Looking for advice

[woodbrewbeer]

I'm completely new to this. I've lurked around and drooled over the keezers and kegerators.

I've come into possession of a free fridge and was thinking it would work as a nice beginning setup. Unfortunately the fridge portion apparently doesn't work, but the freezer does.


Was wondering if you guys think that just drilling a hole to connect the compartments would make it feasible for use.

I was also thinking of buying a kit from ontariobeerkegs.
https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1keg+kegerator+pass+through&CartID=1

Is there a cheaper way to come by some of these items? (I'll get a co2 tank locally)

Am I crazy?

 

[Pappers_]

I suspect drilling a hole won't do the trick, but who knows? Try it, you've got nothing to lose.

Fridges on Craigslist (at least around Chicago) are pretty common and can be pretty cheaply - but not free For me, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to make the broken fridge work.

 

[BrooklynTom]

A friend of mine just went through the same problem with her fridge. It wound up being the thermostat. She replaced it and all is good. Good luck with yours.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

Im willing to bet that the fan responsible for pushing cold air into the fridge portion is shot. Should be a relatively simple repair.

 

[woodbrewbeer]

Well I got it from work. It's only a year old, and they've had a repair guy try and fix it a couple times.

I suppose i can look into fixing it. I was figuring if the actually fridge guy couldn't then i probably don't have a hope.

 

[woodbrewbeer]

Update: buddy who got the fridge from had a repair guy show up at work to fix the fridge. Since the fridge wasn't there and no one cared we bought the parts. Fridge is fixed. Kegging supplies have been ordered. The future shall be glorious.

 

[BrooklynTom]

What parts were needed? Good luck with the build.

 

[woodbrewbeer]

It would seem a temperature sensor and fuse were one part. It would seem previous attempts to fix it just cut out the old sensor but left the fuse.

The other part was a timer? Something to do defrost cycles? It has a little screw in the back for adjustments. It looks like the old one had someone try and turn it past where it wanted to go.

Everything should just fit inside so it won't be as nice as some of the keezers out there. But it will give cold beer.. on tap... so that's a win.

 

[woodbrewbeer]

My present to myself arrived shortly before Christmas.
Just got a chance to hook it up today.

So now that I have this hooked up, I figured I'd reuse this thread for some more questions that I have.

Looking at some of the sticky links I was reading about having a balanced system and force carbonating.

So we have a formula like
P = L*R + H/2

Everything on the right is fixed. I'm not going to splice and cut my Line length every batch of beer. So I really don't have a way to equalize anything.

My system is 6' of line, 2.2 PSI lose per foot, and 1.75 feet from the center of the keg to the tap. So to equalize I have a pressure of roughly 14 PSI.

I have 2 beers on the go right now a bitter and an IPA. Both could probably be corroborated to ~2.5 Volumes/CO² (correct me if this is a terrible idea). In a 35° fridge I plan to set my regulator to ~10PSI to carbonate it. (I plan to let it go for about 10 days, again correct me if this is dumb).

So I have my beer at 10PSI and now I want to serve it. In theory to serve I have to turn it up to 14PSI? Even at 10 I'm betting it'll pour just fine. If this is true then for my 14PSI system at ~35°F I'm Always going to have carbonation at a lower PSI unless I wanted beer at 3 Volumes/CO² or greater.

Looking at some other info, the only beer that would jeopardize me then would be some wheat beers. In this case my PSI I carbonate to would be greater then my system can handle, so I'd be just having the worse time pouring. What can be done here? constantly trying to purge a tank just to pour sounds like hell. Screwing with the temperature in the fridge also seems annoying since presumably I have other beers in there that I want at another temperature.

Someone tell me if I'm over thinking this alot lol. I'm guessing there is some play room here, so it not being balanced shouldn't be the end of the world right?

 

[doug293cz]

My present to myself arrived shortly before Christmas.
Just got a chance to hook it up today.

So now that I have this hooked up, I figured I'd reuse this thread for some more questions that I have.

Looking at some of the sticky links I was reading about having a balanced system and force carbonating.

So we have a formula like
P = L*R + H/2

Everything on the right is fixed. I'm not going to splice and cut my Line length every batch of beer. So I really don't have a way to equalize anything.

My system is 6' of line, 2.2 PSI lose per foot, and 1.75 feet from the center of the keg to the tap. So to equalize I have a pressure of roughly 14 PSI.

I have 2 beers on the go right now a bitter and an IPA. Both could probably be corroborated to ~2.5 Volumes/CO² (correct me if this is a terrible idea). In a 35° fridge I plan to set my regulator to ~10PSI to carbonate it. (I plan to let it go for about 10 days, again correct me if this is dumb).

So I have my beer at 10PSI and now I want to serve it. In theory to serve I have to turn it up to 14PSI? Even at 10 I'm betting it'll pour just fine. If this is true then for my 14PSI system at ~35°F I'm Always going to have carbonation at a lower PSI unless I wanted beer at 3 Volumes/CO² or greater.

Looking at some other info, the only beer that would jeopardize me then would be some wheat beers. In this case my PSI I carbonate to would be greater then my system can handle, so I'd be just having the worse time pouring. What can be done here? constantly trying to purge a tank just to pour sounds like hell. Screwing with the temperature in the fridge also seems annoying since presumably I have other beers in there that I want at another temperature.

Someone tell me if I'm over thinking this alot lol. I'm guessing there is some play room here, so it not being balanced shouldn't be the end of the world right?

You don't actually get 2.2 psi/ft of pressure loss on 3/16" beer lines. It's more like 1 psi/ft. You might get acceptable pours with 6' at 10 psi, but you could also have foaming problems. You don't want to increase your pressure for serving.

To calculate beer line length, you should never use any calculator but this one. He actually gets the science correct. The worst that can happen with lines that are too long is that the pour will be a little slow, but you won't have foaming problems (unless something else is messed up.) Lines that are too short are the most common cause of foamy pours.

Brew on

 

[woodbrewbeer]

Well my goal here is to find some way to balance the equation.
The only adjustable figures seem to be:
PSI - Determined by beer.
Line Length - Cut to balance the equation. (Mine are fixed, so they won't be balancing any equation)

I don't want to change the line length, because I can't.

So looking at this formula this guy uses, he has a flow rate. Is this something I can adjust somehow?

 

[doug293cz]

Well my goal here is to find some way to balance the equation.
The only adjustable figures seem to be:
PSI - Determined by beer.
Line Length - Cut to balance the equation. (Mine are fixed, so they won't be balancing any equation)

I don't want to change the line length, because I can't.

So looking at this formula this guy uses, he has a flow rate. Is this something I can adjust somehow?

The equation doesn't need to balance. You just need to have beer lines long enough to get good pours on the highest carbed beers you want to serve. Lower carbed beers will pour a little slower, but that won't hurt anything (unless you are dying of thirst.)

You can adjust the resistance and flow rate with flow control taps, like the Perlick 650SS.

And why, prey tell, can't you change the length of the beer lines? I don't want to see you back here complaining about foamy pours.

Brew on

 

[woodbrewbeer]

The equation doesn't need to balance. You just need to have beer lines long enough to get good pours on the highest carbed beers you want to serve. Lower carbed beers will pour a little slower, but that won't hurt anything (unless you are dying of thirst.)

You can adjust the resistance and flow rate with flow control taps, like the Perlick 650SS.

And why, prey tell, can't you change the length of the beer lines? I don't want to see you back here complaining about foamy pours.

Brew on

well I hope my pours turn out perfect everytime.

Well typically after you cut a line it's pretty fixed in length unless you cut it more lol. So I mean i don't really want to have to have to buy and have a extra 8 foot line just incase. I just want to have this thing setup and forget it lol. Put in my beer. drink my beer

And as luck would have it I do have Perlick 650SS taps. I'll have to figure out how to do that. (unless you already know)

 

[doug293cz]

well I hope my pours turn out perfect everytime.

Well typically after you cut a line it's pretty fixed in length unless you cut it more lol. So I mean i don't really want to have to have to buy and have a extra 8 foot line just incase. I just want to have this thing setup and forget it lol. Put in my beer. drink my beer

And as luck would have it I do have Perlick 650SS taps. I'll have to figure out how to do that. (unless you already know)

They look more like Perlick 630SS taps. The 650SS taps have an adjustment lever on the right side under the tap handle. See the photo below:



I offered you my advice on how to set it up and not have to worry about the pours. Use my advice or ignore it. It's your beer.

Brew on

 

[woodbrewbeer]

Oh you are completely right. they are 630SS.

Oh I totally appreciate the advice. Sorry if it seems otherwise. Lots of good info.

Sadly the system came with a set 6 foot line. I should probably just stop moaning lol. If I run into problems I'll just have to order some new line. Probably the cheapest thing in the whole setup anyways lol.

Thanks again.