1/2 keezer, 1/2 freezer ?

[brewman !]

Has anyone split a freezer in half, making it half freezer, half keezer ?

When we renovated, we put a stand up fridge and a medium sized chest freezer (Whirlpool EH151FXTQ) in the pantry. The plan was that the chest freezer would be my keezer.

However, now that we have lived in the house for 6 months, we find the stand up fridge to be too small and food is now being kept frozen in MY chest freezer. We clearly need more freezer space. Luckily, only about 30% of the chest freezer is being used.

We want all our frozen food in the pantry. I want to access my beer in the kitchen or pantry. We do not want to buy another freezer.

So... is there a way to split the chest freezer and use half of it for kegs and the other half to keep food frozen ? Build a dividing wall in it and run the chest freezer at 32F and use a glycol pump to pull chilled glycol from the stand up freezer to cool the freezer compartment in the chest freezer ?

Any other ideas on how to make this work ? Store kegs outside the freezer, insulate and chill them with a glycol loop ?

How does one figure out where the chilling coils are located in the walls of freezers and fridges ?

Thanks.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Honestly i dont think it'll ever work very well, i am sure you could rig something up but freezer foods should really be in a deep freeze and to keep it that way you'll be keeping your stand up freezer on non stop to chill all the extra glycol to keep the other space cold and burn it out fast.

 

[summerofgeorge]

I think a top/bottom split would be easier than left/right. Is there any way you could do a modified jockey box approach? Keep the freezer as is and attach a really well insulated jockey box to the top. Not sure if it would be easier to keep the factory lid on the freezer and build a lid for jockey box or do the standard collar approach and build an insulated separator.

Then find a way to circulate air or a glycol solution from the chest freezer to keep the beer lines at the right temperature. I would think if you had things insulated well enough, the freezer wouldn't have to work too hard to cool the jockey box.

ETA: you might even be able to make the split a little lower than the top of the freezer so the freezer would be partially cooling the jockey box without any circulation. It might be trial and error to figure out the ideal split. This also might make it more difficult using the freezer for food. With the split at the top of the freezer, just lift the collar up and you have easy access to the food below.

 

[brewman !]

A jockey box might be feasible.

Let me give you guys more background. Here are some pictures of what I am faced with.

Here is what the pantry looks like. The SS shelving will be replaced with narrower shelves, opening up the isle by another 4".

The plan was to put cabinets above the chest freezer and a counter top on the lid. The freezer would have be totally hidden. The kegs would go in the freezer. The tap line was to go on the counter top.

Here is what the inside of the freezer chest presently looks like. The orange stuff is some baking my wife did. This is as full as it has ever been. This space could obviously be better organized, and that may happen once we make a decision about how the beer will be served.

The stand up freezer is very well organized and totally full.

The pantry isn't far from what is presently our liquor cabinet.

We'll be keeping this our liquor cabinet for when we are hosting, but I don't think we want the tap line here. I'm not sure why I am sharing this picture... I keep having visions of putting the tap line there, but it doesn't really belong there. Mabye it will give someone an idea ????

There is some space behind the pantry door too, that I don't have a picture of. There is probably room for 4 kegs. I really wanted to have a 5 or 6 keg tap line. Not sure where I would put the taps then.

Its possible to store the kegs themselves in the basement under this space and just feed product up to the pantry. It would be a long feed though, probably 20 feet.

I had my heart set on having the tap line above the chest freezer. I still do. I think its the best place for it.

I've toyed with having a keezer downstairs and serving beer there. The problem with that is we'd always be running down when hosting. It would be especially inconvenient when we are on the deck, because it would be along trip from the deck to downstairs. I also like to have a beer every night with dinner. Serving from the main floor would be best and the pantry is the best location on the main floor.

Everything was all planned out until we found the stand up freezer to be too small. Of the best laid plans of mice and men...

Ideas ? Advice ?

 

[brewman !]

If using a jockey box, how long can product lines, from keg to tap be ?

What implications does storing a carbonated keg at room temperature have, versus storing it in a keezer ? Do bars store their kegs at room temp or chill them ?

I'm thinking I could store the kegs in the basement and run room temperature product lines from the basement to the pantry. I'd then run the beer through a cooling setup/ jockey box in the pantry.

What is a suitable hose material for running long product lines ? Stainless ? Plastic hose ? Copper ?

If the length is a problem, the kegs could be stored under the island in the kitchen or under the liquor cabinet. I'd rather not do that if I don't have to though.

We'd also like to serve beer in the basement. Could the same keg product line be split off to a second jockey box and tap ?

Thanks !

 

[TallDan]

Why not just replace the freezer with a typical refrigerator/freezer combo? Isn't that exactly what you're looking for, about 30% freezer and 70% refrigerator?

 

[brewman !]

http://nightshiftbrewing.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/from-mash-tun-to-jockey-box/

 

[brewman !]

Why not just replace the freezer with a typical refrigerator/freezer combo? Isn't that exactly what you're looking for, about 30% freezer and 70% refrigerator?

My wife loves the stand up freezer. Its 21 ft^3. Its so much better organized than a chest freezer.

If we replaced the stand up freezer with a fridge/freezer combo, 80% of the frozen stuff would be in the chest freezer and 20% in the stand up freezer. Instead of about 66% / 33% in stand up/ chest now.

You are right though, it would make things so much easier.

 

[TallDan]

OT: how many people live in your house? That's a huge amount of food between two freezers and what's on the shelving there.

 

[brewman !]

OT: how many people live in your house? That's a huge amount of food between two freezers and what's on the shelving there.

2 adults, 3 kids.

If you look closely at the shelving, its not packed very deep and 50% of the area is storing cooking accessories - crock pot, rice steamer, etc. And there is no food stored in the kitchen, except for spices used when cooking.

My wife also likes to buy bulk. It cuts down on the number of shopping trips we need to do. We are very busy people.

As far as the freezers go, we buy a lot of fresh fruit and veggies in the summer and freeze it for off season use. Last year was 60 pounds of peaches and another 40 pounds of plums. It takes up quite a bit of freezer room, but then we are eating fresh, non sweetend fruit, instead of buying canned. Freezing is way faster than canning it and when you thaw it, you get fruit suitable for cooking, eating, etc, instead of perserved fruit.

60 pounds of peaches = ~1 pound per week. We easily go through more than that with 6 people for Sunday brunch. Warm peaches and peach juice with a bit of vanilla on home made pancakes is very yummy and more nutricious than a bunch of syrop.

We try to avoid fast foods at all costs. The closest thing we have to a fast food is a frozen pizza and its usually a thin crust cheese pizza that gets topped with veggies and pineapple. To do that you need to store the veggies and pineapple.

We almost never have a problem with food getting old and none of us are over weight. Pantry storage = healthy, convenient food and time and money saved, not gluteny and waste. It also means a very clean and organized kitchen.

We used a certified kitchen designer when we did the reno. She loves the way we set up the pantry and kitchen. We did it for function, not show like some people do.

 

[72Chevelle]

would it be possible to do like the stand up side by side fridges and divide it with some type of wall with insulation and put in a small fan to blow in cold air when it needs it, maybe a aquarium temp controller that kicks on the fan for the cooling side and a small heater or brew belts on kegs for the heating???

Just an idea that's maybe in a different direction

 

[brewman !]

would it be possible to do like the stand up side by side fridges and divide it with some type of wall with insulation and put in a small fan to blow in cold air when it needs it, maybe a aquarium temp controller that kicks on the fan for the cooling side and a small heater or brew belts on kegs for the heating???

Just an idea that's maybe in a different direction

The cooling coils run all around the perimeter. One would have to disable some of the coils.

Thanks for the idea though.

 

[brewman !]

What implications does storing a carbonated keg at room temperature have, versus storing it in a keezer ? Do bars store their kegs at room temp or chill them ?

I happened to stumble upon the answer to my own question the other night.

Whereas beer stored at 70F might have be fresh (non stale) for a couple months, storing beer at keezer temps (near freezing) increases its life to a year or more.

Source: Dr. Charlie Bamford in this Brewstrong podcast.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/475

 

[waffle418]

A jockey box might be feasible.

I've toyed with having a keezer downstairs and serving beer there. The problem with that is we'd always be running down when hosting. It would be especially inconvenient when we are on the deck, because it would be along trip from the deck to downstairs. I also like to have a beer every night with dinner. Serving from the main floor would be best and the pantry is the best location on the main floor.

Everything was all planned out until we found the stand up freezer to be too small. Of the best laid plans of mice and men...

Ideas ? Advice ?

If you're still toying with it in the basement, there are options....

This guy ran it from his basement to his kitchen sink
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/draft-beer-tower-kitchen-sink-356848/

 

[brewman !]

If you're still toying with it in the basement, there are options....

This guy ran it from his basement to his kitchen sink
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/draft-beer-tower-kitchen-sink-356848/

Great find. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Why don't you replace the chest freezer with either a side by side or a traditional fridge?

 

[brewman !]

Why don't you replace the chest freezer with either a side by side or a traditional fridge?

We wanted to put a counter top on top of the freezer and cabinets above it.

 

[NickTheGreat]

We wanted to put a counter top on top of the freezer and cabinets above it.

I know that's what you were thinking about doing.

 

[brewman !]

I got an idea last night.

I think we should remove the stand up freezer and the chest freezer from the pantry and replace them with the largest chest freezer we can get, which is 25.8 cubic feet if we buy a new one or possibly bigger if we find a used one. That will hold all our frozen food in one appliance.

My wife doesn't want to give up the stand up freezer, but something has to give !

A 25.8 cu foot chest freezer is 73" long. The space where the stand up and chest freezer currently sit is 83" wide.

That also allows us to install wall cabinets all along the top of the freezer, which would really open up the pantry space and give us lots of storage and working countertop room.

That leaves me 2 options to mount the tap line. There would be 10 inches x 30 inches on either of the wall ends to install a tap line and drain, without it interfering with the chest freezer lid.

Or we could leave a section of wall cabinets out and mount the tap line directly onto the back wall, bringing the feed up through the wall itself.

I could even cut the chest freezer lid in half so that one would only have to open up 1/2 of the counter top at a time to get stuff out.

So... what would become of the stand up freezer and the chest freezer that is currently there ? The chest freezer could store kegs as originally planned, although in the basement. It would feed the tap line up into the pantry. Its perfect for that. After hearing what Dr Bamford said about keeping beer fresh, I want to keep as many kegs in that freezer as possible.

And the upright freezer will become my fermentation chamber, downstairs in the brewery.

I could put the tap line in with the present stand up freezer and chest freezer, but then I would have to buy a keg freezer for the basement and we don't really use all the space in both the stand up and chest freezer as it is.

I like the idea of using one big chest freezer in the pantry.

 

[86turbodsl]

I don't know if you ever found a solution to this, but i've been thinking about it for a long time myself. I have been planning on a walk in freezer / cooler / keezer for some time at my home. I plan to use basement space for this. I know most walk in guys on this site use modified ac units. I planned to use a normal evaporator with a remote condensing unit, mostly because it's the proper way to do it, and also because i can recover heat for other uses. My thoughts included a basic insulated box, but the difference is to split the box with an insulated wall, in this case, i thought either a sliding glass door or something similar. Put the evaporator in the freezer section. Use a small fan in the separator wall hooked up to a PID temp controller and set your temp for the cooler portion to run the fan when needed to cool to the set temp. So you have a refrigeration system keeping your freezer portion at your 0F set temp or whatever you planned, and a small fan that steals the cold from the freezer to make the cooler to temp. This is basically how a standard fridge works. the 40F temps are just stolen from the freezer section.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

If you're still toying with it in the basement, there are options....

This guy ran it from his basement to his kitchen sink
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/draft-beer-tower-kitchen-sink-356848/

That is exactly what I was thinking when I saw your liqueur cabinet, it screamed to me "PUT THE TAPS IN THAT WALL AND RUN BEER LINES FROM THE BASEMENT" it wouldn't be that easy but it would be badass and give you more of a brewing dedicated area in the basement, presumably.

It can be done cheaper than what that thread showed too, I've seen DIY chilled line setups just like what you would need here in the DIY forum.