Beer Refrigeration Suggestions (Long Term)

Get a freezer on craigslist. Find one cheap. 50-300 bucks depending on size, the deal, and condition. I see them for 100-150$ for the huge ones all the time. I have a 20 cu ft stand up. It's the biggest one you can get. Buy a temp controller online, a brewshop, or at a beverage supply place (~50-60$), and set it to desired temp. I use 55º, that's a good starting point. But anywhere between 45-60 should be fine for most styles for storing/aging/serving. The freezer is better then the fridge for many reasons I won't get into at this moment. But the best reason is that it won't be running all the time like a fridge will, which saves your electricity bill.

My setup was about 200$, and I have over 200 bottles in it. The shelving didn't make sense for bottle heights, so I put them in the boxes.

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I went on Craigslist and bought a Vinotemp wine cabinet. It is supposed to hold around 400 bottles of wine. I'm not positive but I think it was about $500 used. The whole setup was meant to store wine on its side obviously, and this is not optimal for beer. I went to the container store and bought some ventilated shelving. It's the kind of stuff you would expect to find in a pantry. I cut it down with a bolt cutter to the right width and set it on the already existing wood rails. I did also buy a 3/4"x3/4" stick of wood from Home Depot to make little rail extensions for the front by the door to better support the shelves. This is obviously not a cheap solution, but I will say that I am very happy with it, and it has worked fantastic so far. I also have not noticed an increase in my electricity bill.

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For the longer-term storage stuff, building an enclosure cooled by your current long-term fridge could be a good idea. I'm thinking of an insulated plywood box (cooled by your existing fridge) of the type that is typically thought of as a fermentation chamber.

In Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide there was a design that I considered using for this purpose. Of course there are many other designs of this type available on the Web.

Anyway I would look in that direction over the wine fridge route due to cost and the small size of most wine fridges.

Just a thought.

Of course you could always just drink faster. ;)

JE

4 Beer Fridges?!? Wow, sounds like it's time to start thinking about a walk in cooler. Hit up your building supply recycling joint and find some cooler panels. Get a cheap AC unit, and a coolbot (google it). Either frame out one in your basement or on your porch like a friend of mine.

Maybe a commercial fridge would work too, but how awesome would it be to have your own walk in cooler...

Dig out a root cellar and use free old fashoned geo/thermal to keep your cellar beers cool. Plus you could have a secret beer bunker then.

4 beer Fridges?!? that is impressive.