Ice Bank Chiller home setup

[TheKernalWixen]

Thought i I would give some info to others if they are thinking of running an under counter home ice bank chiller system with flooded font.

I received a dual tap flooded font for my 30th birthday as the boys knew I wanted to build a bar out in the pergola, 2 and a bit years later i had invested in an an Icemaster 105 ice bank chiller and some timber to build such bar.



They unveiling of the bar Melbourne cup day 2015 was a huge success and both kegs were drunk on the day but the system soon begun to play up not long after resulting in a warranty job on the Icemaster 105. I found out that the compressor had shit itself so sent it back to the supplier (Keg King) and upgraded to the Icemaster G40 and to be honest I'm glad it happened.


View attachment Icemaster G40 Pamphlet.pdf

So with the new unit installed I went ahead and connected up my new batch of kegs and these kegs happened to last a bit longer and I was starting to notice and others that the beer was getting flat over time and the heatwave in Melbourne did no justice to my beer even though it was pouring out cold via the chiller unit.

I put a post up not to long ago about getting flat kegs overtime and a was sort of guided into the right direction and I came across this gas chart View attachment Gas_temp_pressure_chart.pdf

and decided to invest in a PC radiator fan and some insulation



What I learned was that kegs stored at ambient temperatures and drunk will loose carbonation into head space so this was a main issue that i had to over come. My kegs are now stored at approximately 12C and after every drinking session I re gas the kegs to 200kpa and disconnected untill the next time i want to pour a beer. My current kegs have lasted 4 weeks with this method and some gas sacrifice is worth having a carbonated beer.

 

[spog]

Fargin nice looking bar !

 

[TheKernalWixen]

Fargin nice looking bar !

Thanks spog,

Here is a photo of the bar all light up at night.

 

[spog]

Holy snappin duckshit thats fantastic !

 

[Killer Brew]

That is so friggin good. Well done. <greenwithenvyemoticon>

 

[TheKernalWixen]

Bit more info regarding the PC Radiator



The radiator runs constantly with the ice bank tank circulation pump. The ice bank is set at -0.5 and is constantly recirculating through the radiator providing the keg storage area its cool room application.

When it comes to pouring beers I set the ice bank to -4.0 degrees and open the font supply ball valve flooding the font and getting that nice iced up font effect.




Both font and radiator can be isolated independently. As you can see in the below picture the font supply is isolated off.

 

[crowmanz]

 

[keedoery]

Hello there,

These temprite systems are best operated with nitrogen/co2 mixed gas. The problem is that if you use CO2 as the temperature of your kegs changes you can start to get flat beer or over carbonated beer. If you have a high turnover bar and you are hammering through the kegs every few days then you can get away with using CO2 as the keg is not sitting there long enough to over-carbonate, or under-carbonate. With CO2 you may find that you have to balance the system accurately and/or make sure the kegs are stored at a controlled temperature.

If you use nitrogen/co2 mixed gas you can be significantly more lazy and set the system up at elevated pressures without the risk of over-carbonation.

temprite systems are fantastic for high turnover bars but they can be a bit overly complicated for domestic keg systems.

Kee