When a frustrated engineer makes beer…
Despite my masters in electrical engineering, I do no engineering whatsoever in my job. I’m a salesman. Yes, I know the industry. Yes, I understand (better than most salesmen in my industry) how the control systems work. But, my job is to talk to people.
(Pretty funny for someone that doesn’t like to make small talk…)
Anyway, what’s a frustrated engineer to do? Focus that suppressed geekiness on my hobby, of course!
Last night, I finally took care of a long-term problem I’ve had with my serving fridge. The beer lines go about 18" out of the chest freezer (through a wooden "tunnel") and then up about the same distance to the taps. During the summer, those lines get very warm. The first draught from the tap is all foam. Unless you get a glass every half hour, you have to run a bunch of beer down the drain to get a full pint. During the winter (when I have a heater in the fridge), the beer lines freeze.
To fix it, I bought (on eBay) a fan with a dual blowers. I tested it with AC line voltage, but it was too powerful. So, I picked up (also on eBay) a 24 VDC power supply. Just the right airflow. Maybe too much still.
Anyway, now I had the issue of how to get the air from the rectangular output of the blowers to the inside of the tap towers. A little time at Lowe’s and I came up with the solution:
The blower is in the center. I used a 1 1/2" to 3/4" elbow to transition from the rectangular output to the 3/4" PVC that I used. (Thin wall stuff to maximize airflow, since I don’t have any pressure)
The PVC pipe goes into the wooden "channel" then takes a right angle up into the tap tower. The pipe goes almost to the top of the tap tower. Then the air has to return on the outside of the PVC pipe, cooling the beer lines on the way.
This next picture shows the inside of the tap tower. (No, there are no beers on tap in this tower, which is why no tap handles are attached. I really need a couple of brew days to catch up…)
An unanticipated problem: it’s too good! Despite the insulation in the tap tower, the tower gets cold enough to incite serious condensation. Even the taps are chilling enough to drip with condensation.
The next thing I did was to move my CO2 gauges/manifold outside of the chest freezer. Having that massive wad of gauges and hoses sitting on top of the kegs was really awkward. The blower pipes made it even harder. So, I drilled more holes in the 2x4 collar for running the individual CO2 hoses.
Then I mounted the gauges and the high pressure manifold on the wall. The hose on the left of the high pressure manifold is for force carbonating beer externally. I ran out of this type of hose, so the hose on the right of the high pressure manifold is missing (it will run into the chest freezer for force carbonating inside the chest freezer.)
Each gauge is split in two. After the split, each line has a check valve (to prevent beer from backing up and ruining the gauge). The lines on the top half run to the right and the lines on the bottom half run to the left. They go into the chest freezer in the same order as the gauges so it is easy to tell which hose belongs to which gauge.
Here’s a shot of the inside of the chest freezer, showing the CO2 hoses were they penetrate the 2x4 collar. I need to purchase more of those hangers to hold the unused CO2 lines/disconnects.
Next, I want to replace all of the beer lines. I haven’t done that since I built the beast back in 2000? 2001? Whatever. Needs to be done….
The mad brewer at work…
Well, not so much mad as just a bit irritated…
