That is quite an impressive job you did! I think that is about the best one that I have ever seen. Love your work space and there is a ghost in the photo in thread # 10 LOL. Again great job! Cheers 
My "K3" 14.8cf Keezer Build
- Thread starter day_trippr
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
As a computer engineer who works in military vehicle cable harness design and electronics integration, I'm fascinated by your controller and electronics setup. Are you able to provide details on your brewery controller?
I gathered you're running Raspberry Pints and BrewPi. Is it a custom Raspberry Pi enclosure?
Also, do you have more details about the various in-out connections on the rear of the lid? LP CO2, HP, CO2, etc.
I gathered you're running Raspberry Pints and BrewPi. Is it a custom Raspberry Pi enclosure?
Also, do you have more details about the various in-out connections on the rear of the lid? LP CO2, HP, CO2, etc.
Tom Foolery
Well-Known Member
All I can say is WOW!
No check valve, but yes, you'll note the regulator hanging off the supply tank (a couple pages back). I set it for 15 psi which surprisingly is plenty.
As this is a closed system (I fill the tank via a dedicated bulkhead port) I don't think there is need for a check valve anywhere as there's nowhere for the tank water to go but the rinser
btw, I have a Krome Dispense SS surface mount rinser from my old "K2" build. If you're going to build up your bar surface from a supporting substrate (like using tile over plywood) you could set it down and tile around it and it'd stand proud by ~1/4"...
Cheers!
No, I need true flushmount. My bartop will be a sheet of 1.25" granite. I've having an opening routed into it for the flush-mount Micromatic. Like this:
Also curious about the different gas inputs and outputs on the lid and more detail on the rinser and drain set up please.
How hard is it to get the kegs in and out of there?
How hard is it to get the kegs in and out of there?
Very nice. Detailed and thorough. OK, when are we all coming over for homebrew?
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
OP
OP
Thank you all for the kind words, I do appreciate them. I promise I will respond to all here once I am back home, but tonight I am up north at our saltbox with just a phone.
When this pandemic ends
Having run an open establishment here for years, closing down hasn't been fun for anyone...
Cheers!
When this pandemic ends
Having run an open establishment here for years, closing down hasn't been fun for anyone...
Cheers!
I "hear" you. My homebrew seems to last much longer since about March 2020.
Redhouse Brewing
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Wow, what an amazing job!
OP
OP
Back home! As promised:
You're very kind, thank you. My first job was designing memory systems for IBM mainframes in the early 70s, eventually went to Digital Equipment Corp and did memory system designs and processor architecture stuff during the Alpha chip era in the 80s, moved to Stratus Technologies doing fault-tolerant server board design in the 90s, then went independent in 2007 doing SSD designs that ended up in the hands of Micron and the like. Finally retired last year. Great timing, eh?
Thank you My family and friends enjoyed the first two keezers, and hopefully soon more of them will enjoy K3. It's been quite sad that since March 6 2020 only my kids and their families have even seen it never mind pulled some pours. Trying to remain optimistic things will get better before the summer, for instance. We'll see.
btw, the nickname is from the CB radio era of the late 60s into the 70s. You know - the pre-cell phone Stone Age
Thank you kindly
Very kind of you to say so, thank you. But there have been many truly beautiful builds with lovely finishes and even very effective scene lighting shown on HBT - there have been some especially killer coffin tops - and this isn't any of those
Thanks! I am still running the "classic" (ie: original) RaspberryPints 2.0.1 for the tap list, moderately modified and including my five channel rolling temperature display integrated into the R'Pints gui; and multiple "instances" of the classic BrewPi (version 0.2.10), with one instance running the keezer and the other three controlling my three fridges. All running on a single RPi 2B, with an Alamode hat for the flow meters, and Unos for each BrewPi instance, with those in the three fridge controllers remoted via Bluetooth.
All of the control and comms hardware, along with power supply, powered 4 port USB hub, and software-controlled cooling fan, live in a custom drawer that slides into the dolly on glides. Here's a build shot with the drawer lid removed. The twin of this unit lives on my office desk, running the same SD card image, for use when I want to come up with something new.
The controller also has a manual switch that selects between the BrewPi instance for the keezer, and the MH1210 mounted at the front of the lid (with its digital display) for which actually controls the keezer compressor. I wanted the display on the front anyway, and it made sense to plumb it through for backup in case the BrewPi controller ever takes a dirt nap (bad SD card, whatever).
Finally, it also takes the PIR motion sensor sigal from the front of the lid to bring the system out of "doze" mode (basically, wake up the display, and play a welcoming sound). Eventually I want to have that function turn on the brewery lights as well.
As for the bulkheads in the back of the lid: I carb probably 90% of the beers I brew to ~2.4 volumes, then things like wheat beers to ~3 volumes, and of course there's the stout on beer gas. So I bring both outputs from a dual-body Taprite primary regulator with the 8-way manifold fed from the 11 psi "LP CO2" port, and to a single gas drop from the 15 psi "HP CO2" port. Then there's a single drop on the "Nitro" port connected to my stout keg (70/30 at 35 psi), the "H2O" line to a QD on my rinser water keg "in" post, and finally a "Vent" line from a QD plugged on the "in" post on the drip-tray-catcher keg (I did not want to vent any moisture inside the keezer).
hth!
Cheers!
While I've lost almost two inches from my peak I'm still a scoche over 6' 3" so it's not hard to heft fresh kegs over and in.
And sticking with just the eight beer kegs leaves plenty of space to get kegs in and out - it was much trickier on K2, where I'd have to remove lines from kegs to get others in and out. No need to do that anymore.
As for the rinser system: this schematic shows all of the related plumbing. In use I fill and pressurize the 2.5 gallon keg in situ via the H2O line, the drip tray drains through a port drilled in the 3 gallon keg lid, and that keg vents to the outside via a dedicated open bulkhead (no post/poppet).
Thank you kindly
Cheers, folks!
You're very kind, thank you. My first job was designing memory systems for IBM mainframes in the early 70s, eventually went to Digital Equipment Corp and did memory system designs and processor architecture stuff during the Alpha chip era in the 80s, moved to Stratus Technologies doing fault-tolerant server board design in the 90s, then went independent in 2007 doing SSD designs that ended up in the hands of Micron and the like. Finally retired last year. Great timing, eh?
Thank you
My family and friends enjoyed the first two keezers, and hopefully soon more of them will enjoy K3. It's been quite sad that since March 6 2020 only my kids and their families have even seen it never mind pulled some pours. Trying to remain optimistic things will get better before the summer, for instance. We'll see.btw, the nickname is from the CB radio era of the late 60s into the 70s. You know - the pre-cell phone Stone Age
Thank you kindly
That is quite an impressive job you did! I think that is about the best one that I have ever seen. Love your work space and there is a ghost in the photo in thread # 10 LOL. Again great job! Cheers
Very kind of you to say so, thank you. But there have been many truly beautiful builds with lovely finishes and even very effective scene lighting shown on HBT - there have been some especially killer coffin tops - and this isn't any of those
Thanks! I am still running the "classic" (ie: original) RaspberryPints 2.0.1 for the tap list, moderately modified and including my five channel rolling temperature display integrated into the R'Pints gui; and multiple "instances" of the classic BrewPi (version 0.2.10), with one instance running the keezer and the other three controlling my three fridges. All running on a single RPi 2B, with an Alamode hat for the flow meters, and Unos for each BrewPi instance, with those in the three fridge controllers remoted via Bluetooth.
All of the control and comms hardware, along with power supply, powered 4 port USB hub, and software-controlled cooling fan, live in a custom drawer that slides into the dolly on glides. Here's a build shot with the drawer lid removed. The twin of this unit lives on my office desk, running the same SD card image, for use when I want to come up with something new.
The controller also has a manual switch that selects between the BrewPi instance for the keezer, and the MH1210 mounted at the front of the lid (with its digital display) for which actually controls the keezer compressor. I wanted the display on the front anyway, and it made sense to plumb it through for backup in case the BrewPi controller ever takes a dirt nap (bad SD card, whatever).
Finally, it also takes the PIR motion sensor sigal from the front of the lid to bring the system out of "doze" mode (basically, wake up the display, and play a welcoming sound). Eventually I want to have that function turn on the brewery lights as well.
As for the bulkheads in the back of the lid: I carb probably 90% of the beers I brew to ~2.4 volumes, then things like wheat beers to ~3 volumes, and of course there's the stout on beer gas. So I bring both outputs from a dual-body Taprite primary regulator with the 8-way manifold fed from the 11 psi "LP CO2" port, and to a single gas drop from the 15 psi "HP CO2" port. Then there's a single drop on the "Nitro" port connected to my stout keg (70/30 at 35 psi), the "H2O" line to a QD on my rinser water keg "in" post, and finally a "Vent" line from a QD plugged on the "in" post on the drip-tray-catcher keg (I did not want to vent any moisture inside the keezer).
hth!
Cheers!
While I've lost almost two inches from my peak I'm still a scoche over 6' 3"
so it's not hard to heft fresh kegs over and in.And sticking with just the eight beer kegs leaves plenty of space to get kegs in and out - it was much trickier on K2, where I'd have to remove lines from kegs to get others in and out. No need to do that anymore.
As for the rinser system: this schematic shows all of the related plumbing. In use I fill and pressurize the 2.5 gallon keg in situ via the H2O line, the drip tray drains through a port drilled in the 3 gallon keg lid, and that keg vents to the outside via a dedicated open bulkhead (no post/poppet).
Thank you kindly
Cheers, folks!
Last edited:
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Congrats on retirement and I figured it was something along the lines of computer or military
All I can say is WOW. My chest freezer is just lagering/cold storage. You must have a UPS or backup generator for that beauty.
GoeHaarden
The best advice is unsolicited
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Very nice!!! May I ask where you sourced your flowmeters?
OP
OP
Thanks! As for the meters, back in the summer of 2014 when the original RaspberryPints was about to jump to version 2.0.1 with flow meter support actualized, serendipitously there was someone on eBay selling roughly 150 "slightly used" SF800 meters - for $20 each. I bought a bunch and the rest got snapped up by HBT members within a couple of weeks. Just stupid luck. I've never seen anything like it since...
Cheers!
Cheers!
Wow, great build!! My ferm chamber just died. Which means I have no choice but to decomission my 7 cuft keezer, and upscale to 6 keg and 6 taps!!! (Use the old keezer as ferm chamber, strip the taps. Quick question, do you remember the size you used for K2? That might fit my space better....though that 14.8 does seem tempting, and width fits my space with 3” to spare.
OP
OP
K2 was a 12.8cf sold as "13". I was able to cram 7 ball lock kegs on the floor without a collar, plus a 2.5 g on the hump for the rinser supply...
Cheers!
Cheers!
OP
OP
Thank you
So...in the "Before Times"...between sons, friends and neighbors I could count on a keg kicking every week to week-and-a-half through most of the year, and for a number of years I was hitting the Federal limit for two to keep up. But everything slowed waaay down with the pandemic - we literally have not had a single soul outside of my kids/DILs/grands over the house since March 6, 2020, and even those visits were cut maybe in half due to freak-outs and the like (fwiw, across the entire extended family, so far only my youngest grandson - the one in day care - ever tested positive, and he flew right through it like it was barely even a cold).
That said, I took it upon myself to make up for the slow down as much as possible and still managed to knock out 140 gallons in 2020
Cheers! (It's a tough job but someone had to do it)
So...in the "Before Times"...between sons, friends and neighbors I could count on a keg kicking every week to week-and-a-half through most of the year, and for a number of years I was hitting the Federal limit for two to keep up. But everything slowed waaay down with the pandemic - we literally have not had a single soul outside of my kids/DILs/grands over the house since March 6, 2020, and even those visits were cut maybe in half due to freak-outs and the like (fwiw, across the entire extended family, so far only my youngest grandson - the one in day care - ever tested positive, and he flew right through it like it was barely even a cold).
That said, I took it upon myself to make up for the slow down as much as possible and still managed to knock out 140 gallons in 2020
Cheers! (It's a tough job but someone had to do it
)
Thank you
So...in the "Before Times"...between sons, friends and neighbors I could count on a keg kicking every week to week-and-a-half through most of the year, and for a number of years I was hitting the Federal limit for two to keep up. But everything slowed waaay down with the pandemic - we literally have not had a single soul outside of my kids/DILs/grands over the house since March 6, 2020, and even those visits were cut maybe in half due to freak-outs and the like (fwiw, across the entire extended family, so far only my youngest grandson - the one in day care - ever tested positive, and he flew right through it like it was barely even a cold).
That said, I took it upon myself to make up for the slow down as much as possible and still managed to knock out 140 gallons in 2020
Cheers! (It's a tough job but someone had to do it
Amazing build and am impressive array of talents between woodworking, electronics, and brewing science.
Transamguy77
Well-Known Member
I don’t know how I missed this build but it is absolutely amazing, you are quite the maker between the woodwork and electrical you are very talented.
broadstrokes
Member
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Awesome build. Good photos, and I had a good chuckle at seeing a dsub bulkhead connection on a keezer
Mad jealous of your shop... one day...
Mad jealous of your shop... one day...
OP
OP
Thanks for the kind words, they're appreciated
Clearly my inner engineer held sway. It always does
Clearly my inner engineer held sway. It always does
broadstrokes
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Of course! 
The inner engineer is ever dominating, hard to start a project now without approaching it like a "project"
dsub is a good choice. good height for a thin bulkhead like a lid, easy to crimp, easy to retrofit later. They make mixed contact variants in the same footprint, if one ever needed power contacts for higher current.
The inner engineer is ever dominating, hard to start a project now without approaching it like a "project"
dsub is a good choice. good height for a thin bulkhead like a lid, easy to crimp, easy to retrofit later. They make mixed contact variants in the same footprint, if one ever needed power contacts for higher current.
Just now seeing this... My Dad worked at DEC, then Compaq and HP... You know the story... I do remember the Alpha too as the only inbox HAL for NT4!
