XaxisYcross
Member
- Joined
- 13/1/14
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 41
Ok, So let me get something straight here. I am one of those long time lurkers and this is my first post but it is one that I felt I need to share because I have garnered so much from this community in the way of help, ideas and inspiration even despite the fact I have never actively asked for it.
As a back-story, I live on one of those areas which is susceptible to those things that are now generally referred to as "rain events". You know, those ones where you are going calmly about your day when all of a sudden you are bombarded with about a year's worth of rain in like 5 minutes. That sort of thing. So that happened to me and we needed to replace our kitchen benchtop. Stone was the way to go and I saw my chance.
I put it to the Minister for Fun that perhaps now would be as good an opportunity as ever for me to install a tap in the bench. I love brewing, but I hate bottling, it's a good hobby for me, it saves on buying beer heaps, it's good for the environment in that it cuts down waste etc etc. Well, bugger me, she said ok. So off I went with my design phase. I already had a vague idea on how I wanted it to look and be implemented based on a post I had seen from user called donburke who I don't believe is active anymore.
For reference this was his post:
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/235-kegging-setups/?p=852652
Beautiful setup, mouthwatering flooded font poking out of a recessed stone drip tray which had drainage plumbed in and some nice equipment driving it.
So I had my baseline. I didn't have enough cupboard space upstairs to be bale to put a glycol coolant system but I do have a sub floor. So I figured: Flooded font upstairs on kitchen bench, recessed drip tray with tube going from the hole in the stone to the waste outlet pipe in the kitchen sink and then beer python leading down to a keezer and glycol bath in the sub floor of the house. In the end, that is exactly how it happened. Behold!
First the collar for the keezer, small child for scale:
Done!
Insert font into new stone benchtop recess:
Drill drainage hole:
Plumb drainage tube into sink waste via silicone tube:
Set up the den of liquid pleasures:
The setup goes:
Gas from a 6kg cylinder with dual reg (one if I want to force carb down there or dispense at a different pressure);
Gas through 4-way manifold, into the keezer (tiny bit of armaflex to keep lines together and provide some air leakage protection);
Kegs in keezer at 5oC ....
Beer line out through small armaflex into an Icemaster G40 Glycol chilling system set at -2.7oC;
Beer line plus glycol send and return line exiting through Andale 4+2 32mm insulated Beer python;
Up through my sub-floor and the carcass of the cabinetry of the kitchen cupboard and into the tubing of the flooded three-tap cobra font.
To get this:
and
So there you have it. I have no skills in designing remote draw draught systems. The AHB community (albeit unwittingly!) has been my saviour here, as has a bit of YouTube here and there. The system works flawlessly. I have a 3 tap system but my keezer can store 4 kegs so I have 3 on tap and one carbing up. I have the Icemaster plugged into a WeMo power switch so I can switch it on and off from wherever I am in the world and it is on a timer so it is most definitely on when I get home from work and switches off at midnight (this can be overruled, obviously!)
It was an amazing build for me and a great achievement. I couldn't say it wasn't without its hiccups but that was all part of the fun. If anyone else out there is looking to do something similar or has any questions, I'd be more than happy to help out if I can.
Cheers and good tidings in this merry season to you all!
:beer:
As a back-story, I live on one of those areas which is susceptible to those things that are now generally referred to as "rain events". You know, those ones where you are going calmly about your day when all of a sudden you are bombarded with about a year's worth of rain in like 5 minutes. That sort of thing. So that happened to me and we needed to replace our kitchen benchtop. Stone was the way to go and I saw my chance.
I put it to the Minister for Fun that perhaps now would be as good an opportunity as ever for me to install a tap in the bench. I love brewing, but I hate bottling, it's a good hobby for me, it saves on buying beer heaps, it's good for the environment in that it cuts down waste etc etc. Well, bugger me, she said ok. So off I went with my design phase. I already had a vague idea on how I wanted it to look and be implemented based on a post I had seen from user called donburke who I don't believe is active anymore.
For reference this was his post:
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/235-kegging-setups/?p=852652
Beautiful setup, mouthwatering flooded font poking out of a recessed stone drip tray which had drainage plumbed in and some nice equipment driving it.
So I had my baseline. I didn't have enough cupboard space upstairs to be bale to put a glycol coolant system but I do have a sub floor. So I figured: Flooded font upstairs on kitchen bench, recessed drip tray with tube going from the hole in the stone to the waste outlet pipe in the kitchen sink and then beer python leading down to a keezer and glycol bath in the sub floor of the house. In the end, that is exactly how it happened. Behold!
First the collar for the keezer, small child for scale:
Done!
Insert font into new stone benchtop recess:
Drill drainage hole:
Plumb drainage tube into sink waste via silicone tube:
Set up the den of liquid pleasures:
The setup goes:
Gas from a 6kg cylinder with dual reg (one if I want to force carb down there or dispense at a different pressure);
Gas through 4-way manifold, into the keezer (tiny bit of armaflex to keep lines together and provide some air leakage protection);
Kegs in keezer at 5oC ....
Beer line out through small armaflex into an Icemaster G40 Glycol chilling system set at -2.7oC;
Beer line plus glycol send and return line exiting through Andale 4+2 32mm insulated Beer python;
Up through my sub-floor and the carcass of the cabinetry of the kitchen cupboard and into the tubing of the flooded three-tap cobra font.
To get this:
and
So there you have it. I have no skills in designing remote draw draught systems. The AHB community (albeit unwittingly!) has been my saviour here, as has a bit of YouTube here and there. The system works flawlessly. I have a 3 tap system but my keezer can store 4 kegs so I have 3 on tap and one carbing up. I have the Icemaster plugged into a WeMo power switch so I can switch it on and off from wherever I am in the world and it is on a timer so it is most definitely on when I get home from work and switches off at midnight (this can be overruled, obviously!)
It was an amazing build for me and a great achievement. I couldn't say it wasn't without its hiccups but that was all part of the fun. If anyone else out there is looking to do something similar or has any questions, I'd be more than happy to help out if I can.
Cheers and good tidings in this merry season to you all!
:beer:
