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Ryland · 11-09-13, 11:52 PM

I have a Co2 tank and more soda kegs then I care to keep track of, so making 5 gallons of fizzy water is easy, carbonating beer, hard cider, or making soda is also easy.
The hard part is keeping it cold.

The easy way of course is a cooler full of ice, that works for about 24 hours, then the ice melts and your beverage is warm again, just fine if you are having a party but if you want 5 gallons of fizzy water on tap, hard cider, beer or anything else on tap at home, then keeping a cooler full of ice is more trouble, that is where people get a spare fridge or chest freezer, drill holes in it and put the kegs inside, trouble is finding a fridge that costs less then $5 per month and is cheap to buy... also then you have a 2nd fridge hanging out in your house!

So here is my latest project, it's not done but I have 95% of the parts sitting on my desk.
Keg of beverage stays warm (70F) and enters a 10' piece of 1/4" copper that is coiled and stuck inside of a vacuum thermos bottle (tested to keeps ice for 2+ days) on top of that thermos is a 30 watt Peltier Junction with a heat sink on the hot side, fan and built in thermocouple along with a thermo safety switch, inside the thermos there will also be a liquid to provide thermo mass, alcohol or food grade antifreeze, if that 30 watt junction runs 24/7 it will cost $2.37 per month to run, the math that I did said that it should take about 20 hours to chill 5 gallons from 72F to 32F, of course my math might not be perfect there, but when I double checked it a few days later I got the same numbers.
20 hours is a while if it's a party, but for a party you get a bag of ice and a cooler, if you want a glass of chilled beer every day then you should be able to drink a 16 ounce glass every half hour, the thermos bottle is 32oz so it has the mass to chill 32oz and that 3rd glass isn't going to be as cold but it will still be cooler.
I'm thinking it might be worth adding a 2nd junction on to chill the outgoing line, but if I do that it will also warm it slightly when it's not turned on, unless it just ran any time it was above say, 45F or whatever the ideal beer temp is for whatever is on tap, still more energy used but still less then a 2nd fridge and a lot less space.
It could also run off of a battery, a 12v 50ah battery could chill 5 gallons, so a large 12v deep cycle battery (120ah) that is smaller then a cooler and about the same weight as the cooler full of ice with less mess.

So that is my current project.

Friends who drink beer want me to build one for each of them to go under the kitchen sink, keg in the basement, beer tap in place of the filtered water tap.

I hope to have something together and working in the next few weeks.

11-09-13, 11:52 PM	#1
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	Beer tap beverage chiller. I have a Co2 tank and more soda kegs then I care to keep track of, so making 5 gallons of fizzy water is easy, carbonating beer, hard cider, or making soda is also easy. The hard part is keeping it cold. The easy way of course is a cooler full of ice, that works for about 24 hours, then the ice melts and your beverage is warm again, just fine if you are having a party but if you want 5 gallons of fizzy water on tap, hard cider, beer or anything else on tap at home, then keeping a cooler full of ice is more trouble, that is where people get a spare fridge or chest freezer, drill holes in it and put the kegs inside, trouble is finding a fridge that costs less then $5 per month and is cheap to buy... also then you have a 2nd fridge hanging out in your house! So here is my latest project, it's not done but I have 95% of the parts sitting on my desk. Keg of beverage stays warm (70F) and enters a 10' piece of 1/4" copper that is coiled and stuck inside of a vacuum thermos bottle (tested to keeps ice for 2+ days) on top of that thermos is a 30 watt Peltier Junction with a heat sink on the hot side, fan and built in thermocouple along with a thermo safety switch, inside the thermos there will also be a liquid to provide thermo mass, alcohol or food grade antifreeze, if that 30 watt junction runs 24/7 it will cost $2.37 per month to run, the math that I did said that it should take about 20 hours to chill 5 gallons from 72F to 32F, of course my math might not be perfect there, but when I double checked it a few days later I got the same numbers. 20 hours is a while if it's a party, but for a party you get a bag of ice and a cooler, if you want a glass of chilled beer every day then you should be able to drink a 16 ounce glass every half hour, the thermos bottle is 32oz so it has the mass to chill 32oz and that 3rd glass isn't going to be as cold but it will still be cooler. I'm thinking it might be worth adding a 2nd junction on to chill the outgoing line, but if I do that it will also warm it slightly when it's not turned on, unless it just ran any time it was above say, 45F or whatever the ideal beer temp is for whatever is on tap, still more energy used but still less then a 2nd fridge and a lot less space. It could also run off of a battery, a 12v 50ah battery could chill 5 gallons, so a large 12v deep cycle battery (120ah) that is smaller then a cooler and about the same weight as the cooler full of ice with less mess. So that is my current project. Friends who drink beer want me to build one for each of them to go under the kitchen sink, keg in the basement, beer tap in place of the filtered water tap. I hope to have something together and working in the next few weeks.