Questions about my kegerator - is using cooling coils in the fridge a bad idea?

[umfana]

g'day all,

I have a kegerator in my garage that is under a worktop. So it is an under counter fridge. The internal size is actually quite large and I can get 3 19L corny kegs in there ok. What I want though is 5 taps. Mostly because one tap needs to be dedicated to dispensing carbonic acid (aka fizzy water) and only two beer taps isn't enough of a variety for me.

I have bought one of these to test: US $28.21 9% OFF|50' Stainless Steel Coil 5/16'' beer cooling coil for jockey box|steel bar bending machine|cooler timecooler portable - AliExpress
My plan was to have two of these coils inside the fridge with the kegs for them outside the fridge. The outside kegs would have the product line going into the fridge through a hole in the side. One outside keg would be for the water keg and one for a beer. I have the ability to have different gas pressures for the inside kegs and the outside kegs.

Are there any inherent problems with this setup that you could see?
eg any problems with beer (or carbonated water) being in a stainless cooling coil for a long time between servings?

Thanks,
Umfana

 

[crowcrow]

Personally, I wouldn't have an issue with keeping the beer in the pipes (though proper washes would be an problem?) I have about 8 foot of beer line (very thin to stop foaming) and that is OK. I think you will need to add some 'thermal mass' to that set up, so have that piping in a liquid (glycerin?) to cool the new warm beer as it enters. Air is a poor conductor.

The many problems would be the temp. You'll want the keezer about 3 or 4c for your main kegs, but the pipes will only be that temp too, and will be unlikely to cool a room temp beer to the same temp quickly. Unless you are only going to drink 'one pipes worth' at a time and then allow it to cool again.

I believe jockey box set ups are often about 1c, with a good thermal mass to them - but I could be wrong! I've only observed one once and didn't have a proper look - but the system seemed cooler than the beer that came out.

 

[umfana]

Personally, I wouldn't have an issue with keeping the beer in the pipes (though proper washes would be an problem?) I have about 8 foot of beer line (very thin to stop foaming) and that is OK. I think you will need to add some 'thermal mass' to that set up, so have that piping in a liquid (glycerin?) to cool the new warm beer as it enters. Air is a poor conductor.

The many problems would be the temp. You'll want the keezer about 3 or 4c for your main kegs, but the pipes will only be that temp too, and will be unlikely to cool a room temp beer to the same temp quickly. Unless you are only going to drink 'one pipes worth' at a time and then allow it to cool again.

I believe jockey box set ups are often about 1c, with a good thermal mass to them - but I could be wrong! I've only observed one once and didn't have a proper look - but the system seemed cooler than the beer that came out.

Thanks crowcrow. you confirm my original thoughts on the limitiations.

I have installed one coil. Only tested now with carbonated water. The output temperature and carbonation is quite stable it seems. For the first 1 litre that is. And it seems to take about 30 minutes for the next pour to be cold too. That is ok for me as I guess I will prioritise the inside of the fridge for session beers and keep the outside storage for beers that would see less throughput.

This way I get to have five beer taps from what is a tiny fridge. Seems like an ok compromise.

I will report back if I have massive success or massive failure of this experiment.

 

[crowcrow]

Cheers, looking forward to hearing more! Could be an easy way to get more 'kegs' into my set up too - and a litre is pretty good - I mean two pints right there that would take me longer to drink than it would to cool the new beer.

 

[umfana]

So initial findings are:

1. Changes in ambient temperature affect carbonation levels a bit (expected). But this is not too much and is manageable.
2. Despite having over 55 feet of 5/16 tubing I still think I need some more experimentation with line balancing. But maybe this is just a feature of my preference for very high carbonation levels for soda water (>30psi). I'll only be able to tell when I have beer on the external keg system. For water where foam is not a problem it is quite nice to get a full glass poured in under 2 seconds, something that would get exciting with beer.

I am not sure yet if I will order a second coil. Before I do that I might try with some mini kegs in the fridge. I think I can get 3x 19L, 1x 5L and 1 x cooling coil for external keg into the fridge.

That still gives me 5 taps. Even if one of them is only on a 5L keg. At a push a 9L corny might fit.

 

[umfana]

So initial findings are:

1. Changes in ambient temperature affect carbonation levels a bit (expected). But this is not too much and is manageable.

Just to note that I don't keep gas turned on all the time. Only when serving. And when burst carbonating. I think that this helps with carbonation stability a but rather than with gas turned on all the time.

 

[umfana]

Another addendum of importance for anyone else thinking of trying this:

I got very close to making my in fridge cooling coils out of copper pipe. I can bend copper pipe reasonably well so thought it would be ideal. That is before I had a small worry in the back of my head about acid eating copper and copper poisoning. Turns out it is a real worry. Don't dispense an acidic drink (like carbonated water) through copper pipes. It can lead to bad copper poisoning.
https://www.krha.org/news/278616/Dangers-of-Carbonator-Backflow.htm
I have found no documentation to say stainless steel is bad though. But this is my reason for having a stainless steel coil. Very long term I did think about casting the SS coil into a solid block of aluminium. It would be a fun project, if not a little bit dangerous.

 

[umfana]

Dragging up my own thread from the depths to give an update.

Using these ss cooling coils has worked fine now for a while. I have an under counter fridge that has 5 taps supplied by 5 full size corny kegs.
3 kegs go in the fridge. Then there is still room for two cooling coils (linked above) that are supplied by two kegs outside the fridge. One of the outside kegs is for sparkling water, but the other one I reserve for lower carbonation beers. My beer fridge is set at quite a warm 8 degrees as a compromise.

All in all, I'm very happy with this. It maximises beer tappage in minimal space.

 

[K C L]

Great post! I’m interested in Jockey Boxes, can’t seem to find them here in the UK. Have you tried to make one? Would the process be much different?