Another keezer build

[McMullan]

Right, picking this project back up. I haven’t really done much recently, apart from this:

I know, it looks like I’ve gone over the top on the number inlets/outlets, but, after some thought, adding more at this early stage is a good idea.

The keezer can hold up to 8 slimline kegs. I’m never going to have 8 kegs serving at the same time, but I could easily have 8 at various stages, from fermentation to conditioning to ageing.

Considering…

IN:

CO2: serving at various pressures from ‘cask’ feeding a beer engine to draft lager and beyond, for force carbonating

Nitrogen/pub gas?

Power: dehumidifier, fan, heat cable for managing fermentation temperature, temperature probe, etc.

Beer line: pressure transfers from FV or keg


OUT:

Beer: taps not fixed to keezer, beer engine, transfers (bottling and kegging)

Spunding valve (pressure fermentation and conditioning)

And whatever else?

So you can’t really have too many in a keezer and I should probably put a few more in, if anything else

[floydmeddler]

NICE!

[McMullan]

Rebuilt the freezer lip using uPVC corner trim, a nice stable, flat surface for refitting the lid on.

Used No Nails and a little Gorilla glue in the corners to fill any air pockets. Finished it off with some good quality white anti-mould silicone sealant. Next step is to add a second layer of XPS, under the lip edge, before refitting the lid.

[McMullan]

Got the second layer of XPS fitted.

Used Gorilla glue, which is better for foam on foam. Next step is to cover this with uPVC, before refitting the lid.

[orlando]

Really coming on that. You might have to document it exactly and put it into a document for download.

[McMullan]

Devil's in the detail

[orlando]

Indeed.

[McMullan]

It's been a while since I did anything here. It's in an unheated area of the basement and been a bit cold for curing glue. It was below minus 20 outside for weeks 🥶

It's starting to warm up enough for a frost protection heater to be more effective than a one-legged man in an arse-kicking competition so I'm working on it again. The keezer, not the competition. I have an unfair advantage. I've got two legs, of course.

Right, so a bit more of the same. I'm using Gorilla glue here, as it's better for plastic to foam.

[McMullan]

I used threaded inserts with epoxy for reattaching the lid hinges to the collar. They're not really designed for wood, hence the epoxy, but if they fail I replace them with the more aggressive type for wood.

[Jocky]

I used threaded inserts with epoxy for reattaching the lid hinges to the collar. They're not really designed for wood, hence the epoxy, but if they fail I replace them with the more aggressive type for wood.

When I built my collar I bought some roofing bolts to go all the way through the collar to attach lid to collar.

I also bought replacement longer bolts that were the same thread to attach the collar back to the main body of the freezer.

[McMullan]

I think it’s going to hold up fine, to be honest. The lid weighs very little. I could swing it around with one of my little toes. I plan on keeping it pretty light, too, with some oak veneered ply on top and a couple font towers.

[floydmeddler]

Really neat build dude. Slow and steady always wins the race in my view.

[McMullan]

Yeah, slight delay due to price of timber related products in Norway going up almost 100% 'due to covid'. Profiteering wankers basically. I've kind of paused here:

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All sealed up nicely. Lid fits better than it did originally That's a temp probe (in a small thermowell) in a glycerol-filled WL yeast vial, a fan and a dehumidifier. Plus some hideous plastic 'tiles' saving the base. Plan to use it for some lagering experiments in a couple weeks. I'm not going to waste money carrying on with the keezer build at current prices for materials. I think I've got enough material in stock to return attention to the abandoned smaller version:

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[McMullan]

After monitoring the performance over a couple days I decided to ditch the glycerol filled vial and just use the thermowell to hold the temperature probe. The glycerol promoted too much lag and overshoot.

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It's getting busy on the back, with things all connected up.

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The fan is manually controlled via the small black project box. I found the dehumidifier, apart from working very well at collecting moisture, gives off a little heat so I've plugged it into the ITC heating socket. This seems to work quite well, having the dehumidifier active during 'heating'. I'm currently lagering a beer and temperature is being maintained between 0.3 to 1.3℃.

Only two gas ports being used at the moment. One 'gas in' and the other 'gas out' (to monitor keg pressure).

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[McMullan]

And from the inside…

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