Epic Keezer Build

[BrickBrewHaus]

What does the back of it look like? Is it open or is it all enclosed?

Sorry, I missed this question when I originally replied. The back is open. Take a look at the pic in the original post where the cabinet is unfinished in my garage. That's how it looked after it was finished; just the two 1x6" poplar boards across the top and the bottom.

 

[SEndorf]

Since you built this with cast pipe and fittings, I am sure you wore the proper attire......

 

[greywolf]

Damn, thats nice. Beautiful craftsmanship. This one sets the bar pretty high.

 

[SEndorf]

I just re-read through the thread.
All Walnut? DONATED wood? You've got to be kidding. That alone is worth a fortune.
So... Since I have a fully functional 6 tap keezer, but looks like sh!t compared to this...
I have to wonder how this played out.
Did the auction take place?
Did you actually part with this work of art?
Were tears shed?
Do you have keezer withdrawal anxiety?
Are you going into the keezer building business?
Can I place my order?

 

[BrickBrewHaus]

Did the auction take place?
Did you actually part with this work of art?

Yep, we had the auction about a month ago. Unfortunately, we only sold it for $2400. A disappointment to be sure. There were at least two guys that we were certain would bid on it, but neither did. In the end, a friend of ours bought it and they were ecstatic to get it. While it didn't bring the price that we would've liked, it was awesome to see someone so happy to have it and it will be nice to go over to their house and grab a beer.

Were tears shed?
Do you have keezer withdrawal anxiety?

No tears were shed and there has been zero withdrawal anxiety. Almost the opposite actually. We spent A LOT of time and mental energy on this. So it has been nice to not be thinking about it constantly. We had the idea to build this over a year ago. And even before we started the build I was mentally planning; thinking through every tiny and seemingly insignificant detail. The mental break has been nice.

Are you going into the keezer building business?
Can I place my order?

For the aforementioned reasons....NOPE AND NOPE.

 

[tom83]

Wow that is a beautiful keezer! Nice work BrickBrewHaus!

~tom83

 

[Silentnoiz]

This looks really classy and insanely awesome, very nice job!

I've been trying to convince my wife to let me put taps in the kitchen or pantry, but to no avail. I showed her this and asked if I built something like this if she would be ok with it in the music/office room, and she said "yes" (3rd best yes from her - 1st was marriage, 2nd was a fun car).

There are a few things I was wondering:
- What type of wood did you use for the corner posts? Are those also walnut?
- What was your thought approach on the top (why you chose foam insulation board instead of utilizing the chest freezer's top)?
- Did you add a collar to the chest freezer because you needed the extra height, or because of a desired tap handle / bar top height, or?
- Did you have any thoughts about future-proofing this? (i.e. if the chest freezer dies and had to get another, would it be easy to find a suitable replacement that fits the cabinet)
- When you talk about a "reducer", is that the piece that is matched to the pipe and screws into the pipe-elbow, or something else?

Again, great job on this build, thanks for posting. Not to diminish the great work of others, but it's the best I've seen.

 

[BrickBrewHaus]

Thank you for the kind words!

- What type of wood did you use for the corner posts? Are those also walnut?

Yes, walnut for the corner posts. Apparently getting a true 4x4 walnut post is difficult, so these are actually three pieces of walnut glued to make a 4x4. You can see the individual boards if you look closely at some of the pics.

- What was your thought approach on the top (why you chose foam insulation board instead of utilizing the chest freezer's top)?

Man, where to start (I had LOTS of thoughts). First and foremost, I wanted the whole piece to look like a beautiful piece of furniture. Most of the design elements flowed from this desire. I felt like directly attached the wood top to the base cabinet with hinges attached to both, gave me the best shot of achieving this goal. Not to say it couldn't be done with the freezer's original lid, that's just not the route I/we chose. I'm not up to speed on the methods of attaching the freezer's lid, but the first thing that comes to mind is using lag bolts through both the lid and the wood top...I didn't want exposed bolt heads. I wouldn't trust glue between the two to hold the wood top, it weighed about 50#.

- Did you add a collar to the chest freezer because you needed the extra height, or because of a desired tap handle / bar top height, or?

A little bit of both. We wanted the height of the top to be a comfortable leaning height (imagine resting your elbow on it while conversing with a friend). Plus we needed a bit of extra internal height for the CO2 tank. We used a 2x4, which fit the bill perfectly.

- Did you have any thoughts about future-proofing this? (i.e. if the chest freezer dies and had to get another, would it be easy to find a suitable replacement that fits the cabinet)

The thought only briefly crossed our minds. It actually would be easy to swap out the freezer since it just drops into the cabinet. Obviously you would need to find a freezer of roughly the same size, but there's a decent amount (at least 1/2") of clearance around the perimeter of the freezer, so I wouldn't expect finding a replacement to be impossible. If you're worried about this, you could easily make the cabinet just a bit bigger to give you even more buffer.

- When you talk about a "reducer", is that the piece that is matched to the pipe and screws into the pipe-elbow, or something else?.

Correct. The piece that sits between the faucet and the pipe elbow. It's proper name is a "bushing."

 

[Silentnoiz]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, very much appreciated!

 

[SpringHillBrewer]

Beautiful work! This has me inspired to up my keezer game.