Hey all,
I've been lurking in these forums since I got into homebrewing again (Tried it 7yrs ago with minimal effort and gave up too easy after some not so good batches in my bucket kit). This time I've really been doing my research, reading & watching plenty of vids.
I've got a Fermzilla 27L conical, and recently ordered 2 refurbished corny kegs from the malt miller.
I've been pretty pleased with my progress, only brewing with extract kits at the moment but I'm very happy with the beers I've made so far.
My first bottling attempt, that actually went pretty smoothly, despite realising how much of a chore it was.
My second and third batches were foam nightmares as I didn't know what I was doing, didn't work out the temp and line length thing yet.
Anyway I told myself 'Never again' and started looking into kegging.
After getting my kegs I found a second hand fridge on ebay going for £10. In hindsight I'd have gone for a bigger one and one with a square base, this one has a boxed area at the back raised over the compressor.
Here's pancakes my cat telling me that this isnt going to work...
You can see the keg at the back sat on top of the boxed area, but that didnt leave enough headroom for connectors and the gas had to sit at an angle because of the thermostat jutting out.
I needed that extra half an inch.
Much better, both kegs fit, with enough headroom. The gas can live outside.
With a JG line reducer to 3/16 I can fit the gas line through the drainage hole.
I lined up where I wanted my tower to go on my garage workbench using the rubber seal for my tower. Using a hole saw I attacked my workbench and realised it was too deep, I had to pilot hole it and go at it from both sides to work the core loose. You can see in the pic I've pushed the fridge back into place so that I can mark out on the top where I need to drill.
I also wasn't sure at this point if I was going to hit anything so looked up the components and how they work, most of everything is visible on the back, the compressor, condenser coils, expansion device and evaporator coils etc. So pretty slim to none chance of anything being in the top of the fridge.
I used a smaller hole saw, doesnt need to be any bigger than nessesary as I want to keep the cold air in! Speaking of which, there's a 3 inch gap between the fridge top and workbench.
I grabbed some spare drywall insulation and cut out a square, just the right thickness so I velcro'd it to the top. The fridge stays nice and cold and my tower is also chilled. No more foam!
I also wanted a drip tray so picked up a stainless steel one with drainage and cut out a hole in my bench for it, snug fit with a bit of sealant and its looking good.
Only thing I didnt consider was the length of the drainage thread directly above my fridge. Meaning I couldnt get an adaptor to shrink the thread into a standard hose fitting.
I considered sawing off half the thread but in the end settled with wedging my hose into the thread directly which is tapered inside, I put a bit of sealant/glue on for good measure but I'm pretty happy its sealed up well.
Lastly here's the finished setup. Garage workbench, kegerator, you can see my fermzilla in it's insulation jacket down on the right with my raspberry pi on top of the bench (that monitors the temp and turns on and off the heatbelt)
I've been lurking in these forums since I got into homebrewing again (Tried it 7yrs ago with minimal effort and gave up too easy after some not so good batches in my bucket kit). This time I've really been doing my research, reading & watching plenty of vids.
I've got a Fermzilla 27L conical, and recently ordered 2 refurbished corny kegs from the malt miller.
I've been pretty pleased with my progress, only brewing with extract kits at the moment but I'm very happy with the beers I've made so far.
My first bottling attempt, that actually went pretty smoothly, despite realising how much of a chore it was.
My second and third batches were foam nightmares as I didn't know what I was doing, didn't work out the temp and line length thing yet.
Anyway I told myself 'Never again' and started looking into kegging.
After getting my kegs I found a second hand fridge on ebay going for £10. In hindsight I'd have gone for a bigger one and one with a square base, this one has a boxed area at the back raised over the compressor.
Here's pancakes my cat telling me that this isnt going to work...
You can see the keg at the back sat on top of the boxed area, but that didnt leave enough headroom for connectors and the gas had to sit at an angle because of the thermostat jutting out.
I needed that extra half an inch.
Much better, both kegs fit, with enough headroom. The gas can live outside.
With a JG line reducer to 3/16 I can fit the gas line through the drainage hole.
I lined up where I wanted my tower to go on my garage workbench using the rubber seal for my tower. Using a hole saw I attacked my workbench and realised it was too deep, I had to pilot hole it and go at it from both sides to work the core loose. You can see in the pic I've pushed the fridge back into place so that I can mark out on the top where I need to drill.
I also wasn't sure at this point if I was going to hit anything so looked up the components and how they work, most of everything is visible on the back, the compressor, condenser coils, expansion device and evaporator coils etc. So pretty slim to none chance of anything being in the top of the fridge.
I used a smaller hole saw, doesnt need to be any bigger than nessesary as I want to keep the cold air in! Speaking of which, there's a 3 inch gap between the fridge top and workbench.
I grabbed some spare drywall insulation and cut out a square, just the right thickness so I velcro'd it to the top. The fridge stays nice and cold and my tower is also chilled. No more foam!
I also wanted a drip tray so picked up a stainless steel one with drainage and cut out a hole in my bench for it, snug fit with a bit of sealant and its looking good.
Only thing I didnt consider was the length of the drainage thread directly above my fridge. Meaning I couldnt get an adaptor to shrink the thread into a standard hose fitting.
I considered sawing off half the thread but in the end settled with wedging my hose into the thread directly which is tapered inside, I put a bit of sealant/glue on for good measure but I'm pretty happy its sealed up well.
Lastly here's the finished setup. Garage workbench, kegerator, you can see my fermzilla in it's insulation jacket down on the right with my raspberry pi on top of the bench (that monitors the temp and turns on and off the heatbelt)
