in the last few days. Unfortunately I'm working all this weekend, but I've got my first 2 brews scheduled for Tuesday

 

[Hatelore]

Don't mean to hi-jack your thread or steal your thunder... Looks like we had the same idea...

This weekend I bought the same 6.8 fridge for 158 at home depot.

I Built a frame collar out of cheap Douglas fur.. then trimmed it with wider red wood so the overlapping lip would hold the collar in place. Stained and poly'd it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[pannell77]

looks great

 

[hunter_le five]

All thunder to Hatelore.

 

[golfguy819]

Don't mean to hi-jack your thread or steal your thunder... Looks like we had the same idea...

This weekend I bought the same 6.8 fridge for 158 at home depot.

I Built a frame collar out of cheap Douglas fur.. then trimmed it with wider red wood so the overlapping lip would hold the collar in place. Stained and poly'd it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Looking good! Have you hooked yours up to a temperature control unit yet? Hooked mine up to a Johnson digital control unit today and it worked like a charm. After a few hours though I noticed that while it was holding the temps I wanted, the power light was off. I unplugged it from the Johnson's and plugged it right into the outlet and the compressor kicked right on. Plugged it back into the Johnson's again and the power light stayed off.

Edit- I just re-read the description of the Johnson control and it says that it shuts the freezer off when it reaches it's temps. Guess that's why the power light wasn't kicking on.

 

[Hatelore]

Yes, I mounted it to the side of my keezer (see photo).

I set the Anti short cycle delay to 10 min so I don't burn out my compressor.

I also bought a small usb fan and put it down inside the shelf.

 

[golfguy819]

Good to know. It was running fine and when I came back an hour later the power was off on the freezer and wouldn't kick back on (it was set for 69 degrees and holding at 63). That's when I unplugged it and plugged just the freezer in and the compressor kicked right on along with the power light. I had to head to work so I left everything unplugged but I'll mess around with it again in the morning.

 

[Hatelore]

No prob, Basically set your Delay so that it doesn't turn your fridges compressor on and off rapidly, other wise that might cause your fridge to give out in a year or so. This will cause the temp to fluctuate some depending on the temperature of the place you are storing keezer.

 

[Jman_01]

Good to know. It was running fine and when I came back an hour later the power was off on the freezer and wouldn't kick back on (it was set for 69 degrees and holding at 63). That's when I unplugged it and plugged just the freezer in and the compressor kicked right on along with the power light. I had to head to work so I left everything unplugged but I'll mess around with it again in the morning.

You may need to check where you have your jumpers on the controller.. Are they set to cut in at temp or cut out. Also look at what the differential is set at as that what gives you the + or - of your SP


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[golfguy819]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I originally had everything set to the factory settings with the exception of the SP. Just got home and programed the ASd to 10, then couldn't get it to start working. Then after doing some research and seeing others with similar issues, I set the ASd back to 1 and it kicked right on (should have known better than to try messing with it after working 12 hours). Now I've got the SP set at 68, diF at 3 and ASd set to 10. Other than that, everything is set to factory settings.

 

[Jman_01]

Sounds like you should be good to go!


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[golfguy819]

Sounds like you should be good to go!


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I thought so too until now lol. Went out and checked the temp before heading up to bed, power's off to the freezer and the temp was at 57 and holding. Not sure why it would go that low when it was set to 68 and the diF set at 3, but I'm assuming it's because I have the ASd set at 10 and it drops the temp lower to compensate for that?

 

[Jman_01]

Hmm make sure you have your OFS at 0

 

[Jman_01]

Also may need to lower your AsD

 

[hunter_le five]

I always leave my ASD at 12, and I don't get that kind of temp swing. That's weird. How is the probe set up?


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[Hatelore]

Hmm make sure you have your OFS at 0

Make sure you do this.. basically if you have a senor failure it prevents the unit from just freezing all your beer.

 

[golfguy819]

Just checked the OFS and it's set at 0. Since I didn't have anything in it yet, I had the probe just hanging inside. When I came home this morning and looked at it again, it was really close to the side wall and was probably getting an inaccurate reading. So I put a corny keg in and ran the wire through one of the handles so it'd hang more towards the middle. After that, compressor kicked back on at 68 and chilled down to 62 before it cut off. It does hold temps for a long time though before it rises back to 68.

 

[Jman_01]

Good to hear. I run a small fan in my kegerator and fermenting chamber to move air and make everything more efficient.


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[hunter_le five]

Just checked the OFS and it's set at 0. Since I didn't have anything in it yet, I had the probe just hanging inside. When I came home this morning and looked at it again, it was really close to the side wall and was probably getting an inaccurate reading. So I put a corny keg in and ran the wire through one of the handles so it'd hang more towards the middle. After that, compressor kicked back on at 68 and chilled down to 62 before it cut off. It does hold temps for a long time though before it rises back to 68.

Well no wonder.

Air temp fluctuates too readily, and by having the probe just free hanging in the air, you are going to have huge swings.

Fill that same corny keg with water, put the probe on the side of the keg, cover it with something insulative (a piece of foam, a folded up hand towel, etc, and tape it down to the keg wall with duct tape. After water in the keg gets down to temperature, I'm willing to bet your temp swings will be much smaller due to what you are measuring actually having thermal mass.

This is how you should situate the probe with kegs or fermenters. Thermowells work nicely too for fermenters.


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[golfguy819]

Well no wonder.

Air temp fluctuates too readily, and by having the probe just free hanging in the air, you are going to have huge swings.

Fill that same corny keg with water, put the probe on the side of the keg, cover it with something insulative (a piece of foam, a folded up hand towel, etc, and tape it down to the keg wall with duct tape. After water in the keg gets down to temperature, I'm willing to bet your temp swings will be much smaller due to what you are measuring actually having thermal mass.

This is how you should situate the probe with kegs or fermenters. Thermowells work nicely too for fermenters.


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Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that tomorrow when I put my carboy in there.

My shanks came in the other day and I finally got them installed and moved the keezer into the living room. Just have to get a drip tray, run my beer and air lines and it will be all finished. Here's a shot w/ the taps and it's final resting place (within arms reach of my spot on the couch)

 

[Hatelore]

Wow looking good!

For a cheap / easy drip tray I picked up a Steel mud tray from home depot

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wal-Board-Tools-14-in-Mud-Pan-23-003/100403179

and just used magnetic tape strips to attach it to the fridge under the taps.


Also If you choose to store bottles I attached a wall mounted bottle opener to the right of my taps.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049NJD3E/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Just a couple ideas!