So after moving in with SWMBO (getting married in October), I'm trying to get a new kegerator set up. The problem is, my old keezer has too large of a footprint to comfortably fit where I want it, so I'm looking at options for keeping the beer in the basement and pushing to a couple of taps on the first floor. I want to keep the cost as low as possible and I don't really want to mess with a glycol system to keep the lines cold. Here's what I'm thinking of doing:
I'm thinking of keeping the kegs in the basement, which stays at about 60 degrees. If I keep the kegs at about 22 PSI, that should keep the beer at about 2.4 volumes of CO2.
I have about a twelve foot rise from the basement, so if I use 1/4" ID lines with a resistance of about .8 PSI/ft, approximately 22 foot lines should be long enough to get the beer to the taps with a proper pour at the end.
I was thinking about using something like a permanent jockey box to chill the beer right before it hits the tap. Basically, a small refrigerator in a cabinet underneath the tap tower would contain a bucket of salt water chilled to somewhere in the low 30-degree range. A copper coil would go in here, and hopefully chill the beer to the mid 40-degree range. I figure I can have about 10 feet worth of copper line here (assuming I have about 12 foot of beer line from the keg to the chiller, then 10 foot in the chiller gets me to the 22 foot total I am allowed based on line resistance and pressure).
Does anyone see any obvious reasons why this wouldn't work or anything I haven't accounted for?
I'm thinking of keeping the kegs in the basement, which stays at about 60 degrees. If I keep the kegs at about 22 PSI, that should keep the beer at about 2.4 volumes of CO2.
I have about a twelve foot rise from the basement, so if I use 1/4" ID lines with a resistance of about .8 PSI/ft, approximately 22 foot lines should be long enough to get the beer to the taps with a proper pour at the end.
I was thinking about using something like a permanent jockey box to chill the beer right before it hits the tap. Basically, a small refrigerator in a cabinet underneath the tap tower would contain a bucket of salt water chilled to somewhere in the low 30-degree range. A copper coil would go in here, and hopefully chill the beer to the mid 40-degree range. I figure I can have about 10 feet worth of copper line here (assuming I have about 12 foot of beer line from the keg to the chiller, then 10 foot in the chiller gets me to the 22 foot total I am allowed based on line resistance and pressure).
Does anyone see any obvious reasons why this wouldn't work or anything I haven't accounted for?
