Building a Keezer: Part 2 - The Outside First

I don't know what people did before Al Gore invented the internet. I don't know how information or knowledge was passed from person to person and generation to generation. This is a mystery to me. The internet is a valuable resource when you are wanting to learn and get help on "how to" questions.

A few weeks ago, when I started to realize that my kegging dream was going to come true. I had a moment of panic. HOW DO I BUILD A KEEZER?! HOW DO I KEG HOMEBREW?!

That is when I took to scouring the internet for resources, forums, and best of all videos. YouTube became my friend and resource. To the point that I watch YouTube videos on loop for 3 to 4 hours at one time!

I watched videos on how to keg beer from a carboy. I literally watched four people make their own keezer from start to finish! I took ideas from all of them and came up with my own plan.


This is what I wanted to accomplish with building my own keezer:

1. Four kegs
2. Black body on the keezer
3. Stained wood for the collar
4. Not look like crap

These objectives I felt were the best from what I had seen, but also what I could accomplish on my own without breaking the bank.

My plan was to get:

1. A freezer
• If it was white get black appliance paint 
2. Wood for a collar
• Get wood stain to darken and shine the wood
3. Parts for a four keg system from Grains & Taps
4. Get four kegs
5. Put it together
6. Drink Beer

The execution of my plan was slightly different due to some complications, decisions that needed to be made, and the delays for drying.

To start things off I went to Costco to find a freezer that would work for me and be on the cheaper end. I bought a Danby 7.2 cubic foot chest freezer. It was white, so I knew I needed to paint it to get the desired look.

Once I got the freezer, I started doing measurements to figure out things I should have been thinking about all along. I needed to figure out how much wood I needed for the collar. What kind of kegs should I get? How far apart can four taps be while still being caught by a standard drip tray? Do I want to measure from the edge of the freezer lip or the center? Can four kegs fit in the space?

I will answer some of these trouble spots and others in the fifth installment of this series.

I went to Lowes with the intention of buying some oak to make a collar. Now you ask what the collar is for. The collar is to increase the vertical space in the feezer and more importantly give you something to drill through other than the side of the freezer. It is easier to mount four taps in two inches of wood than three inches of freezer that may or may not ruin the freezer. While I intended to go with oak, I found cedar that was better than the construction grade lumber and not as expensive as the oak. I also got some wood stain. I want to note that I have never stained wood before on purpose. Lowes also had the wood glue to attach the collar to the freezer and black appliance spray paint.

Next, I removed the hinges from the freezer so that I could separate the lid from the freezer's base. This would let me paint the freezer and set the collar.

Now I needed to measure and figure out how I wanted my taps to be. I decided to make each center of a hole four inches away from each other making the total distance from the farthest holes a foot. This will be good for when I get my drip tray. I found out my drill set did not come with a 1 inch drill bit. It came with a 3/4 inch bit and a 1 1/4 inch drill bit. So I made another trip to the hardware store.

Measured and remeasured the lengths of wood and placement of the holes. My father always said to measure twice because it is easier to cut more than to add wood back on. I assembled the frame after making my cuts and then I drilled my holes and I think I did a decent job. Then I sanded and stained the wood with three coats of stain. I learned how to stain on YouTube. This took a couple of days to wait between coats. The result was astounding and well worth the effort and wait.

Once the stain was dry and holes drilled, I was able to set the wood on the lip with wood glue and seal it further with black caulking.

Just an FYI! Paint takes a week to cure. Stain takes 6 hours between coats to soak in. Wood glue and caulk take 24 hours to dry. A little wood glue goes a long way and a lot of it goes too far. Essentially what I am saying is that keep in mind that time drags and you will need to add it to your plan and timeline.

I also found that if you add 6 inches to the height of the freezer the hinges no longer line up for the holes and screws. So how do you handle that?

I grabbed a 1" by 4" piece of wood and stained it. I cut it in half and then cut two 2" pieces off. This allowed me to secure the hinges back on the freezer using the old holes. This method also help clear space for the hinges to actually open and close. However I did have to get longer screws than came with the freezer. I got 16 2 1/2" machine screws with washers and lock washers. I had 8 2" wood screws that help me secure the bottom of the hinge through both boards. The hardest part about this whole process was lining up the holes in freezer with where I needed my pilot holes in the planks of wood. My parents actually help me solve this by suggesting that I put the screws in the freezer with out the wood and force indentations on the wood's back side to get the markers to guide my pilot holes. This work fabulously and I was quickly able to get the screws in after that.

WOW! I have written A LOT!! This is only the outside of the keezer. I will break this up and the next installment will be about the intricate internal portion of the keezer. Please stay tuned and feel free to ask questions a long the way!

Building a Keezer: Part 1 - The leap of faith to start and why

Over the past few weeks I have been busy. This time it was not with work. I have been designing, building, and troubleshooting my very own handmade keezer. If you have heard of a kegerator then think more taps and in my opinion a more attractive and tasteful option. Put that into chest freezer and you have a keezer.

Over the next few posts I will be telling you about the why, how, what I spent, and most importantly tips and things to keep in mind while building yours.

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

-Henry Ford

As Henry said and I had failed to realize that the joy of doing something for yourself is an intense high and I had no idea what I could accomplish with my hands nor the emotions that it could elicit. Two years ago I would never have thought I could be proud of something I built with my own hands. I never fancied myself a handy man nor capable of fashioning an aesthetically pleasing project.

There are four main reasons why I decided to make a keezer and two conditions that allowed me to do it.

First the conditions. First I knew it could be done and as long as I did my research, planned, and stuck with it, I would be able to drink beer on tap in my own house! Second, I had the support of C. In fact she encouraged me to do it! Without that support and knowledge, I would never had the guts to do this.

As for the reasons spurring me into action.

1. Beer tastes so much better on tap than out of a bottle!
• I don't know exactly why, but this is something I can research as I drink beer that is on tap in my basement!
2. Financial Support
• I had a few gift cards from family and work in recognition of hard work, dedication, and birthdays.
• I had saved up some money to take care of any amount the keezer would take on top of that.
3. Opportunity and approval
• We had space in basement that would permit me to have a keezer
• C was and is fully on board for the keezer
• I know this was also a condition but when you have this kind of support you have to act as quickly as possible, because the mind can change on a whim.
4. Bottling
• As home brewer, the bane of my existence is hand capping every bottle that I fill.
• This labor intensive portion is tedious action sometimes ending in broken bottles, frustration, and worst of all wasted beer!
• With a kegging system I no longer have to bottle my beer!
5. Awesome factor
• When you hear man cave, you think sports memorabilia, TVs, and maybe a bar top with a refrigerator. 
• I now have a four tap system that could hold up to 20 gallons of beer!
• Beer tastes so much better on tap!
• How many other people do you know that have beer on tap in their house? Maybe 1 or 2? 

This is why I built a keezer in my basement. Next time I am going to tell how I did it from start to finish!