Adventures In Refridgeration...

[MVZOOM]

Well, I think after 4 weeks I've finally got a handle on controlling my fridge - I was intermittantly freezing kegs and then over compensating and pouring beer at 11 degrees.

I put a 2l milk bottle filled with water in beside it to see when it froze. It's got a bunch of ice in it this morning, however when I pour a beer from the keg and test the liquid temp, it reads at around 2 degrees.

I'm now pouring at a constant 2.5 degrees and everything seems ok. It's really tempremental - if I move the keg 2 inches to the left, it'll freeze - two inches to the left and it's warm!?

Very strange. Couple of questions:

- Is there any easy way to tell if you've 1/2 frozen the keg? Problem is that it'll still pour, but the beer will be concentrated.

- Basic logic says that if the beer liquid temp coming from the bottom of the keg via the normal pickup is +2deg, then the rest of the keg wouldn't be partially frozen - is this true?

I think I need to get another fridge!

Cheers - Mike

 

[Gerard_M]

Could have a fridge within 200m of your house. Already has the gas line hole drilled in the side, I will find out over the weekend & let you know
Cheers
Gerard

 

[Tony M]

- Basic logic says that if the beer liquid temp coming from the bottom of the keg via the normal pickup is +2deg, then the rest of the keg wouldn't be partially frozen - is this true?

[post="116106"][/post]​

Beer is 95% water and water starts expanding at 4C (thats why ice floats). This means that if the keg is 2C at the bottom, anything higher up could be below that temp for the higher up the column you measure, the colder it will be.
Edit:
That read badly. What I was trying to say is that the density of water increases as it cools but when it cools to 4C it starts to get less dense and therefore rise to the top of the column. Are you confused now?

 

[mark68]

You should be able to adjust the fridges thermostat so that you have a constant 4 or so degrees.If it,s one of those fridges with an internal freezer hen you would have to defrost once a month or else if it ices up youre fridge won,t go down to 4 or 5 degrees,being more like 10 to 12 degrees in the fridge compartment.Mine is a 480 litre frost free and it sits on 4 degrees magically. B)

 

[MVZOOM]

Gerard, mate you're an absolute legend. I really appreciate the thought - the issue I have right now is that anything I replace the fridge with, has to be the size of a large bar fridge unit. Severe space restraints and WAF make it the only option.

Mark / Tony, appreciate the note and unfortunately I understand what you're saying. Therefore, if I get manage to turn the thing down, so that I get a steady 4 deg C liquid temp, should this mean that there's no icemaking in the keg - is that true?

Cheers - Mike