Keezer and Fermentation Freezer

Here's a look at my fermentation freezer and keezer (keg refrigerator). They are both built from simple chest freezers that have had a wood collar installed between the base and the top-opening lid. The extra height allows for taller objects to be placed inside and, for the freezer, faucets to be installed without drilling through the freezer walls. The thermostats are over-ridden so I can precisely set the internal temperature over a much wider range than the manufacturer intended.

Four forward sealing Perlick faucets. No plated brass or hard to clean pistons. The rightmost faucet has a lever that allows the flow to be constricted, making it act like the expensive stout faucets when desired.

The inside of the keezer has a distribution manifold for pushing CO2 to 4 kegs plus an extra length of tubing that is used for purging containers and a counter-pressure bottle filler.

Inside the fermentation freezer. The height afforded by the collar allows me to ferment/condition 10 gallons where before I could only fit one large carboy. There's usually a single gallon vessel or two in here as well for small projects like mead or cider.

Wine and Beer Bottling

A couple months ago I picked up some freshly crushed grape juice from Galleano Winery. My knowledge of wine is pretty limited and I didn't think to ask much about their processing, but the "Rosé" juice is a blend of the following grapes:

• 19% Cabernet Sauvignon
• 43% Mission
• 22% Golden Chasslas
• 16% Grenache

The grapes were picked the day before and sugar content was 22 Brix. I needed the space occupied by the wine (which had been racked a couple weeks after primary fermentation) so before I bottled it I spent some time balancing with acid blend.

With a good tasting ratio determined, the wine was degassed one final time and the acid blend was incorporated. The drill seen below has a mix-stir attachment and the bottling tree is a must have. I should not have waited until after switching to kegging to buy one. 5 gallons of wine is a little more than two cases of 750mL wine bottles.

There was a keg of Saison that was just about empty so I bottled the remainder to free up space for the next beer (a Best Bitter) that'll be ready to keg soon. I bottle straight from the keg using a counter-pressure bottle filler. I don't have to mess with reducing keg pressures, I get very little foaming and beer loss, and I know the beer is carbonated exactly how I want it. The stand bottler is also much more convenient than the ubiquitous Red Baron capper.

Brewing Hardware Update

Since my last post, I have gone from extract brewing to brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) brewing to traditional all-grain brewing. Here's a quick tour of the setup:

The most unique part of my setup is a water distribution manifold which distributes ground water to the water filter, the plate chiller, and a cleaning hose. No more going back and forth to turn the water on and off throughout the brewing session.

A spray bottle with water is kept handy to prevent boilovers and the pump can be turned on and off with a conveniently located switch. There are spare outlets for things like an aeration stone pump.

My mash tun sparge arm / recirculation return is a line-loc assembly which can be adjusted to the grain bed height for reduced bed disturbance.

The kettle now has a whirlpool arm for trub separation post boil. Haven't been successful getting a dense cone of separated trub yet though. In this picture the sparge has just begun.

I have an assembly to measure the output temperature of the plate chiller and aerate inline, but have yet to use it.