Category Archives: Keezer / Kegerator

Mein Bierwagen Part 2 – Building the Frame

This post will present the basic plans to construct the wooden frame of the Bierwagen.

Difficulty: level_3

This project just requires some basic building skills, but you might need some help getting the keezer onto the Bierwagen.

Posts for this Project:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Building of the frame (this post)
Part 3: Bicycle wheel attachment
Part 4: Getting the keezer onto the Bierwagen
Part 5: Keezer collar
Part 6: Storage of the Bierwagen

Affiliate Links

Helpful Tools:

Circular Saw or Miter Saw
Drill or Impact Drill

Materials Needed:

  • (qty 6) 2×4 x 96″ boards
  • drywall/deck screws (2.5″ is perfect for most of the joints where you have two 2×4’s side-by-side (3″ total thickness at that point)

Overview:

Here are a few views of the cart (without support legs attached) for reference.

015-2 - Front 3_4 View

015-2 - Rear 3_4 view

This is the cart flipped over so you can see the attachments for the wheels.  The fabrication of those will be in a subsequent post.

015-2 - Back View

Construction:

I’m not going to do a step by step, since the pictures and following information should be sufficient for most readers taking on this task.

Design:

Below is the top view of the cart with only the major dimensions shown.  I had several constraints when designing the cart.  As I mentioned in the first post, it will be rolled out for a grand unveiling at our party.  It had a few obstacles to navigate during it’s trip from the garage to the back yard.

  • It must fit through our gate
  • It must be able to navigate large bumps (edge of driveway and protruding tree roots in the grass)
  • Quick disassembly and assembly for storage under our deck during the other 364 days of the year
  • Utilize our bike tires
  • Integrated ramp system for easy loading/unloading of my keezer dolly
  • It needed to be sturdy enough to stand on that I could switch over kegs during the party
  • The weight of the keezer must be carefully balanced so that the Bierwagen does not tip when set to rest, yet far enough back that lifting from the front is easy.

You can see the profile of the keezer dolly on the top view to show that it is sufficiently in front of the axle line to prevent tipping.  You’ll see in the loading/unloading post how it slides up the “ramp” to be set in place.  I added an extra 1/4″ clearance to the outer edges of the casters so that they would not rub on the frame rails when moving.  I also had to add about 4″ of clearance for the bike wheels.  The Bierwagen is probably overbuilt and pretty heavy to lift, but it serves it’s purpose that one day of the year where it counts!

015-2 - Top_View

The side view shows all of the other major dimensions and locations of the boards.  Again, you can see how the center of the keezer dolly is between the bicycle wheel axles and the legs.  When changing kegs over during the party it is important to stand between the keezer and the legs.  This will also prevent tipping.  You’ll see on the post where the keezer is getting loaded onto the “ramp”, that the standard 3.5″ height of a 2×4 is just low enough to get my keezer dolly up onto, but if you need a little more clearance, you could put an optional cut into the end to get you what you need.

015-2 - Side_View

REMEMBER, IMPORTANT TO AVOID TIPPING!!!!!!:

  • MAKE SURE THE WEIGHT (CENTER OF GRAVITY, CENTER OF MASS, ETC) OF THE KEEZER IS BETWEEN THE WHEEL AXLE LINE AND THE FEET
  • MAKE SURE YOU STAND BETWEEN THE KEEZER AND THE LEGS WHEN MESSING AROUND INSIDE THE KEEZER OR WITH THE KEEZER

Cut list:

Below is the cut list if your Bierwagen ends up matching mine.  I was able to build my cart from a quantity of six, 2x4x96″ studs.  The color coding is consistent with the downloadable guide.

The legs and cross-member supports required mitered ends.  The lengths shown are for the full-length board that you will then trim the angles in the boards.

015-2 - Cut_List

Of course, your keezer is most likely a different size and you may not even have a keezer dolly, so take my plans and modify them to suit your needs.  The cut list is in an ideal world, so you may have to buy an extra 2×4 or if you are like me, you’ve always got some on hand for whatever needs may pop up.

Download the Detail Prints for Frame and Cut List by subscribing:

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Up next…

Bicycle wheel attachment

Posts for this Project:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Building of the frame (this post)
Part 3: Bicycle wheel attachment
Part 4: Getting the keezer onto the Bierwagen
Part 5: Keezer collar
Part 6: Storage of the Bierwagen

 

 

Mein Bierwagen

My wife and I throw our annual Strausstoberfest party every year on the last Saturday in September.  This occurs during the traditional Oktoberfest celebration.  Oktoberfest is synonymous with beer, awesome food and a certain amount of over the top pomp and circumstance.  For the last part, I decided that the beer I’ve spent the last 2+ months caring for MUST have a grand entrance.

Difficulty: level_3

This project just requires some basic building skills, but you might need some help getting the keezer onto the Bierwagen.

Time Required:

An afternoon for the build of the cart.  Longer if you want to paint or stain it.

Posts for this Project:

Part 1: Introduction (this post)
Part 2: Building of the frame
Part 3: Bicycle wheel attachment
Part 4: Getting the keezer onto the Bierwagen
Part 5: Keezer collar
Part 6: Storage of the Bierwagen

Affiliate Links

Overview:

Here I am rolling out the Bierwagen.  Notice the tap handles I made in the post Super Easy Tap Handles.

015-1 Roll out the Bierwagen

Here I am “tapping the keg” with my son looking on.  o’zapft is!

015-1 Tapping the Bier

Here is a 2015 update.  I’ve got my Hipster Cream Ale WBHY 3D printed tap handle as well as a 3D printed Darth Vader bust added to my Super Easy Tap Handles.

015-Strausstoberfest 2015 Bierwagen

The “rolling chassis”.  It uses the front wheels from my bike and my wife’s bike.  We don’t use them much in the fall, so why not be resourceful and use them?

015-1 Rolling chassis

The Bierwagen works in concert with my Keezer Dolly.

015-1 Keezer dolly onto Bierwagen

Nothing too novel here, just another keezer collar and my Ranco temperature controller mounted on back.

015-1 Ranco mounted on back

Stay tuned for my updates on the build for this project.

Up next…

Building of the frame

 

 

Refrigerator Conversion Part 6 – Finishing up and other observations

Here are some final thoughts on my refrigerator conversion and other related observations.
If you missed the first post, start here: Part 1: Introduction
That post has a run down of most of the materials, tools and supplies needed for this project.

Difficulty: level_4

This project requires a few inexpensive special tools, but will most likely take an entire weekend, lots of improvisation, some thorough cleaning and the cost of the fridge takes it to level 4.

Posts for this Project:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Clean up
Part 3: Disassembly
Part 4: Door modification
Part 5: Shelf building
Part 6: Finishing up and other observations (this post)

Affiliate Links

Pros and Cons of other setups I’ve seen:

A/C units to cool down a fermentation chamber

I had serious reservations about the ability of a window air conditioner to maintain 34 degF in a cabinet of sufficient size in the middle of summer, let alone have enough capacity to lower the temperature of your fermenting beer at any reasonable speed

Dorm fridge powered fermentation chamber

I know this seems to be all the rage with fermentation chambers, but again, I didn’t see how it would be able to handle the cooling needs of a chamber of the size that I needed.

Gutting a full size fridge and re-installing those components in a customer insulated chamber

This was my “ultimate” plan from the beginning, but when I planned out the costs of the wood, the insulation and the FRP panels to line the inside, I was close to double or tripel (see what I did there) the cost of the fridge itself.  I then had the realization that if I found a fridge large enough, the capacity of the freezer alone would be enough to serve my needs.

Temperature Controller:

A temperature controller is a MUST for any fermentation cabinet.  My first controller for my keezer was the Ranco ETC-111000 single stage temperature controller.  I’ll have a post about my wiring at some point.

There are plenty of options out there.  For this lagering fridge as well as my other two converted dorm fridges, I actually made a simple Arduino based temperature controller.  There isn’t really anything novel about them, except that I wanted the challenge of designing my own system.  Below is a picture of the controller setup I’ve got on this lagering cabinet that I just built.  Basically the Arduino controller has a temperature probe inside the fridge to detect temperature and it cycles the fridge on and off through a relay box to maintain temperature.  The display on the box shows 3434.  It’s my simplified way of showing a setpoint of 34 degF and a cabinet temperature of 34 degF.

012 - Temperature Controller

Google search for Arduino Temperature Controller

 

I do however have a Raspberry Pi and am looking at going to the BrewPi setup or some derivative.  I really geek out on that stuff and it gets me really excited when I think about that possibility.  Here are some good links:

Official BrewPi

Home Brew Talk thread on using all the BrewPi code, but a standard Arduino

Small Tip for the Newbie

If you are new to temperature control, note that for best results, you need to set your fridge or freezer to maximum cold and let the temperature controller do the rest.  All of these temperature controllers basically power cycle the fridge/freezer on or off to control the temperature.

How to move a fridge from point A to point B:

You’ll hear many times that you can’t lay a fridge on it’s back or it will ruin the compressor.  This is half-true.  You can lay a fridge on it’s back to transport it, BUT when you get it to your house, you just need to get it upright so that the compressor fluid drains back into the compressor before it is powered on again.  I generally just get it to my garage, get it upright again and let it sit overnight.  I’ve done this 4 times with no dead fridges.

As an FYI, we’ve got a 2005 Honda Odyssey and with the middle seats taken out and the back seats folded into the floor, it has fit all 4 of those fridges inside with the tailgate all the way closed.  If you have a trailer, more power to you.

Oh, another important tip.  Remove all of the shelves from the fridge before laying it on it’s side.  All of those things are meant for gravity to hold them in place and when you put the fridge on it’s back, they all usually fall out of their slots.

What I tried to do with another fridge (drilling FAIL):

I was always under the impression that every important mechanical component was either at the back or underneath.  I was proven wrong one time when attempting to install a draw catch latch to a fridge.  I started drilling the pilot hole in the side of the fridge for the screws and the psssssssshhhhhh of the magic refrigerant came blowing out.  RIP fridge.

Simplified explanation of how a refrigerator works:

A refrigerator is simply a mechanical system that removes heat from an insulated cabinet.  That’s as far as I’m going with that.

You may also hear someone tell you that a refrigerator won’t work in a garage.  The reason behind this is that when the ambient temperature gets below the internal temperature of the freezer or close to it, the temperature difference gets closer to zero (T_ambient – T_freezer).  An A/C compressor or refrigerator compressor system relies on a temperature difference to function, so if you take away this difference, it won’t function properly.

Having said that, we live in central Indiana and have 3 refrigerators and one deep freezer in our garage.  We only have a problem with our primary overflow fridge with the ice maker in deep winter, where it doesn’t produce enough ice.  Except during long cold spells (where it can get close to freezing), our garage is usually about 55 degrees in the areas directly adjacent to a living space and in our bump out (furthest away) it is maybe low 40’s.

The more unknown part is that almost all top and bottom refrigerators are essentially a freezer on top that does all the work and bleeds cold air to the refrigerator compartment.  If you get to tearing one apart, you’ll see this.  Also if you’ve ever had a fridge with weak magnetic seals, you may notice that when you slam one of the doors, the other one pops open.  That’s because they are linked.

That’s all folks…Thanks for reading!