yes, another keezer build thread-half way done

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defenestrate

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i spent my day today finishing up cleaning up my kegs, lubing everything up and testing for leaks, and so far everything has gone great! (fingers crossed) i got the freezer for 80 off CL (around 15 cf), 15# tank for 60 including shipping on ebay, and the regulator for 50 on ebay as well, everything else i picked up new from kegconnection.
roughly 10 ft of 3/8 line for the beer side and 3 ft of 1/4 line for the gas side. right now i use have the picnic taps hooked up, i'm doing a 3 inch collar tomorrow for the taps.
right now i have an AAA, cream ale, and belgian pale all at 40 lbs force carbing-we'll see how they are in 24 hrs. the pictures are of the AAA and cream ale....i can not wait for the AAA-it looks delish
i have another batch of a different version of an AAA dry hopping right now that i'll be throwing in the keg in a few days, and a batch of APA finishing up right now. i haven't had home brew for a few months since i was waiting to keg so i'm pretty excited for the next week :rockin:
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curiosity got the better of me, so i bled the kegs and hit them with about 10 lbs for a test pour after about 18 hrs @ 40 lbs and they were about 75% carbed-awesome. kegging rules.

ps-how many lbs of pressure do they give you when you exchange your tank? i lost a bit of gas yesterday when i was fiddling with stuff, but my tank is now reading about 500 lbs (at room temp)...do they only give you around 1000 psi?
 
The pressure in the tank depends on the temp. I think they just give you the CO2 by weight...5 lbs worth in a 5 lb tank.

Even though you can force carb faster you still need time for the beer to be it's best...things have to equalize. You'll get way better head retention after it's all equalized. IMO, minimum should be a week and that's if you goose the pressure a little at some point (like you did). If you just set it to serving pressure and leave it then two weeks minimum...even longer is better...but it's worth the wait imo.

EDIT: and running a high pressure like 40 psi can cause some leaks to occur that wouldn't happen at 15 psi. After having some mystery losses of CO2 I stopped goosing the pressure and just set it at serving pressure and let it go for a few weeks.
 
The 'pressure' in the tank will vary with the ambient temperature. It will go down when it's colder. When you see that gauge, what you are actually reading is the gas pressure of a tank that is mostly filled with liquid. As you remove gas from the tank, the pressure drops, then some of the liquid co2 converts to gas (boils) to raise that pressure back up to the equilibrium pressure (the pressure at which the liquid converts to gas) for a given temperature. For that reason, it will read the exact same (minus the variations for temperature) until the tank is completely out of liquid co2 and only has gaseous co2 left, at which point it will drop rapidly.

BTW, nice kegging setup! You will love it.
 
The pressure in the tank depends on the temp. I think they just give you the CO2 by weight...5 lbs worth in a 5 lb tank.

Even though you can force carb faster you still need time for the beer to be it's best...things have to equalize. You'll get way better head retention after it's all equalized. IMO, minimum should be a week and that's if you goose the pressure a little at some point (like you did). If you just set it to serving pressure and leave it then two weeks minimum...even longer is better...but it's worth the wait imo.

EDIT: and running a high pressure like 40 psi can cause some leaks to occur that wouldn't happen at 15 psi. After having some mystery losses of CO2 I stopped goosing the pressure and just set it at serving pressure and let it go for a few weeks.

to be complety honest with myself, i went the route of boosting simply for the reason that i've been staring at the carboys for weeks and weeks, and i was very anxious to try out the set up:eek: also, the beer has been aging for quite some time so i wasnt worried about letting it develope-but i understand what you mean about letting the pressure equalize. later tonight i'm going to bleed the kegs again and set them at 7-10 #s i think. i was very suprised when i poured a pint of the amber-it had a good half inch of head and had nice lacing when finished.

The 'pressure' in the tank will vary with the ambient temperature. It will go down when it's colder. When you see that gauge, what you are actually reading is the gas pressure of a tank that is mostly filled with liquid. As you remove gas from the tank, the pressure drops, then some of the liquid co2 converts to gas (boils) to raise that pressure back up to the equilibrium pressure (the pressure at which the liquid converts to gas) for a given temperature. For that reason, it will read the exact same (minus the variations for temperature) until the tank is completely out of liquid co2 and only has gaseous co2 left, at which point it will drop rapidly.

BTW, nice kegging setup! You will love it.

i understand the pressure varying with the ambient temperature-i expected it to drop once in the freezer. thanks for clearing up that the gauge does actually give you the amount remaining in the tank. now i'm not worried that i emptied my enormous cylinder already :D

my paintball compressed air tank's gauge drops as the tank empties -i just wasnt sure if this was the same principle. different type of gauge i guess.

thanks for the compliment, i'm very excited. i'm cutting the wood to size for the collar today and then gluing it on on wednesday-its supposed to drop into the 30's so i wont lose much temp having the lid off.
 
my paintball compressed air tank's gauge drops as the tank empties -i just wasnt sure if this was the same principle. different type of gauge i guess.

It's the same type of guage. You're just reading two different things. Compressed air is just compressed air. It never turns into a liquid. Compressed CO2 turns into a liquid once it gets over a certain pressure, so they can get more in the tank at a lower pressure. As you draw off the CO2 vapor in the top of the tank, more liquid evaporates and keeps the pressure the same.

On the kegerator, looks good. I'm jealous of all that space. I finally got some taps on the front of mine. You'll love it that much more once you get to that step :rockin:.
 
Are you guys insulating the keezer collar? Mine is 6" tall and only 3/4" thick and the keezer is kept in my garage. It's so hot and humid here in Florida that I was mainly concerned with condensation so I insulated it with cheapo foam insulation. I haven't installed it yet though...hopefully this week.
 
It's the same type of guage. You're just reading two different things. Compressed air is just compressed air. It never turns into a liquid. Compressed CO2 turns into a liquid once it gets over a certain pressure, so they can get more in the tank at a lower pressure. As you draw off the CO2 vapor in the top of the tank, more liquid evaporates and keeps the pressure the same.

On the kegerator, looks good. I'm jealous of all that space. I finally got some taps on the front of mine. You'll love it that much more once you get to that step :rockin:.

looking good, can't wait to see the finished product

yeah, i'm off tomorrow so the collar and taps should be in place by tomorrow night :mug:

Are you guys insulating the keezer collar? Mine is 6" tall and only 3/4" thick and the keezer is kept in my garage. It's so hot and humid here in Florida that I was mainly concerned with condensation so I insulated it with cheapo foam insulation. I haven't installed it yet though...hopefully this week.

i wasnt going to insulate-im using 2x4 for the collar because i dont need extra height-i dont think i i'm going to be losing too much temp-if i feel differently in the summer i might add some on
 
Nicely done! It looks like you'll be able to get several more kegs in there!! I sure wish I could make a setup with more taps than two.

I mostly just chimed in to comment on your handle, as I explained that word to two people just earlier this week. One tried to tell me that it wasnt actually a word, so I defenestrated his a$$ :D
 
i wasnt going to insulate-im using 2x4 for the collar because i dont need extra height-i dont think i i'm going to be losing too much temp-if i feel differently in the summer i might add some on
It wasn't so much losing temp that I was worried about...just that everything sweats because it's so hot/humid here.

FWIW, I used flat pieces of foam insulation (I think it's 3/4" thick, maybe 5/8") that I custom cut with a box cutter. That was like $7 from Home Depot. Then attached it to the wood frame and layered 2-3 pieces using Door & Window seal (and gun). Then I covered it all with Gorilla Tape (to protect that easily damaged...and porous...foam insulation)...all custom cut to make it look nice.

Once I get the 3" SS shanks...it's showtime. Then I can fit two more kegs on the compressor hump and get a couple of these lagers outta the upright fridge.
 
well, its 95% percent done. now i just have to stain the wood and get some rigged tap handles and it'll be good to go. heres the process, lots of pics.
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first step was to pop off the liner of the lid, exposing all the wiring. after disconnecting everything (and taking a picture so i remember how to re-wire it a few homebrews later) i was able to take off the lid.
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if i didnt put something to block off the hinges from snapping back (insert allen wrench here) it would have been a ***** getting them back into place-those are some pretty strong springs...i guess thats what happens when you buy a huge freezer.
i bored out the holes that were already in the freezer from the snap-in liner to accommodate larger screws to attach the wood. i also used a thick bead of silicone.
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after some cutting and drilling, this is what i had.
 
before i mounted the front piece of the collar, i bored out the holes for the shanks. not perfect (should have measured more carefully) but starting to look like a kegerator.
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i then ran the wiring through the original hole in which it ran, and reconnected all the plugs.
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i re-attached the cover, using the same holes i used to attach the collar. i simply moved the weather stripping out of the way while still getting the screws through the lip of the stripping for a snug fit. i cut a ghetto square of the the lid so i could have easy access to the shanks.
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i then fully tightened down the brackets for the lid. notice that i drilled a small hole flush to the hole used for running the wiring through the lid-now i can run the probe for the thermostat snuggly through the same hole.
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here is a shot of the shanks and faucets, with the lines running to them.
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a shot inside the keezer (with the light now working again)
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PLEASE DONT MIND THE HIGH LIFE CASE!!! its a friends, i PROMISE.
and here are a couple shots of the almost finished project.
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its not perfect, but i think its awesome. i have room for atleast 3 more, maybe 4. baby steps though. more photos to come when complete!!!
 
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first step was to pop off the liner of the lid, exposing all the wiring. after disconnecting everything (and taking a picture so i remember how to re-wire it a few homebrews later)

that's a good idea, i neglected to do that and definitely had some trouble getting it hooked up right.


it looks good, now it's time to fill it with a few more kegs!
 
that's a good idea, i neglected to do that and definitely had some trouble getting it hooked up right.


it looks good, now it's time to fill it with a few more kegs!

i cant take credit for thinking ahead-the only reason i took a picture was to post the process on the forum:eek:

more kegs are definitely to come, there is no way i'm ever letting this thing be tapped-especially with the warmer months in the near future. i think i might just have to step it up to 10 gal batches.:rockin:
 
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