First of all, sorry for the quality of the photo’s the Blackberry just doesn’t have a great camera and heck if I can find my good one since we moved.
Our new house has a nice bar area but no room for taps. Had to have some sort of taps but my wife was adamant that she didn’t want something that looked like a freezer just sitting there. The bar area is adjacent to a large “great room” where we entertain and spend most of our time so I can’t say I blame her. And my oldest son was getting pretty tired of going down to the basement to get beer.
So, I built this:
The bar is a distressed black finish so the intent was to match this or at least come sort of close. The panels don’t match perfectly but good enough for what I was after.
The panels are attached with 2x4’s cut down slightly to give 3 inches of clearance all the way round. There is no ventilation right now but if I find that the freezer isn’t working properly I will add a computer fan and hook it into the temperature controller so that it comes on when the freezer is running. The temp control is a simple Johnson analog control with the probe in a water bottle in the freezer. The whole thing is on rollers so it can be moved and pulled away from the wall. It has to be rolled out to get adequate clearance for the taps with the lid open anyway.
The taps are Peerless taps and the tubing was made for me by a friend that works in the food handling industry. It cost me $50 for parts and a case of beer for the guy that welded it up for me. Another friend who owns a machine shop made the fittings for the taps to screw into. I’ve already more than paid for them with beer over the years…
The lines aren’t insulated and I lose about 2 oz or so to foam with the first pour but that is not a major concern for me. I usually just start the pour into a solo cup and then finish in glass. The next item to add is a drip tray but I haven’t gotten that far yet. The peerless taps really don’t drip much so if I wait a couple seconds, there isn’t any issue.
The top is just peal and stick floor tile and the while top is attached to the freezer top with construction adhesive. Everything on the walls of the freezer is also attached with construction adhesive to avoid puncturing anything.
I have a 10 lb tank in there right now running all 5 kegs so individual gas control isn’t possible yet, and probably won’t be. The lines are 1/4 inch and it has taken some work to get them balanced alright but it’s working for now although I may switch them out to 3/16 sometime in the future. Right now I’m carbing new kegs elsewhere because I’m running pretty low pressure on this system. The freezer will hold 4 cornies and a smaller 3 gal on the hump for the compressor. The 3 gal will likely either have cider or hard lemonade in it most of the time just for variety. If we’re having a party or something I may even mix up 3 gal of rye and ginger or something.
My wife made the sign for above the bar so that we can keep track of what is on tap although she’s gonna have to be the one that writes on it because my penmanship is terrible.
Very unique tap arrangement.