Bar Setup Help!

[zrated]

Hey guys and gals,

I need a little help with my new bar setup. A little background first....

I currently have a little homemaker freezer that fits my BOC bottle and 2 kegs (very tight squeeze) with a 2 tap font on top. This baby has done me well over the last 18months but we're now moving house and I get to build my dream bar at our new place.

Now, I have a great space in the new place, the bar will be 4m long and 2.5m wide. I've knocked up a little 3d model below:



The problem I'm having is fitting in a big enough freezer to hold 10 kegs under the bench!!!! I looked at a F&P 700L chest freezer, and a westing house but they're going to be hard to hide under the bench as the height and depth of these freezers are just too big. I'm trying to hide all of my stuff under the bar... I don't want anything noticed.

My question to you all is.... Can I have my kegs standing under the bar without any refridgeration, then run them into a cold plate or cooling coil? I'd like to do this without the use of ice.......... Can i put a load of cooling coils or cold plates inside a smaller chest freezer and have everything else external?

I've never used cold plates/coils before and really need some ideas/help!

Thanks,

Tom

 

[peas_and_corn]

You can do that, you need to run it through some sort of chiller plate kept cold with glycol.

 

[breadenhound]

You could get a temprite... maybe a bit pricey for what you want to do but you may be able to get a hold of something small. Selling on eBay.com.au for about $1000. With one of those you can be certain that every single beer you ever pour will be ice-cold B)

 

[QldKev]

Agreed with the temprite, by the time you got a large freezer and played with the extra shelving to cover it it may not cost that much more. There has been a few on ebay lately.



QldKev

 

[alowen474]

Your beer won't keep as long out of the fridge.
Why not look for the glass door under bar fridges.
Some come at a reasonable price from time to time.
Easier to get kegs in and out and look the goods.
Your beer will pour nice and cold then too.

 

[raven19]

This is going to be one hell of a decent bar based on that 3D piccie.

I dont see any reason why this would not work, essentially having an ice box without the ice.

You could also look at a building a custom made fridge/freezer in a similar fashion to Sqyre's as per this Linky. That would allow you to build it exactly how you need it, with the right insulating panels, I am sure this could work well for you.

Slightly OT - Is it worth going the full hog and excavating a cellar? Plenty of room for freezers then!

 

[breadenhound]

I think that a glass door fridge like beerforal mentioned would be a good idea. Besides your beer not keeping as long (as previously mentioned), I was under the impression that the beer in the keg had to be cold in order for the Co2 to dissolve and form a partial bond with the liquid. Would hate to go to all that effort to only have foam in the glass.

 

[muckey]

OT slightly - CO2 will dissolve in beer regardless of the temperature. it's the pressure that maintains the amount of CO2 in solution.

the glass fronted fridges (or multiple bar fridges for that matter) would certainly work will in this case

I was under the impression that the beer in the keg had to be cold in order for the Co2 to dissolve and form a partial bond with the liquid.

 

[jayandcath]

A mate of mine has just bought a house with a very nice bar in it, so he put a chest freeser down stairs and then runs a gylcol system up to the bar upstairs and it works a treat. Looks **** hot as well and all you see is the font, very tidy.

Jay

 

[winkle]

3/4 door under counter fridge? Top of the unit is the serving surface.

 

[brettprevans]

batz has pics of his bar setup with a chesty underneath. yes the big chesties are tall so your bar has to be tall. unless you use something like a glass fronted fridge like has been suggested. but then you have to be able to fit a keg in it.

or you can use a glycol system. plenty of info on ahb. just search. basicly the glycol system is what a lot of bars use.

 

[Jerry]

As others have mentioned, commercial under bench glass door (or stainless doors) fridges would work really well.

A bit pricey but they look good and getting kegs in and out would be very easy.

Quite a few size options too. 1, 2, 3 and 4 door sizes and maybe a 6 door option?

Would also give you heaps of space for other things like glasses etc.

Can get expensive but you only need to do it once.

Cheers

Scott

 

[jayse]

You could just simply have the whole far end bar section a bit higher, it would still look good and would be easy.

 

[drsmurto]

You could just simply have the whole far end bar section a bit higher, it would still look good and would be easy.

Agree. Unless you are a midget/dwarf then extra height to accommodate a fridge would be the easiest solution.

I sold my last temprite recently. The whole concept was far more difficult than i originally thought. But then i only had 1 half of the unit and needed a compressor to run it. The ones on ebay appear to be standalone units.

Also, a temprite unit will be noisier than a fridge.

 

[zrated]

Thanks for the suggestions guys... I'm leaning towards the DIY freezer using cold room panels.... I think that way I can make a custom chilling unit which is cost effective and I can customise the size to suit the bar!