Keezer ~ Collar vs Faucet top tower

Question

I am just getting ready to setup my keezer. I like the ease of use with a collar, but my little 7 cubic foot freezer is only as tall as my junk. I am concerned that it will be uncomfortable to draw a nug and even worse for a pitcher at that height.

The tower has its own drawbacks obviously, such as cutting a hole in the freezer lid and opening the lid with the tower, and limiting my capacity to 2 kegs with a 10# CO2 bottle.

For you guys out there that have had keezers for awhile, how do you feel about your setups? would you have gone the other route if you could? are you comfy while pulling draughts?

What else have I forgotten to ask?

thanks in advance for your input!

Answer 1

I built one from a chest freezer, putting a tower on top. I've had it nearly 7 years, and I love it. I put the chest freezer on a set of blocks, so it sits at the perfect height. You can pour whatever you would, just like you would from a professional setup at a bar. With mine I can hold a 5 lbs CO2 tank and 4 corny kegs. Here's the tap itself:

The tower I have is a 3" tower. Some of the ones you see geared towards home brewers are narrower than that. With my 3" tower I've never had any problems with keeping it cool. In other words, I don't need a fan like you're suggesting.

Of course there is the problem with opening the lid as you mentioned. I put mine in the middle of the lid, so I can open it maybe 60 degrees or so. For checking gas lines, putting in a new keg, and so on this is admittedly a bit of a pain. But I've learned just to be careful opening it.

Finally, I really like the "professional" look of the tower setup. It is something I'm proud to show off and not a jury rigged solution with the sole purpose of serving beer. If I were to do it all over again the only thing I'd do different is get a slightly larger freezer. That way I could keep an extra keg or two cold and on "standby" without having to use another fridge.

Answer 2

I am constructing one too from a chest freezer.

With the Tower config:

• It is awkward to open and close with all that faff hanging off the top, to aid in opening and closing you can have the keezer sideways, so you don't have to pull away from the wall to open and close.
• Tower setup often needs to be cooled to so you need to factor that into your plans (I have no idea about that, little fan maybe?).

With a the Collar config:

• A low level keezer, which is what I have, you could either, build a higher collar or just raise up the keezer, but you then have a trade off with how high do you lift the kegs in and out.
• You could have a tap on a hose, not connected to the collar but slots in the collar so it is retractable to fill up a line of beers sitting ontop of the keezer.(Oooh wow I might do this!)

Personally I don't care about the height I like the compact nature of my keezer, and 8-15 seconds pouring a pint is not gonna give me back ache, when my hands can comfortably reach.

Answer 3

I built with a collar, and after having it for 6 months, I don't think I'd change anything. Getting kegs in/out is nice and easy, and with the collar I have enough height to fit an extra corny on the compressor hump (handy for cold-crashing). I keep a fan inside it to keep the temperature even throughout.

The collar has an added bonus of giving you a place to mount things (distribution block inside, bottle opener and temp controller outside, etc)