My ongoing basement bar build

[lockwom]

This looks spectacular! If I had the space, I'd attempt the same. In the meantime, I try to just store my goods. Space in proportional to distance to DC on an affordable budget.

 

[Trimmer]

We have the space out here in Fairfax Station, but you have the good restaurants...

serious questions though. I need some suggestions from the kegging experts. I can't decide on the best way to keep my beer lines cool in my tower. I have two options that both have their pro's and con's but ultimately I want cool beer lines to my tower. I am using four 14' bev seal lines (I hope that is long enough because I have already cut my lines...) that will run up my Stainless TEE tower. Also I already made the DIY beer line cleaner https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-beer-line-cleaner-226497/

Option one - Run each beer line through copper lines all the way up the beer tower. Thanks Bradsul
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/pvc-tower-cooling-solution-43072/

The disadvantage to this is that I will not be able to take my beer lines completely out to soak and clean. Since I am using the bev seal line I know it a PITA to put those 3.16 line on a 1/" barb. But if the DIY beer line cleaner works I should never have to take the lines out, correct?

Option two - If I just insulate the inside of my tower will it stay plenty cool? The advantage to this is that I can take out my beer lines and soak them very easily. Does anyone know how much warmer my lines will be with this set up???

Would any other option work better than these? What would you all recommend I do?

 

[Ryush806]

I built this to cool my tower:

http://www.kegkits.com/kegerator5.htm

It works great. Just blows cold air from the bottom of my kegerator to the top of the tower. I need to widen the tower hole though as the tube plus 3 beer lines don't fit very well. I even built an on/off switch for when I'm going to be gone or whatever.

The site offers a premade version that is much prettier and probably works better. It costs me just slightly less to make the ugly junk version.

 

[Trimmer]

Is there any chance my Tee tower would sweat and ruin my nice wood bar top finish?

 

[Ryush806]

Is there any chance my Tee tower would sweat and ruin my nice wood bar top finish?

It probably would sweat if you didn't insulate the inside of it. Mine sweats (no insulation yet) but I guess it evaporates fast enough that it doesn't start dripping down.

 

[kitemanks]

How far away from your freezer is the tree?? I would consider running a large diameter pvc pipe (same diameter as your tree) from your freezer to and possibly into the tree allowing the freezer to keep this air cold. You could wrap the pvc if you want in some insulation, to minumize the thermal loss. If your Tree is a ways away I would do the PVC trick and then install quick disconnect devices on your beer line. Then pull the lines through the PVC after attaching a nice size line or string to help the lines back through after cleaning and visual inspection. Star san is a good lubricant too if things get tight.

Most Trees have insulation (foam) on the inside that prevent sweating. Commercial Kegorators are a good example, however this is helped by the refridgerating unit keeping this area cold. This is why I would use a Large PVC Pipe to connect the two.

I run maybe 6ft of line in my refridgerator from keg to tap and it works fine, I despense and carbonate at 10 psi normally, unless I'm using a carbonating stone. Your beer line length should be more than adequate.

Oh and by the way your bar build is quite impressive and spot on!

 

[sonofgrok]

It is coming together. Any questions from the crowd?

When can I get some beer?

 

[RMS]

I cannot wait to see the taps get installed. I never really new what it took to set up taps on a bar so this is really interesting and more to it than I thought.

 

[bearaids]

Awesome build! I love the way the bar flips up to access the keezer. I am just starting to build my bar and might steal this idea. What type of freezer did you end up buying? How many kegs will fit inside? Is it tall enough where you don't need to make a collar (I've seen this in many keezer builds)? Also, where did you get your Tap tower?

Keep up the good work!

 

[Trimmer]

Awesome build! I love the way the bar flips up to access the keezer. I am just starting to build my bar and might steal this idea. What type of freezer did you end up buying? How many kegs will fit inside? Is it tall enough where you don't need to make a collar (I've seen this in many keezer builds)? Also, where did you get your Tap tower?

Keep up the good work!

It is coming together nicely. I ended up buying the kenmore 8.8 from from Sears because it wasn't as deep as some other chest freezers. Four kegs (almost 5) easily fit inside the 7.2' CF chest freezers is just too tight. So I have four kegs on the floor and a 22 CF nitrogen tank and 10# co2 tank on the hump. No collar needed.

I got my four tee tower from a company called ACUMETALFAB. This is the company that makes many of the towers for suppliers that we typically buy from. He was great to work with and it was inexpensive and very well made.

 

[Trimmer]

Progress is coming along again after a couple weeks off.. I spent countless hours over the last two weeks thinking and designing the trim on the front of my bar. After bugging my wife for two weeks for her opinion (she repeatably says "Whatever you want", which is really the best answer but I wanted some input). In the second picture you will see the drawling I made which is a blueprint for what I THINK I want to do, but I still haven't decided on the foot board yet and I'd love some feedback from you all. I have a couple options.

1) I could build a foot pad like the picture three below.. However, I worry people will tear up the trim with their shoes.

2) Or I could not install the Upside down Crown and I could put a stair tread on the top of the box structure. The stair treads are curved at the end and It would be less likely to break off.

I have another thing to think about. Should I run the foot board all the way across the bottom and put the pillars on top of the foot board. Or, should I have the pillars start from the bottom and cut the foot board pieces between each pillar.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Yesterday I went out and bought my Oak nominal wood pieces. I stained them today! I plan to cut and install tomorrow.

 

[Ryush806]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by foot pad so if my opinion makes no sense let me know. I assume you're meaning a place for people to place their feet while sitting at the bar. I've always liked the brass pipe looking foot rests. You can still have all of the beauty of the wood but also have the brass accent/functionality. Here's a link I found with what I'm talking about for sale:
http://www.kegworks.com/bar-rails-polished-brass-272

 

[Trimmer]

Yes by the foot pad I meant the bottom part of the bar where you put your foot. I didn't know what else to call it and that sounded fairly appropriate.. I kind of like the brass pipe, but I feel like all bars have that and I wanted to do something different and that brass pipe is really expensive too.

Also I put some of my trim on the front of the bar as you can see below.

 

[Chattan]

Looking Great!

 

[Kirch3333]

Looks awesome!

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Looks awesome man! I wanted something different as well with my bar for a foot rest. My bar is very rustic, so a brass foot bar would look goofy. I ended up framing a foot rest at the appropriate height, covering it with cement board and using the slate that I used on the floor on the face of the foot rest and the tumbled travertine that I used on the back wall behind the bar on the top of the foot rest. Turned out great and is very functional. You could do something similar in matching oak as opposed to stone.

Here's a link, just scroll down about 1/2 way down the page:


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/hoppos-e-brewery-build-283510/index2.html

Keep up the great work! Subbed!

 

[DoubleHelixBrewingCo]

Awesome!

 

[rvklein]

Great work!

 

[cpl-america]

i can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Trimmer]

Sorry, but I haven't done any work on the bar in the last couple weeks. I need to buy more trim and I can't decide on the Corbals to use... I am also worried any Corbals would look funny because I can't put corbals on the chest freezer size of the bar... I will update you in the next week or so.

Tim

 

[cpl-america]

Just don't put any stools there

 

[Trimmer]

For Christmas I got 5 sweet bar stools. No backs on them. The barstools should be fine as the foot rest will stick out about the same distance as the corbals.

 

[rockinmarty]

How about a pic of those bar stools.

 

[rstanavech]

WOW! looks great

 

[Trimmer]

Here are a picture of the 5 bar stools.

 

[malweth]

Here are a picture of the 5 bar stools.

Very nice! Awkward they're not all the same height, though

 

[Trimmer]

Bar progress is moving slowly, but I got some work done.

 

[Trimmer]

I still need to do the corbals and the trim. Here are the Corbals I bought. The second picture is the first beer!! IRISH RED

 

[RMS]

Looks fantastic! Love the stools also very nice.

 

[MD-Dave]

Love the look of this bar. Where did you get those corbels?