Keezer Build Question

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Petrolhead

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I am in the very early stages of planning a keezer build. Happy with bottles but I would like to serve draft beer at a party this summer. This build also means that I have to get my head around kegging.

I hope to use a tall freezer or fridge, maybe one with a separate top compartment so I can put kegs in the bottom and bottles in the top, but maybe that's thinking too much at this stage. However, thinking about equipment, I would like to have four taps so assuming I have four kegs in the keezer and as I understand it different beers require different pressures would I be right to assume that whilst I could run four kegs off a single valve having two valves would allow me more flexibility?

My other hobby is messing around with classic cars and it is so much easier!

Thanks in advance.
 
I did a keezer build last summer. It is quite a skinny one, 90cm and will hold three corny kegs and a SB (dumpy 6kg) cylinder. I didn't want to do what you describe, which would require a primary and a series of secondary regulators for each keg. Far cheaper and easier is to pick a dispense pressure related to desired serving temperature for all kegs and then use tailor made lengths of 3/16" line and optionally a compensator tap to get a sensible pour depending on desired carb level. You'll find that there is a lot of compromise required when dealing with the variety of beers you'll put on as home brew compared to a commercial bar where they tend to have fixed lines.

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A very nice installation.

Like your answer as I only have to buy one regulator but it also tells me I have a lot of reading and learning to do.
 
Hi!
While it is undoubtedly cheaper to run three kegs off one regulator, you will have more flexibility with secondary regulators. With a single secondary pass-through regulator you could be force carbing one keg while maintaining serving pressure in the other kegs.
Having said that, you can disconnect the serving kegs from the regulator to force carb a separate keg, but I chose the secondary regulator route.
 
I'm going to wade in here despite not (yet) being a kegger myself as it would be good to check my understanding of what I have read to date, in anticipating of becoming a kegger in the near future.

I think the question here is how do you approach things where you have different beers, each with different volumes of CO2. In other words, I have a keg of lager (2.5 volumes), a British Ale (1.7 volumes) and a Wheat Beer (4.0 volumes).

My understanding is as follows:

You would carbonate the kegs individually by connecting the single keg to the regulator, setting the required pressure and leaving. However, you wouldn't leave the regulator valve open at that pressure as any leak in the keg or gas line will drain your bottle. Instead, you would set the pressure then turn off. Come back a bit later to top up, and keep doing that over a week or two until there is no drop of pressure noted.

The first keg would then be disconnected so you can repeat the process for the other kegs. The kegs shouldn't lose any pressure unless it has a leak, so it's being stored at the carbonation pressure level.

When it comes to serving, you would release the pressure from the kegs by pulling up the little pressure release (purging?) valve. The 4 kegs would then be connected to the single regulator, via a 4-way distributor or splitters. The CO2 pressure would be set at the desired serving pressure, which is likely to be significantly lower than the pressure at which the beer was carbed. The pressure is only there to push the beer down the beer line when being served. Over the relatively short period of time, the carbonation levels of the beer shouldn't drop in any discernible way, despite the difference in pressure in the beer vs pressure in the headspace.

In practice, the Wheat is likely to pour a lot livlier than the British Ale. This is compensated for through beer line length or, perhaps more easily, by an adjustable flow tap.

Once you're done serving, you would then disconnect the kegs and re-pressurise them all individually, back to the carbonation pressure level ready for storage.

Have I got that right?
 
Hi @-Bezza-
Yes, generally, you will use the same serving pressure for each keg and use a different line length to balance the pour correctly.
When I used the "set and forget" method I kept the CO2 connected.
I checked the system for leaks before connecting the keg - this is essential whatever method you use.
I have also succesfully used rocking a chilled keg to carb it up quickly - I believe this is called burst carbonation.
 
If it helps, you don't need to force carb. You can prime the batch, let it do the work for you and then serve at approx 10 psi. I am by no means an expert when it comes to kegging as I only got into it about 2 months ago but so far I have had no issues with this method.
 
You can't normally use an upright freezer to make a keezer as there will be cooling coils between shelves which cant be removed. Your options are an upright fridge or a chest freezer.
A chest freezer is probably the easiest option as you can remove the lid, make a wood collar then re-attach the lid to this. This gives you an easy way of mounting your taps, heres a pic of mine:
IMG-20181012-WA0004.jpeg 20180925_184416.jpg
Everything gets mounted on the wood, I now have a PC fan attached to circulate the air and prevent moisture building up. The small black cable coming from the right side is the probe from my inkbird and this keeps the keezer at 8C (or whatever I choose).
At the moment I keep all mine carbed to the same pressure, I might add some inline regulators but it hasnt bothered me so far.
 
If you decide on your serving temperature first and consult a co2 chart to find out your ranges you can make a start on deciding what methodology you'll adopt and this will influence your build. I keep my kegs at 7C which means gas left on at 12-15psi will eventually make my beer 2.2 to 2.47 volumes. This is the range that I generally work with. You don't really need to run higher pressures, but you'd require higher pressures if you kept it warmer, the opposite if you kept it colder, so deciding a serving temperature really influences on what follows. You then build your system to lose most of that pressure through resistance in the line before the tap to ensure a steady pour, too little resistance it'll explode out, too much the pour is very slow and frustrating. A compensator tap can be used to provide a little fine tuning if you want to build the system with a greater margin to accommodate the occasional beer where 2.2 to 2.47 isn't suitable. For beers that are lower than this you'll want to increase your serving temperature which will be fine for bitters and the like. For ones higher you'll want to decrease your serving temperature which will be fine for lagers and the like. For things in the middle that don't quite fit, for running different beers at the same time you'll want to build a more complex system with secondary regulators on one or all lines so you've got complete control. OR remember to turn your gas off between service and/or disconnect posts or fit non-returns between linked kegs.

See for most beers they'll gain a little or lose a little and that is fine because they all want to be between 2.2 and 2.47 anyway. I don't care if I put on a high carb beer because when the differential is very small the time to change is very long. They'll all eventually reach that range, but it doesn't matter a great deal to me. If I put on a really low carb beer which is almost never, I tend to brew to suit keg you leave the gas off between service and occasionally shut it off or disconnect the gas post on that beer only during service to allow it to run down a little. Good secondary regulators are quite expensive and cheap ones often lack the fine control required for the 1-2psi differences we are talking about.

A lot depends on what beers you intend to put on at the same time. What temperature you'll use for them because they'll all share that variable and how complex and expensive you want to make it. I've tried to build my system to accommodate a wide range of styles, but they'll always be the odd one here and there that doesn't suit it, but there are ways around it and the worse case scenario isn't really that bad anyway so I live with it. There are usually a lot of compromises though. What if I want to serve a lager and a best bitter with the lager at 3C and the bitter at 14C? Isn't going to happen with a kreezer. I'll serve both at 6C and swirl the bitter as I pour to lose a little gas.

I used to use set and forget (takes ages unless they are super cold, ties up limited space where a drinkable beer could be on, uses co2) I've used burst carb (great if I rack at 0C after cold crashing, 2-3 minutes to gas, rocking the keg, uses co2, bit dodgy sometimes) but I now prime them with sugar. It is cheap, easy, use a bit less for low carb, bit more for high and seeing as nearly everything benefits from 7-14 days conditioning doesn't slow down anything. I've access to a dissolved oxygen meter and co2 bottles sometimes aren't very pure, for things like NEIPA's I'm not sure I even want to burst carb them after taking readings on random bottles of gas.
 
I love the keezers, they look fantastic. Didn't have space though so got a tall fridge. Very happy to find I can get 4 large cornies and 2 smaller ones in there. Space at the bottom to store more stuff and a door shelf for yeast.
Hello @BeerCat,

Have a two corny kegerator at the minute but looking for a decent larder fridge that can hold four cornies. Ideally, and critically, two cornies side by side (below) and two cornies side by side (above). I can't be moving full kegs to removed kicked ones as it affects clarity which is a big deal for me. I also have the "newer" cornies at 9" in diameter.

Any info on your fridge model please pal? So far my search has been futile... It's looking more and more like I'll end up with a keezer, but I'd rather a larder fridge kegerator because I'm lacking the floorspace in the garage.
 

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