DIY Walk In Cooler Build

[BadWolfBrewing]

Or, make a dead hooker ipa. I'd give that a test sip at the least

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[slowbro]

This is great - you did an amazing job! Thanks for documenting everything so well, was a great read!

 

[Irrenarzt]

There's more beer in there than ever at this point:

 

[johnsnownw]

Sorry to keep bugging you about this, but have you had enough time to get an idea of power consumption from this thing?

 

[Irrenarzt]

No I can't seem to log on to my utility company site as it's been giving me some issues. I do not keep the bill copies and it has not been a year yet so it's difficult to compare, especially with the decommissioning of chest freezers. I can say that the AC runs only a few times a day, even in this unseasonably warm weather (it's been really warm here for the last week or so). I had it off for the bulk of the winter as it did not need to be on and was holding temp easily. I had to put a heater in there for a couple days as it was threatening to get below 32 inside.

I do not have numbers but it is pretty efficient. My bills are about the same (going off memory, no hard data) this winter as last. Before it got cold (so we'd have a good deltaT) I had a guy from a spray foam insulation company that I know come out and use his FLIR gun and found zero thermal leakage. It's tight, even around the door (where he saw just a slight color change at the bottom two corners of the door, but nothing on the top so there won't be a convection current set up, which he said is a common leak mode).

 

[opticflashback]

Amazing work, I just read through all 64 pages. Stunned, is all I can say. Great work!!!

:rockin:

 

[BamaProud]

it's been really warm here for the last week or so

on behalf of the rest of the Nation we hate you.

 

[Irrenarzt]

on behalf of the rest of the Nation we hate you.

That's life in the southwest. It was a perfect day in the 60's today.

 

[BeerGrylls]

On the bright side, I'm getting half a foot of snow tomorrow. Oh, wait..

 

[Irrenarzt]

If you make an igloo, that can be a great place to cold crash and requires no electricity or holes in your foot from stepping on a screw.

 

[Yambor44]

Are the taps running yet? If so, can we get a rundown on how they are set up?

 

[Irrenarzt]

The taps do work but I am not completely set up on the gas side manifold. Since I've been mainly drinking bottles, I've been slow at finishing up the gas plumbing. I will post up once I get that done.

 

[Spookgolds]

I just spent the last few hours reading all of this. Awesome. Wish I had room to put a walk in.

 

[cpl-america]

That's life in the southwest. It was a perfect day in the 60's today.

Ironically, here in the u.k. Where we had so much snow last year, it too has been a breezy 60. Not a flake All winter. ::knock on wood::

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[TheDarkChemist]

Considering doing something like this but smaller in a brewshed, curious what your total price came out to, apologies if I missed it, just read your whole thread

Awesomeness.

 

[Irrenarzt]

I never added up all the receipts but I'm going to say it was around 5K with everything but the beer inside. And there is a LOT of beer in there now.

I'm very close to having the gas lines all done. I plan to post up pics of the draft system once it's all working, which will be soon.

Edit: All 5 taps are now flowing. Ghettogyle Greg helped out with the gas lines. There is one more tweak, then I can take pics.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Quick and dirty post on the taps as they are all flowing.

Taps and 32" 1080i TV with Raspberry Pints listing the beers:

Pretty full up on bottles these days:

I mounted the regulator to the frame itself and pigtailed it to the tank so I can essentially hot swap tanks out...

Right now I have 4 homebrews in cornies and my Beer Camp beer in a half barrel. I was too lazy to move the half barrel to get the gas line behind it so I'm running a second tank of CO2 into the sanke key to push that beer. Lazy I know. I promise this isn't a permanent thing.

My apologies for the blurry pics. My phone seems to be getting old, or it could be me.

 

[innocentbp]

Amazing set up. I'm still drooling. By the way I'm Dan your beer camp #118 roommate.


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[DrunkleJon]

Its good to see you using the Raspberry Pints from the DIY section. I am incredibly envious still. More so actually.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Any of you east coast dudes around CT get a chance to buy Dan a beer, do so and I will paypal you. That poor guy had to put up with my drunk ass snoring for 3 days....

Thanks for the good words Dan (and Jon)...

 

[rockinmarty]

love your co2 braided lines!!! where did you get them? I would love more details on your carbonation rig. Are the secondary regs homemade?

 

[kerklein2]

Holy swagelok batman. Please tell me you got a killer deal on those and you aren't just balling out of control.

 

[Irrenarzt]

I get it all for cost. My cousin is a higher up for them and has set me up with a corporate account. Nothing to fear...

 

[Irrenarzt]

love your co2 braided lines!!! where did you get them? I would love more details on your carbonation rig. Are the secondary regs homemade?

The braid was from another project, Swagelok 1/4" tube adapters with SS braid over PTFE. Any local Swagelok place will have it or you can check eBay as it'll be cheaper there. The problem with Swagelok is they have their own tube fitting/tube adapters that are not compatible with others. That said, they have plenty of NPT and AN (what the homebrewers tend to call flare) adaptation so you can work it all together.

My manifold was from my old chest freezer that I carbonated in before I moved kegs to the keezer (which had a serving manifold that was one pressure only). I built it from a mix of Swagelok parts, air compressor regulators, and an old multichannel manifold that broke awhile back. I mounted everything to an aluminum plate and there you go.

 

[kerklein2]

I get it all for cost. My cousin is a higher up for them and has set me up with a corporate account. Nothing to fear...

You lucky sonuvab---

 

[Irrenarzt]

I am Irish so we are big into luck.

And trust me, the Swage stuff is still far from cheap, even at cost. But I don't have a wife nagging at me to buy her Coach purses so I can spend my money in a more appropriate manner...

Brewing beer is the priority at my house.

 

[Inkleg]

Thanks for the update with pictures. I've been following and impressed since day one and can officially hate you now.

 

[SavoryChef]

That's a lot of Jester King!! Vie en Rose is awesome

 

[Irrenarzt]

A fair amount of the Vie en Rose is due to a fellow HBT member here from Austin and he deserves a big shout out for going out of his way to collect bottles for me. I forgot his username but a big thanks to Chris from Buda for hooking it up.

My sister and I are holding a 50th wedding anniversary party in a couple weeks for my folks and we will be having the toast with 24 bottles of Vie en Rose, 3 of those being batch 1's. It took a lot of trading and kickass guys like Chris to make this happen so cheers Chris! I appreciate your efforts!

Props go out to all the Jester King people like Jeff, Michael, Averie and Nick as they are doing great things there. They deserve all the success in the world. They have built something special for sure.

 

[SavoryChef]

I have only had a couple JK and a couple more waiting patiently to be drank. They are putting out some great beers and I love their concept