Stout on Keezer Hump for Warmer Temperature?

[Clint Yeastwood]

I got my keezer into the house today. I have not made the collar yet, and I don't have my Cornys.

I bought a Torpedo Megamouth 5-gallon keg, hoping it would fit in my spare fridge. I gave up on that idea, and I was going to return it. Then I had a thought. A cunning plan.

I saw some guy talking about putting a stout keg on the hump of his keezer because the hump was a little warmer than the floor. I can do this with the Megamouth. It will hang off the hump a little, but it's short enough to fit between the hump and the lid.

Does anyone know if hump-warmed stout really works?

 

[lumpher]

Hump-warmed Stout... mmm... on my brew list now, right after crotch-lick porter... if you want your stout 2-3 degrees warmer than the other kegs, go for it.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I got my keezer into the house today. I have not made the collar yet, and I don't have my Cornys.

I bought a Torpedo Megamouth 5-gallon keg, hoping it would fit in my spare fridge. I gave up on that idea, and I was going to return it. Then I had a thought. A cunning plan.

I saw some guy talking about putting a stout keg on the hump of his keezer because the hump was a little warmer than the floor. I can do this with the Megamouth. It will hang off the hump a little, but it's short enough to fit between the hump and the lid.

Does anyone know if hump-warmed stout really works?

That may have been me mentioning that. I picked up a 7cu ft GE freezer that I fitted with a 2"x12" collar. This allows me to have a full sized 5 gallon corny keg on the hump. Even though I have this fan blowing down towards the hump the beer still pours about 5-7 degrees warmer than the "floor" beers. So I currently have a Wee Heavy on the hump. Before that, a Best Bitter, and before that a Porter. So, I always try to have a beer kegged that works fine at that temperature and a lower carbonation level. A stout works fine there too. I suppose I could take additional actions to try to equalize the temperature throughout, but I kind of like it this way.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Thanks for the help.

I already have this keg, so I think I may as well give this a shot.

 

[sibelman]

This steep a temperature gradient is interesting (and a bit surprising). I take it the beer would pour warmer (at first) with a floating dip tube. Then, colder when pulling from lower. I wonder if this happens in my kegerator - never noticed!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The thing that's really interesting about the Torpedo is that it looks like it turns a 4-keg keezer into a 5-keg keezer.

 

[day_trippr]

I'm really surprised that such a small keezer equipped with a stirring fan has that big a temperature differential!
I run a 14cf keezer with a single 120mm 12vdc fan set atop the hump blowing the length of the machine and don't have even 2°F of differential top to bottom, corner to corner...

Cheers!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Isn't the heat coming from the hump what raises the temperature in the keg? It doesn't sound like it's related to differences in the air temperature.

 

[day_trippr]

Next chance I get I'll train my Fluke IR gun on the hump vs floor and walls to see if that makes sense in my case. I'd expect the hump to have roughly the same level of insulation as the rest of the cabinet but maybe that's naive on my part

If there is I suppose it matters if a keg is full metal (ala Torpedo kegs) vs classic rubber-equipped kegs...

Cheers!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Bet it varies from one brand to another, and on whether you pay attention to maintaining the right distance from the wall.

I guess there is no law against putting sound-deadening mat in there somewhere to raise the R value if you want.

 

[BongoYodeler]

The stated 5-7 degrees difference was just an estimate, but at any rate it's noticeable. When I have some time I'll take a closer look.