Bar Build advice

[sdmarkus]

Howdy Ho there fellow beer lovers,

I'm in the midst of a fairly serious remodel and plan to design a bar area for draft beers and entertaining.

Initially I thought I'd go with an under counter system and bring a tower up through the countertop. The only challenge there is the cost of the refrigeration system and loss of cabinet space/storage space.

More recently I had an epiphany that I think could work well and wanted to get some feed back. I'll be building this bar area into a corner basically where one side backs up to my attached garage. Meaning I could potentially remote serve from a chest freezer(?) in the garage and bring the lines through the wall to the taps immediately on the other side.

Does this sound reasonable? How would you run and cool the lines from the freezer through the wall to the taps? Open to suggestions if there's a better way to skin this cat.
Many thanks,

Mark

[djc]

It is very common, there are plenty of threads here detailing great set ups just like that. Depending on the length of run you may be able to just use air cooling which is cheap and highly effective. A longer run will call for a glycol pump, add complexity and cost money.

[sdmarkus]

Thanks djc, looks like this dude nailed it...

http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-en/kegerators-kegerator-kits-home/6473-work-progress-remote-draw-chest-freezer.html

Oh, the wonders of the internet!

[djc]

there are others here, all well done.

[KillianBoy]

sdmarkus,
Best I have ever seen:

http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-en/kegerators-kegerator-kits-home/8186-my-new-draft-system-how-do.html

Because OP did it right, used air the right way, didn't let drip tray dictate where the faucets go and used the right materials.
Worst thing you can do is let the drip tray tell you where to put faucet, you HAVE TO keep the run from keezer to faucet as short as you can, drip tray is just that, it just catches the drip, you don't pour foam or beer in drip tray, that is just wasteful. As both referenced bar builds, the drip tray is just that, to catch drips from faucet, when done, rinse and you are finished. If you want a drain like a professional set-up (BM-23 and like), just run a waste line (old beer or gas line) from drip tray to your household waste line (preferably before trap), beer from drain doesn't need to be cooled, beer line does.
KB

[sdmarkus]

sdmarkus,
Best I have ever seen:

Wow, she's a beaut!!! Thanks KB...

Do I not necessarily need a dedicated cold air return line?

[KillianBoy]

sdmarkus,
Unsure what the question is, but if you are asking if you NEED return flow, the answer is yes.
Say you hook up a 10 foot long PVC pipe from your refrigerator to a small box with JUST one way air flow, basically you are taking all the cold air from your refrigerator and putting in the box. Compressor may never shut off and the box will get really cold, refrigerator won't get that cold. With return airflow, you have a closed cooling system, basically a extension of the refrigerator. With one way flow, you are making the small box a walk-in cooler, refrigerator as the cooling unit, if keg in refrigerator, you will have warm beer, though you will have very cold faucets.
The OP in the thread I referenced uses 1 large PVC pipe, with hose and return flow, others have 2 PVC pipes (1 to carry air hose, the other for return), I feel this is overkill and waste of cold air, like I said OP did it right.
KB

[jdanna]

i highly recommend the thru the wall into the garage build. ive done two, a simple one with pvc and a collar made of 2x6, and recently i completely rebuilt it with the singular goal of making the most advanced and overbuilt home draft system in history.

heres my build thread http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-e...tor-build.html

and the album of pics from the build: Kegerator Build - Imgur

i also just today took a series of thermal images to really see how it was performing: http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-e...r-imaging.html

you dont need to go as crazy as i did, but hopefully that can help spark some ideas. as the thermographs show, return airflow is *very* important. so is insulation.

im a big fan of the 4in flexible ducting that i used. its much easier to work with then pvc, insulates better, and if you use worm clamps like i did, its easy to remove if you need to fix something