HELP - no room for a kegerator

[cerbera84]

I don't have room for a kegerator in my house right now, hopefully moving next year.

In the meantime, has anyone seen any solutions for serving cooler beer from cornies?

I'm kinda thinking that a custom stand for my two kegs, with some kind of electric cool box (mains powered) to cool the beer in the beer lines? The beer lines would be coiled up inside the cool box, like a jockey box or whatever the Yanks call it, but without using the ice...

What do you think? Any better solutions? As its only a temporary system, I'm reluctant to consider maxi chillers due to cost.

[Wonkydonkey]

Hi, I was going to reply to your email, but that was last night. And now it's tonight

You've seen a few pics of my set up, on a few threads, I don't think it's worth me doing a build thing as I dont think I have many pics, and like most things it was a bit of bish-bash-bosh.....

I can tell more about it, but my dinner is in the oven and I'm gomma stop, when the timer bleeps

The only thing I will say now is, it's a electric cool box lid on the back of a 9mm ply box which has 25mm celotex inside.
The box has a cheap temp 12v temp in it, the one I got was not really laid out well, and should got the £4 different layout one.
I set it to run and it struggles to get below 10c but I have it set at about 12c. But remember the cool box is said to get 15-20 below ambient temp. In reality ( when I ran it, just the cool box with some bottled water in it. It only cooled it to 10c when it should have got to 5c. That was with 6 Lts in it.
Anyhow I made it last summer (end of)

Timer time, back in abit

[woblylegs]

could you not just freeze bottles of water and place then in a coolbox with your beer lines surrounding the bottles as best you can? keep a few bottles in your freezer ready to swap around.

[cerbera84]

Cheers wonkydonkey, I haven't actually managed to find any pictures of your setup, just a bit of a description. I'm struggling to imagine where the coolbox is in relation to the kegs.

Woblylegs, I'm trying to make the process as automatic as I can - I did think of a copper coil in a Tupperware box full of vodka that was kept in the freezer, and attached to the keg when needed, but I thought that an electric cool box with coils in that held a pint or two would be the better solution

[cerbera84]

Oh hang about, have you taken the lid off the coolbox and you're not using the bulk of the coolbox?! That makes more sense now....

[Fil]

ebay a 2 product shelf chiller, no need to run it 24/7 like the pubs do, just run for 30-40 mins to chill the waterbath down to 0C and thats ample cold to serve an evenings beer for 2 people, if the kegs are stored in a cool spot you will only need to run the thing for a few months in the year when its warmest.

reference a kegging chart for maintaining the condition in the beer at the current ambient temp and just ensure your post keg beerline restricts the keg pressure to a 1-2psi drop at the tap point.

My kegs at ambient temp in an insulated outhouse to keep the suns heat off them, with a 4 product shelf chiller used 3-4 months per anum when warmest.

[Wonkydonkey]

I'll dig out some pics tonight, sorry I didn't get back after dinner, a mate came round to sample my golden liquid

[simpleton]

I have my kegs in a plastic shed. Works fine for most of the year. July and August are tricky but manageable. The shed gets no direct sunlight. Beer is generally served between 4-12 degrees depending on time of year. I just brew accordingly and have long, thin lines to help with fobbing in summer.

Regardless of the minor issues, its a hundred times better than bottling!