Building in-wall Draft System

[Kennanwt5]

Exciting news! My wife just ok’d me to put in a wall beer tap at my house. I have a crawl space at my house that is pretty good size (roughly 5.5ft tall with concrete slab), which is situated right below my kitchen. My plan is to drill up through the floor where I have a wall, and run my tubing up between two studs. In the kitchen, I’ll drill a couple holes and grab the lines that have been snaked up. Finally add a couple of taps and I am done. O yea, I was planning just to put my kegerator in the crawl space which would house the kegs. My question is, has anyone done this? An recommendations regarding best way to approach this? Is it really as simple as I describe?

I would love to see pics if anyone has done this!

 

[Barley_Bob]

This is a really cool idea. The key is going to be keeping the lines cold, but someone will chime in with advice.

 

[milldoggy]

Don't think a kreezer will work, not enough height. Maybe a reg kegerator. How hot does the crawl space get. Regular fridges are designed for summer heat and will tax them, but still work.

 

[sneakybrian]

 

[jhoneycutt]

I want

 

[Barley_Bob]

I like this a lot. Big space saver, and it looks sleek. You'll have to give OP some pointers.

 

[Kennanwt5]

Sneakybrian... lovely set up. Thats pretty much what I envision, except coming up from below. Do you use a fan to blow cool air up into the pipes? It looks like there is a computer fan in there....

Thanks for the pics. It helps me envision it better.

 

[HOPtuary]

I did something similar. These are from when I initially built it. Minor changes. Feel free to ask questions.

 

[sneakybrian]

I have a big comp fan in freezer to circle air in there. There is a small fan attached to the second pipe pushing air down from th e box into the keezer. By doing this it also pulls cool air up from the keezer through the tube with the beer lines then back into the keezer.

 

[sneakybrian]

Only bad thing about putting it in a crawl space is you'd have to crawl in there a couple times a week to empty the condensation since it's outside. I do anyway being in the south. It's so hot out, there is a bit of condensation that builds up. I didn't realize it when I built mine until an entire keg was encapsulated buy a solid 7 gallon cube of ice. Here is 1 days worth of condensation

http://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Q37g39ZZI5c

 

[chrishanson]

You're going to want to cool the lines somehow. Fans and airflow is enough for some distance but at some point you'll need something more active like a water or glycol loop.

I've been considering something similar (unfinished basement space to kitchen) and look forward to seeing how you decide to do it.

 

[pigroaster]

I would drill a 2 and 1/4 inch hole in the floor area between your walls and install a 2 inch plastic PVC pipe up top tap area with a fan blowing up on beer lines. Not sure about tightning up back for taps but am sure someone has the magic.

 

[milldoggy]

You're going to want to cool the lines somehow. Fans and airflow is enough for some distance but at some point you'll need something more active like a water or glycol loop.

I've been considering something similar (unfinished basement space to kitchen) and look forward to seeing how you decide to do it.

I run 25 ft lines with glycol from basement to my dining room, let me know if you have any questions.

 

[sneakybrian]

Youd probably need to cut an access panel out of the drywall behind the taps

 

[Barley_Bob]

Just put in a nice wood plaque and then mount your taps in that. That'll let you cut as big a hole in the drywall as you need and it'll look really slick.

 

[Kennanwt5]

Sneakybrian... in my house the crawl is actually temperature regulated since its within my foundation walls (if that make sense). Its basically a mini basement in a sense. Just 5 feet high..

Glycol loop. never considered that. Would love to know more of what that entails and the cost.

Warren

 

[ryan_george]

My solution:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-keezer-alternative-electric-jockey-box-463149/

 

[Timzabel12]

Couldn't you run PVC tower from the keezer to the taps and use PC fans to push the cold air from inside the keezer. Seems that the added amount of space would be negligible in the keezer cooling it.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I installed an in-wall draft system once.

Called it a window.

 

[NCBeerMedic]

Only bad thing about putting it in a crawl space is you'd have to crawl in there a couple times a week to empty the condensation since it's outside. I do anyway being in the south. It's so hot out, there is a bit of condensation that builds up. I didn't realize it when I built mine until an entire keg was encapsulated buy a solid 7 gallon cube of ice. Here is 1 days worth of condensation

http://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Q37g39ZZI5c

Brian, have you thought about just running a line from your condensate drain either through your door or an outside wall?