Home Bar Help😊

[NG1992]

Hi Guys,

So setting up a home bar and looking at coolers, budget friendly so going second hand.

Been looking at the Cornilious Maxi 310 but no E near me, cane across a Vision V5 that is 10 mins from my house but can't seem to find any reviews on them online.

Just wondering if anyone has a Vision V5 that can give me must knows about them.

 

[Graz]

Most of us just tend to convert fridges (AKA Kegerator) or freezers (AKA Keezer) to hold kegs, gas and have all the pipes, fittings, taps and so on to serve draught beer. Flash chillers are expensive in comparison. There might be someone on here with experience of them though.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Chillers are really intended to cool beer from the cellar that is already at typical cellar temps, so 13 - 15 degrees ishl If you have a keg at ambient temp, especially in a shed or summerhouse where it can get quite warm in summer, then not only will you be asking the chiller to do too much to chill your beer down from 20+ degrees but also your beer wont sit well at those temperatures for long periods of time. Better to use a fridge.

Also the carbonation of the beer will be better at colder temperatures and pouring of the beer without pouring pure foam.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Many people find it easier to just convert a fridge/freezer as @Graz suggested.

I have experience using Maxi’s but not Vision so can’t give first hand feedback. I did notice looking on-line though that the Vision cooler uses less energy (about half) for cooling which might suggest the cooling capacity is not as good as the Maxi?

Atlantic ( https://atlantic.org.uk ) do have Maxi 310 4P refurbished units at £270 but again I haven’t used Atlantic so can’t give a personal recommendation on the company - they just seemed to offer a good price.

You can build a well insulated cabinet for your kegs and chill it using the Maxi as well as cool your beer, this has the obvious advantage of storing your beer at a cooler/consistent temperature. There is obviously additional cost to this though so you might want to compare costs to a fridge/freezer. I have too many kegs for a fridge/freezer so I use a small submersible pump in the coolant reservoir of a Maxi controlled by an Inkbird to circulate coolant through a car radiator/fan assembly in my brewshed.

 

[NG1992]

Appreciate your help guys, was looking into kegetor etc but still think it would look tidier on a bar , may possibly look into getting a fridge under the bar, store the keg in that at a stable temp and have the chiller on-top to add coldness,

Definitely alot to look into but can get a Vision V5 for 200€ so seems like it's worth the gamble

 

[MashBag]

Is the tap on the bar going to be a long way from the fridge?

Sorry missing your point as to why you would have both?

 

[NG1992]

Is the tap on the bar going to be a long way from the fridge?

Sorry missing your point as to why you would have both?

It would be directly above it,

Just thinking the fridge would keep the keg at celler temp especially when we have it in Doors, and then the chiller would just add the extra crispy to it .

That's my thinking but still only learning so may not be great idea

 

[MashBag]

I would have thought it well be cool enough coming out of the fridge, depending on set temp.

You also have to consider extra pipe runs = lost beer?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The thinking is fine, my brewshed is held at cellar temp and all my kegs are in there along with bottles of red wine and packs of bar snacks.

English ales are dispensed from the keg, chilled beers like lager then go through my cooler (white wines and Prosecco are separated stored in a wine fridge).

You could also achieve this with two fridges set at different temperatures and it might even be cheaper than the cooler second hand.

These are just options, there’s no wrong way so do whatever excites you

 

[grooves]

I have a maxi 310 - I just have kegs at shed temperature. I only run it when I have people over for a bbq in summer - but it easily takes shed temp beer down to 3c. Obviously the beer would keep better in a brewfridge/keezer, but if I've got the lads over a keg won't last the first half of the afternoon.