I did it! I built a 6 tap keezer!!

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drgonzo2k2

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I had October off from work, so in addition to spending lots of extra time with the family I finally got off my butt and built a 6 tap keezer! I never thought this was something I'd be able to do, and after pouring my first beers from it last night I am over the moon happy with the results. :ban:

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I did a lot of research before purchasing anything, and in the end I mainly followed this Homebrew Academy post, this Brulosophy post (which is very similar to the previous one), and this HBT thread.

For the chest freezer I went with the Magic Chef 6.9 cu. ft. Chest Freezer from Home Depot. It easily fits 6 ball lock kegs if you go with your CO2 tank outside the freezer. My plan is to use taps 1-4 for beer/hard cider, and then the last 2 taps for home made soda and kombucha. So I'm using 5 gallon kegs for 1-4 and 3 gallon kegs for 5 and 6. I could have gone a bit higher with my collar and made it so 5 gallon kegs would fit on the hump, but I don't think I'll ever need that so I went with a slightly shorter one.

The collar consists of a 2X6 inner pine frame, with a 1X8 outer frame attached to that using brass bolts. That sits securely on top of the freezer, and I used foam weather stripping under the collar to make sure it has a tight seal. Then everything got sealed up with clear silicone. I then attached 1" foam insulation to the inside of the collar using the loctite foam adhesive (which just happens to bring the collar flush to the inside of the freezer), and then went over everything with aluminum foil HVAC tape to make sure it was really sealed and looked a little more professional.

I have a single regulator on my 20# CO2 tank which sits outside the keezer, which then runs to 6 secondary regulators on the inside. The beverage tubing is all 3/16" ID, and I'm using 8' length for all of the beer taps. I'm using 5/16" ID tubing for the gas lines, and after spraying everything down with leak detector I was happy to find no leaks on the first try! All of the regulators are Tap Rite, and the faucets are Vent-Matic Ultra Flo V. I am extremely happy with both. Got perfect pours all night long on my first 2 kegs.

For the temperature regulator I went with the Inkbird ITC-308 as it is just plug and play, and it's mounted to the back of the keezer. For the fan I went with a 120 mm low speed AC fan. It just plugs directly into the wall, runs constantly, gets great air flow, and you can't even hear it with the lid closed.

3 levels of sanding on the collar, pre-stain, 4 coats of stain, and 6 coats of chalkboard paint on the lid finished it off. The tap handles I got off Etsy.

I'm happy to answer any questions if I can help someone out with their build. It was definitely easier than I thought, and I think this is something that nearly anyone can complete as long as your patient and have a drill and some sort of saw.
 
That looks amazing. I wish I could use the pool ball tap handles. I have one, but cannot fit it on my keezer the way I built it out.

Great work and great way to spend a month off of work!
 
Awesome keezer! Did you sand the lid prior to chalkboard paint?

After taping off the top (I used 2" painter tape) I did just a very light sanding with a medium grit sand paper. The instructions for the Rustoleum brand chalkboard, if I remember correctly, didn't actually say to sand prior to applying, but other instructions online did say to, so I figured it couldn't hurt.

I can't stress enough though going with 5-6 coats. The quality of the paint just kept improving the more I added, and I'm really happy with the results!
 
OP, did you drill those balls yourself? JonW here did a fridge build with them also. I don't recall how he did them.

No I thought about it, but I figured without a drill press and the proper tapping setup (to thread the hole you drill, not tap the beer) I had no shot at making it work.

I tracked them down on Etsy. They were $16/each, which seemed a bit high, but it was lower than the cost of a drill press and tapping setup, so I went with it.
 
No I thought about it, but I figured without a drill press and the proper tapping setup (to thread the hole you drill, not tap the beer) I had no shot at making it work.

I tracked them down on Etsy. They were $16/each, which seemed a bit high, but it was lower than the cost of a drill press and tapping setup, so I went with it.

You can get the threaded inserts at home depot that fit on tap threads. So if you think about something made out of wood, they are there. You just have to drill a normal hole and slam the insert in there. I think you'd need to glue them into a pool ball though. Yea, I'm gonna buy me some for sure. Thanks.
 
Very nice! Keezers are my favorite part of homebrewing! Especially when homemade by the user! You'll remember all the odds and ends of putting it together forever. As a bonus, you can fill it with beer!


At least you can keep yours in the house. My wife flat out said no, so it's in the garage. $300 in oak, and it's in the f#$&%¡¢ garage. I tried to "firmly" change her mind at the right "opportunity". :ban:


She still said no. :( I think I'm gonna sell it and make a more simple one. :( :(
 
Very nice! Keezers are my favorite part of homebrewing! Especially when homemade by the user! You'll remember all the odds and ends of putting it together forever. As a bonus, you can fill it with beer!


At least you can keep yours in the house. My wife flat out said no, so it's in the garage. $300 in oak, and it's in the f#$&%¡¢ garage. I tried to "firmly" change her mind at the right "opportunity". :ban:


She still said no. :( I think I'm gonna sell it and make a more simple one. :( :(

Hah, ya know, my wife was originally against the idea as well and wanted veto rights on anything I was planning. It was when I was browsing HBT and came across that post I linked earlier, and she just happened to be standing next to my computer, and she said, "see, now why can't you do something nice like that?" Then I know I had it made!

It also made it an easier sell to dedicate 2 of the 6 taps to non-beer.
 
Those look like Vent-Matic taps, are they? If they are, how do you like them? I've been considering them for my keezer, the info I've read on them so far has been positive.
 
Those look like Vent-Matic taps, are they? If they are, how do you like them? I've been considering them for my keezer, the info I've read on them so far has been positive.
I came here to post this exact question- I'm also curious about the Vent-Matics. Which size spout do you use? Any "hollow pours" like some seem concerned about?
 
Yeah, those are the new Vent-Matic Ultra-Flo V faucets, which are now being made by the original manufacturer again. I could not be happier with them. I just use the standard spout size that comes with the faucets, and I've experienced nothing but perfect pours from the very first beer out of this keezer. Really, I couldn't recommend them highly enough.

I've got 4 Perlicks on my kegerator at work, and I'm seriously considering swapping them out for the Vent-Matics.
 
Yeah, those are the new Vent-Matic Ultra-Flo V faucets, which are now being made by the original manufacturer again. I could not be happier with them. I just use the standard spout size that comes with the faucets, and I've experienced nothing but perfect pours from the very first beer out of this keezer. Really, I couldn't recommend them highly enough.

I've got 4 Perlicks on my kegerator at work, and I'm seriously considering swapping them out for the Vent-Matics.

Thanks for the input. Looks like the brushed version are popular, they're out of stock at the moment.
 
Thanks for the input. Looks like the brushed version are popular, they're out of stock at the moment.

Yeah, they've been a little overwhelmed with orders lately. Brulosophy gave them a pretty glowing review, and I think that was more exposure than the small company could handle. It took me about 3 weeks to get mine, but it was definitely well worth the wait.

Luckily the new growler fillers weren't out of stock, so I should have mine tomorrow. :ban:
 
Yeah, they've been a little overwhelmed with orders lately. Brulosophy gave them a pretty glowing review, and I think that was more exposure than the small company could handle. It took me about 3 weeks to get mine, but it was definitely well worth the wait.

Luckily the new growler fillers weren't out of stock, so I should have mine tomorrow. :ban:

Brulosophy is where I saw them for the first time as well, really sold me on them. They look like a quality faucet as compared to a Perlick, I prefer the brushed finish, and if I can support a small company that's a plus. :mug:
 
.............At least you can keep yours in the house. My wife flat out said no, so it's in the garage. $300 in oak, and it's in the f#$&%¡¢ garage. I tried to "firmly" change her mind at the right "opportunity". :ban:


She still said no. :( I think I'm gonna sell it and make a more simple one. :( :(


Don't do it! That's what growlers are for. Mine is downstairs in our basement, so if I know I'm going to imbibe for a while, I just fill a small growler to keep from making too many trips up/down the stairs.
 
Thanks for all the kind words everyone; I definitely put a lot of research and hard work into it, so it's great to get some nice feedback!

So far I've been extremely happy with the results. The only problem I've ran into so far was that I was getting a bit more moisture inside than I thought I would. This weekend I put 1" weatherstripping around the top of the frame meeting the rubber seal from the lid, and I added a small fan to my Eva-Dry, and that eliminated the problem.

If I had to do it all over again I think I would probably keep the 6 taps but go with a slightly larger freezer. Everything fits fine, but with 6 kegs in there depending on which one goes first I might have to remove 2 kegs to swap 1 out. Not a big deal, but something to consider. I'll be adding my 3rd beer on tap tonight, and Saturday we kegged up 2 sodas.
 
Hey Drgonzo.... Just wanted to give you a heads up on the magic chef. I built a very similar keezer with the magic chef 6.9 from home depot. It worked great for about 60 days and then abruptly stopped cooling with no warning. It was indoors and I used an stc1000 for temp control. The compressor still ran, but no cooling. Unfortunately I hard wired the controller, glued the collar and added a drip tray making it unwarrantable and unreturnable. Not sure if it had a leak in refrigerant or what, but I was unable to fix it. Ultimately I rigged an old refrigerator as a holding vessel with 1 tap until I figure something else out.

Nice work though, your keezer looks great! I hope your luck is better, keep an eye on your temp!

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