keg in the snow?

[1Mainebrew]

Hey all,

I have a question for all of you keggers out there. My fridge is averaging 43 F. I want to get my beer cooled down to the 38 F "sweet spot" and I, as most of you probably do right now this winter, have an abundance of snow banks to choose from and thought I might be able to chill my kegs down in the snow for 30 mins or something and then hook them back up to the gas and go from there. Would this work and would there be any down side to doing this repeatedly?

 

[jeffmeh]

Snow is full of air and acts like an insulator, so it is not particularly quick at chilling a keg.

 

[ChshreCat]

The snow isn't that quick, but it's been in the teens at night outside here. If my fridge was in the 40's, then it'd be quicker to set it outside, snow or no snow.

 

[1Mainebrew]

How long should I leave it in the snow do you think?

 

[Tahoebrewer]

We have snow here from October till June so I do this all the time. It's pretty convenient to just toss all the bottles and kegs into a drift out on the deck. But I've slept in many snow caves and snow is a great insulator as jeffmeh points out. So depending on the water content of your snowpack you might not get very good heat transfer, but if it's cold enough for snow the ambient air is probably cold enough to do the trick. A keg left out at lunch in the snow on a winter day here is a nice serving temp by the evening, and I typically serve out of the snow drift as the world's your fridge in the winter; daytime temps here at 7,000 ft. are usually 20-35 most of the winter. You won't be able to maintain a specific temp of course, as it's an uncontrolled environment, but it'll be cold and good. Bring it in at night though, bears love beer.

Tossing the keg out in a drift and returning to the fridge repeatedly to serve sounds like a tedious exercise in futility if you ask me. Have you tried a third party temp controller on your fridge like a Ranco or Johnson, or are you running it stock and just dialing it down?

 

[MeatyPortion]

I tried it once and had to leave it in the snow for about an hour. Not worth it.

By contrast, I cooled down 5 gallons of wort in about 20 minutes by putting the pot in the bathtub and filling the tub with cold water.

 

[1Mainebrew]

So I have a Haier wine fridge my folks gave me and you can set the fridge temp down to 45 F avg. I've been putting frozen water bottle in the fridge around the keg an tank wherever I can and the temp drops as low as 37, but the compressor doesn't kick in until 48. Also, the seal and gasket around the door has separated from the fridge on a 4" section. And I don't have the cash for anything else. So trying to make use of what's available was my thought. I guess I could get a Johnson or ranco though. I just need to know how to bypass the current thermostat.