Look Ma no fans Coffin Cooler

[Jester369]

Ahh - my bad!

 

[purplehaze]

Learned a few things while installing the faucets. My old kegerator tower had grooved locking collars on the faucets and I was able to hand tighten them with no leaks. On the new perlicks the collars are smooth so after hand tightening I had Niagara Falls. I did not have a faucet wrench and the local HBS were out of stock. I did not want to wait a week for a delivery so I improvised. I took a grinder to an old flat open ended wrench and made my own. Its not pretty but it works.

Then I had issues with the hoses coming off the SS tube because there is no barb on it. I ended up losing about a quart of Porter. The worm clamps I picked up are not small enough to fit over the 3/16" tubing. I may try and slip the smaller tubing into a piece of 1/4" tubing for a collar that the clamps will fit.

Crazyirishman34, I was in the process of posting and missed your post

Isn't it important to keep the faucets cold also? We have long line setup at our family vacation place. And when the glycol is on and running the faucets get pretty cold. Not to the point of freezing but on a muggy day they do get condensation on them.

I'm not sure how important it is to keep the faucets cold. I did not plan for that in my build other than to insulate the the shanks. I would assume they would leach some of the cold away from the beer in the line and eventually stabilize.

 

[crazyirishman34]

I would guess that maybe it is only important if you are going to leave the beer in the faucet for a long time. We only tend to get up there every other week so I just leave the glycol system going and the beer tastes fine just like it came fresh out of the keg.

 

[purplehaze]

I will take a couple more temps on different days to try and get an average and post the results.

If anyone wants me to take temps using a different method let me know. The first temps I posted were done quickly using a thick glass mug. This time I used a white styrofoam coffee cup and took my time letting the temp stabilize.

I still have not insulated the top of the coffin, cant do that until I install the fifth tap. So the temps are still probably off a bit. I have thought of topping off the coffin with styrofoam beads from a bean bag chair.

Air temp in the shed where the keezer is kept = 41F

E-bay temp controller, probe in a plastic travel mug
sitting on the compressor hump = 0.2C or 32F

Digital probe thermometer testing the same water the
e-bay controller probe sits in = 32.5F

Hard cider with the SS tube poured into a
styrofoam cup = 34.3F

Ale with vinyl hose poured into a styrofoam cup =35F

 

[Jeebas]

So is this done? If so, any finished pictures?

 

[purplehaze]

Here are a couple of updated pics, I still have some tweeking to do. I have to buy and install a fifth tap and seal the top. Other than that it's done. I'm averaging around 1.5 degrees difference between the interior temp and the beer in a glass temp. The real test will be during the warmer months.

 

[ayupbrewing]

Let me see if I followed this whole thread. The purpose of the detail of this project was to get beer in the glass thats as cold as the refridgerator is inside? And it appears off by 2 or so degrees....seems close enough to me....but my real question is what is the beer temperature in the glass without all this seemingly sophisticated setup? Maybe what 5-6 degrees off? If your concerened with your beer in glass temperature being too warm why not just discard the first 1/5th pint...? But, I imagine that the actual full glass temp would be much closer once the cold beer mixes with the slightly warm beer. Or is the real concern here having beer in pipes outside the cooling chamber...if so does that pose a real threat?

Thanks

 

[daksin]

Let me see if I followed this whole thread. The purpose of the detail of this project was to get beer in the glass thats as cold as the refridgerator is inside? And it appears off by 2 or so degrees....seems close enough to me....but my real question is what is the beer temperature in the glass without all this seemingly sophisticated setup? Maybe what 5-6 degrees off? If your concerened with your beer in glass temperature being too warm why not just discard the first 1/5th pint...? But, I imagine that the actual full glass temp would be much closer once the cold beer mixes with the slightly warm beer. Or is the real concern here having beer in pipes outside the cooling chamber...if so does that pose a real threat?

Thanks

If you let the beer sitting in the lines at the top of the keezer get warm, which it will do if you just let it sit there and don't cool your coffin at all, you're going to get very foamy first pours until the lines cool down.

 

[purplehaze]

ayupbrewing

But, I imagine that the actual full glass temp would be much closer once the cold beer mixes with the slightly warm beer. Or is the real concern here having beer in pipes outside the cooling chamber...if so does that pose a real threat?

I used an eight ounce styrofoam cup for testing. Yes, the beer temp of a Full glass would be closer but you would still have too much foam preventing it from being filled.

Since I don't like to drink foam and I don't throw away my beer, preventing the first beer foam was more of an issue for me.

I basically started this thread after following a similar one that used fans to cool the coffin beer lines/shanks. In that thread it was said that it was not possible to cool the beer down sufficiently, with in 8 degrees without fans. I actually took a lot of temps during testing and they ranged from colder than the temp probe indicated to around 2 degrees warmer.

Hope this answers your questions

 

[limulus]

Very nice design and detail. I'd like to more photos!

 

[purplehaze]

Thanks limulus, I don't have the time now to post additional pics but let me know what you want to see and I will post them on Tuesday.