My New Keezer!

[bignath]

Howdy brewers,

a few days ago i posted a thread about scoring a 500lt chest freezer that i had plans to convert into a kegerator. She's finally finished! Went through a few different colours and types of paint, and have settled on this.

Previous thread:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry847038


The lid had some surface rust in it. Sanded it back got it nice and smooth. Purchased some appliance white paint. Shithouse. You could clearly see the discolouration through the paint.

Next i thought i'd camoflage the surface with some hammer tone paint. This seemed like a good idea. I would give some texture, hiding any imperfections, and also cover the crap job i did with the appliance white paint. Unfortunately the colour was not what i was expecting. Was supposed to be copper colour, came out golden/baby shit brown combo....Weird.

Righto, time to fix it properly and went and bought a few cans of gloss black. That did the trick. Have done the lid in chalkboard paint so i can write the recipe details on the lid so people (me) know what beer they are pouring.
Also the lid had a small section where it didn't seal properly, so i got some rubber from bunnings and added it to the seal. It's soft rubber so i put all the way around the seal. It compresses where it needs to and fills out the gaps where it needs to. Cool.

This ******* will hold 11kegs on the floor, a tray full of hops and yeasts, and a couple of boxes of bottled stock on the compressor hump.
It had clips for a divider partition on the compressor hump, so i fashioned a divider out of a previous fridge's shelving.

Future plans are obviously more taps (last kegerator only held 2-3 kegs), extra gas lines and splitters and maybe fix the light that says it's turned on.

Finished plumbing the gas lines today and final coat of paint.

Anyway, here's some pic's of my new(ish) keezer!

 

[bignath]

Inside shot:

 

[TonyC]

Big Nath,
Well done, you need more taps

Tony

 

[Cocko]

Farking awesome mate!

Very nice build.. looks styles!



Edit: Also, maybe lay of the hops purchasing for a bit!

 

[mxd]

looks good, well done.


you kep your hops in the fridge ? I thought they were better in the freezer ?

 

[bignath]

Also, maybe lay of the hops purchasing for a bit!

Yeah, there's a few kilos there. Maybe i just need to brew more!

@mxd - i used to keep them in the freezer section of my fridge, but in the interest in saving some coin off my electricity bill i'm gonna try them in the fridge. It's set at 3 degrees, thinking this should be a good compromise situation between serving temp and the ability to be able to keep stuff fresh for a while.

My last situation was Big ass fermenting fridge, small fridge for storage of hops yeast and bottle stock, and my small keezer.
The last power bill was damn near $1000 for the quarter. When the freezer came up as an opportunity, i grabbed it thinking i could throw out the smaller fridge which used to run constantly due to needing a regas (and where i reckon most of the power bill went) and the idea was just to have this keezer and the fermenting fridge, with the keezer doing most of the work for serving storing and conditioning bottles.

It also allows me to get all my kegs into it, and therefore decrease the amount of shelf storage space in my shed which is at a minimum at the best of times...

I've read several posts from people who keep there hops in the fridge so i'll see how i go.....

 

[Silo Ted]

Nice setuip., Nath. All these photos of your guys setups are making it more convincing for me go get into kegging myself (I not only have the other half's permissioni, but she is going to throw in half the coin for it up to $1200).

Just on hops storage. I was speaking to the director of a hop producer & importer and he actully says that vacuum sealed hops are better being stored in the fridge and not the freezer. Dont recall the reasoning becuase I was three setts to the wind, but he was quite adament.

 

[mxd]

My last situation was Big ass fermenting fridge, small fridge for storage of hops yeast and bottle stock, and my small keezer.
The last power bill was damn near $1000 for the quarter. When the freezer came up as an opportunity, i grabbed it thinking i could throw out the smaller fridge which used to run constantly due to needing a regas (and where i reckon most of the power bill went) and the idea was just to have this keezer and the fermenting fridge, with the keezer doing most of the work for serving storing and conditioning bottles.

yeah that rings a bell, I was running 3 fridges, 1 keezer (2 degrees) and another chesty for fermenting, my chesty and my keezer died at the same time and the bill was a shocker.

Just on hops storage. I was speaking to the director of a hop producer & importer and he actully says that vacuum sealed hops are better being stored in the fridge and not the freezer. Dont recall the reasoning becuase I was three setts to the wind, but he was quite adament.

I think leaf is meant to be best in fridge and pellets in freezer ?

 

[DU99]

That's a nice piece of handy work... :beer:

 

[Spork]

Need moar taps! Good score.

 

[bignath]

Been doing some thinking about having some dedicated carbonating lines in the keezer....

If you wanted a dedicated gas line to have available to slow carb a keg whilst serving from others would you use a gas disconnect or us a beer disconnect and carb through the beer out post??

Would it carb quicker using the beer post so the gas goes into the beer directly or am i thinking too much....

At the moment i only have two taps, but have six kegs. Until i can get more taps i was thinking i would have four gas lines so i can slow carb the backup kegs whilst i drink the others.

 

[CONNOR BREWARE]

Looks the goods Nath, is that a Jarrah collar?

 

[donburke]

Been doing some thinking about having some dedicated carbonating lines in the keezer....

If you wanted a dedicated gas line to have available to slow carb a keg whilst serving from others would you use a gas disconnect or us a beer disconnect and carb through the beer out post??

Would it carb quicker using the beer post so the gas goes into the beer directly or am i thinking too much....

At the moment i only have two taps, but have six kegs. Until i can get more taps i was thinking i would have four gas lines so i can slow carb the backup kegs whilst i drink the others.

nice build there, you definitely need more taps, but until they arrive, you can fit a lamb in there too which will come in handy for the xmas spit roast

if slow carbing, i'd just use gas disconnects, it might carb a little faster using the beer in, but you also run a greater risk of getting beer in your gas line, either by a mistake brought on during consumption of alcohol, or a momentary inbalance of pressure when connecting another keg

 

[bignath]

Looks the goods Nath, is that a Jarrah collar?

Nah mate, its actually stained pine. Feast and Weston's chocolate walnut.

if slow carbing, i'd just use gas disconnects, it might carb a little faster using the beer in, but you also run a greater risk of getting beer in your gas line, either by a mistake brought on during consumption of alcohol, or a momentary inbalance of pressure when connecting another keg

Thanks, i actually hadnt thought of that. Glad i asked the question 'cause i was about to order the parts to carb through the beer post. Will just go the conventional way and not reinvent the wheel....

 

[BennyH]

awesome setup man!

 

[eureka]

Looks great, could you tell me what the rubber was that you used to seal it. I have looked in bunnings but couldnt find any , must have looked in the wrong place Thanks Mick

 

[bignath]

G'day mick,

Cant remember the brand, but it was a predominantly yellow box. It was in the door seal section. You can get it in three colours grey white and brown, and a range of different seal designs. Its not specifically designed for fridge/freezer applications, but as im not running a fan in this freezer like i did with my last one, and the fact that cold air sinks, i just needed to create a seal. It is 9mm x 6mm x 5 meter roll.

In the photos of my keezer, it looks like the lid isnt sealing, but the rubber i put around the lid seal takes up the slack.

Hope this helps

 

[eureka]

Thanks Nath ,Got an idea of what to look for now. All i could find last time was the foam stuff, but yours sounds much better. I have a fan also and that rubber might help the lid seal properly . Mick

 

[bignath]

In case anyone is wondering about the rubber seal, i found the box for it.

Its made by Raven (no not that raven) and the product is called Door & Window Weather Strip. The model numbermi used is RP48 in grey. Good for gaps 3-5mm, and cost me about $8 for a 5 mt roll.

Linky:

http://www.raven.com.au/domino/raven/RPCEN...9256F2B008371EE

 

[jyo]

Nice work there, mate :icon_cheers: