New Bar

[steve_flack]

Just finished the construction stage on my new bar. There's still some plumbing to do but that will have to wait until Liggy (the Harmony Hut guy) gets back from his holiday.

Firstly, the business end.



That's four Ventmatic/Shirron taps and a Northern Brewer drip tray.


The other side of the taps




The inside of the freezer.




Currently holding a bevkeg and two cornies. This is a big freezer. It could hold six cornies and a Better Bottle fermenter. I've got two beer lines attached - for testing purposes only you understand

Finally the temperature controller....this needs to go in a box of some sort.





Cool beer all year - hurray!

[Immy's Dad]

It's a thing of beauty!

I wish I had the nouse to construct something like that. I struggle attaching new taps to fermenters!

Was it a new freezer or a bargain one? I think I read somewhere that this kanckers up the freezer quicker than normal due to the compressor constantly being switched on and off - is this true?

[Wez]

It really really is nice.

But...where do you keep the frozen onion rings now? and for your sake I hope your missus hasn't just been away for a few days and this is what you've done to the family freezer

[steve_flack]

Firstly...it's a new freezer

Whilst there's plenty of freezers on ebay etc my requirements on compressor location and size meant I narrowed my choice down to certain Whirlpool models. Most freezers are truly crap if you want to put kegs in them. They aren't deep enough.

The temperature controller I'm using has a 3 minute cycle time between turing off the freezer and when it will next try turning it on again. In practice it's on very briefly then turns off for quite a while.

The tubing is 3/16" ID tubing from Northern Brewer (I was buying stuff there any way). It says 'Perlick Beverage Hose' on it. Perlick are a bar equipment supplier in the US. The faucets (sorry...taps) are stainless steel - three are Ventmatic-VM's I've had in a box since last year (Ventmatic have gone bust in the meantime). The fourth one is a Shirron copy. The shanks are also stainless as is the drip tray.

I've wanted one of these for bloody ages and now I have a house big enough to fit one.

[maxashton]

It's a lovely setup, Steve. Are those new cornies? I seem to remember someone buying some new ones a while back.

What have you got on tap?

[steve_flack]

Nope, I've had them for a while.

[Andy]

I bought two new cornies but they are 11L ones.

[Vossy1]

Nice job SF

[maxashton]

Good size for parties, Andy.
Bet the new ones are double sexy.

[RabMaxwell]

A thing of beauty steve did you silicon up the seams to try and stop condensation getting in and rusting your freon lines. You may have read on the net about them rusting through as you are using them above freezing. My latest brand new chest freezer only lasted about 2 years before i got a leak. But after all the work i had put in fitting taps gas lines ect i didn't want to throw it out. So i picked up an old fridge the ones with a flat cooling plate. I carefully striped the motor & plate out without bursting any lines. I then cut a square out of my buggered chest freezer with my grinder & fitted the fridge plate then silicone back up. It only took one day i don't want to give you bad news but it is inevitable as condensation is a real problem when using chest freezers


(click to enlarge)
A little bit of advise is look out for a suitable fridge for free & store it for a rainy day you might be lucky & get 5 years or so but probably not much more. I still have all the same storage space & don't need to worry anymore about condensation. Also old fridges are so easy to pick up for free

[SteveD]

Nice one Steve. I'm going to be building a near identical one - soon! It's warming up! I have the freezer, taps, and the same ATC 800 controller. Steve, you say you sourced the drip tray from Northern Brewer? Is that the American firm? What did they charge you for shipping?

[steve_flack]

A thing of beauty steve did you silicon up the seams to try and stop condensation getting in and rusting your freon lines. You may have read on the net about them rusting through as you are using them above freezing. My latest brand new chest freezer only lasted about 2 years before i got a leak. But after all the work i had put in fitting taps gas lines ect i didn't want to throw it out. So i picked up an old fridge the ones with a flat cooling plate. I carefully striped the motor & plate out without bursting any lines. I then cut a square out of my buggered chest freezer with my grinder & fitted the fridge plate then silicone back up. It only took one day i don't want to give you bad news but it is inevitable as condensation is a real problem when using chest freezers

I'm aware that condensation can be an issue with chest freezers but I've never heard of them rusting. One advantage of this freezer (I dunno if others all have it too) is that it has a well placed drain hole for moisture. I haven't siliconed the seams (I've used P-Profile draught excluder) but I will be placing an open tub of dessicant in the freezer (Calcium Chloride) in the hopes of keeping the dampness down. We'll see how we go with that. I've been running the thing for a week without a collar, just on the controller, and condensation hasn't been a problem yet.

Steve, you say you sourced the drip tray from Northern Brewer? Is that the American firm? What did they charge you for shipping?

Yes that's the American Northern Brewer. The drip tray I got is K191 (13" shorty)

http://www.northernbrewer.com/drip-trays.html

Northern Brewer have an annoying habit of charging extra for international orders 'for filling in customs paperwork'. Which whacks the price up. I'd guess the postage at around $30 all in if you wanted just the tray and nothing else.

MoreBeer do a similar drip tray and don't have stupid surcharges. I bought from Northern Brewer as I wanted other things in the order and More Beer was out of stock of them.

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=16328

[Andy]

morebeer are great!

[SteveD]

Thanks, Steve. More Beer do look like the Mutt's nuts. Phase one of coming out of my 20 years of brewing solitary confinement was when I found their site..my eyeballs did the old cartoon trick of jumping out on springs!

[mysterio]

How long do you find delivery takes from the likes of NB & Morebeer?

Great looking bar btw Steve