Ideas For Cooling 4 Kegs

[Kopite]

Hey guys

I am looking for a bit of guidance as to what to do next.

I have 4 postmix kegs that i am trying to run through a brass 5 font from the uk.
I have been adding 1 keg ata time when a brew is ready and now i have out grown my temporary fridge and need some ideas.

My problem is i only have 840mm high x 400mm deep x 1200mm wide to play with below my bar, and as yet i havent found a bar fridge that will fit under and hold my kegs.

I have thought of a couple of ideas that might/might not work and was looking for input from you guys as to why they might not work.

My ideas were.
1. run my beer from the keg into stainless\copper pipe through a bar fridge to cool the beer then up to my taps.
2. run my beer from the keg into oil coolers\radiators through a bar fridge to cool the beer then up to my taps.
3. run my beer from the keg into a cold plate(have a dual plate at home) through a bar fridge to cool the beer then up to my taps.
4. try and find a CHEAP Flash cooler.
5. try and find some bar fridges that will fit kegs in.

any help would be greatly appreciated as i am only a novice at this.

Cheers

 

[rustie]

Option 3 sounds the go to me. You could mount the plates in the very bottom of the fridge where its coldest. Maybe put the plates in a container of water to give them some thermal mass (for when you have some big drinkers round) That would leave the shelves free for bottled beer, or soft drinks if you must.

Cheers rustie

 

[Wortgames]

Unfortunately most of your ideas won't work

1, 2, 3: A chill plate / copper pipe / radiator might work in a bath full of ice water, but not in the ambient air in a bar fridge (or even a bucket of water). You'll get a few mls of cold foam then the rest of a glass of warm beer. (By the way, the coldest part of a fridge is at the top, near the evaporator coils).

4: Good luck! Probably the only workable option, but it isn't going to be 'CHEAP'.

5: Unlikely in those dimensions. A bar fridge big enough to take kegs, and a chest freezer, will both stick out way more than 400mm.

You could custom-build a mini-coolroom with polystyrene panels, or try and find a commercial counter fridge the right size, but both of these will need an external compressor plumbed in etc - and neither will be cheap.

The only other option I can think of is to put a fridge or chest freezer somewhere else out of the way, and run some lines through to your font.

 

[Kopite]

Unfortunately most of your ideas won't work

You could custom-build a mini-coolroom with polystyrene panels, or try and find a commercial counter fridge the right size, but both of these will need an external compressor plumbed in etc - and neither will be cheap.

Wortgames, please explain what this would involve...........
I cant really put a fridge\freezer in another room as the run would be around 3 metres

How much would i be looking at for a flash cooler?

 

[crozdog]

How much would i be looking at for a flash cooler?

Check out post #601 in the following thread
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry189799

Also look at this thread
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...fteenbeerslater

A 3m run isn't that long - look @ what they do in pubs & clubs! You'd probably want to pump aome coolant (water or glycol) through in the bundle of lines from the kegs to the taps to keep the lines & the beer they contain nice & cool. That's easy to do with an aquaruim pump & a reservoir in the fridge/freezer. There have been several threads on that here some quite recently. "Tony" has a similar problem. Use the search function or the advanced search on google to find more.

beers crozdog

 

[Wortgames]

It would involve a lot of work and a fair amount of expense to build, or a lot of luck to find, an insulated 'space' of the right size to put your kegs in. Once you have that you can use a coolroom chiller (something like an air conditioner) to chill it.

Not saying this is easy or even desirable, it's just technically feasible.

 

[BigAl]

I had to go down a similar path for the underneath of my bar several years back.

I chose to build a mini fridge space underneath the bar with 50mm polystyrene.
For a cooling unit i bought a secondhand $100 bar fridge pulled it apart carfully so i could mount the evaporator in the cold space and the condenser/compressor on the outside without breaking containment of the refrigerant (wasnt hard at all). Its ~5 years old and going strong serving 4 beers on top

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Check the e-bay items thread. A four keg icebank chiller just sold for $990.00

Exy, but gives you an idea of the ballpark.

 

[Kopite]

I had to go down a similar path for the underneath of my bar several years back.

I chose to build a mini fridge space underneath the bar with 50mm polystyrene.
For a cooling unit i bought a secondhand $100 bar fridge pulled it apart carfully so i could mount the evaporator in the cold space and the condenser/compressor on the outside without breaking containment of the refrigerant (wasnt hard at all). Its ~5 years old and going strong serving 4 beers on top

BigAl I like the sound of this, can you send me some pics\instructions on how to do this?

Cheers

 

[BigAl]

A couple of quick pics, see below.
You will have to work with the shape you have underneath and the bar fridge you get.
The fridge i got had a single evaporator plate in the fridge above was the freezer compartment, below was the fridge. I simply bent the tubing over so the plate is vertical in my keg fridge.

I used 50mm polystyrene and lined the inside with melamine coated timber. I would see if you could get a second hand cool room panel to use as its already lined with aluminium.
The door uses a fridge seal.

The timer on the outside next to the compressor is my auto defrost cycle.

 

[easyKegs]

Get a 5 pass cold plate and put it in the bottom in a container so when your having a big party you can add Ice to ensure consistent temperatures as the air in a fridge does not have a large thermal mass compared to ice or just buy a second hand freezer and get a thermostat. so all kegs are cold www.easykegs.com.au