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smoa · 10-01-2009, 10:39 PM

I need a place to bulk age kegs but I don't have room to build a cold room. I also don't have a basement or celler. What if I sunk a couple 50 gal barrels into my yard. How deep would I have to go to keep a constant temp year round? I live in the NW so weather is pretty mild most the year and my property is pretty sandy so It would not be much work to put them in the ground. Is this a stupid Idea?

2-0turbo · 10-01-2009, 10:47 PM

For ground source heat pumps which are looking for that "year round stable temperature", the general figure is about 6-feet. It varies by what part of the country you're in and could be as deep as 9-10 feet. Pacific NW you're probably okay with 6-feet I would say. I can't say this sounds like a great idea (to me). I just trying to think of the logistics and such. You don't have a place where maybe you could build something into a hill? What about leasing some property (or a building) that meets your criteria? I guess I would rather just store them at "room" temperature if it were me.

smoa · 10-01-2009, 10:51 PM

ya 6 feet is a little to deep. I do have a hill side, but how far back into the hill would I have to go? I was hoping that if I got the top of the drum a foot from the surface it might work?

2-0turbo · 10-01-2009, 11:07 PM

http://www.geo4va.vt.edu/A1/A1.htm Here is a map of underground temps around the country. According to this, 6-feet is going to get you a +/- 10 degree spread through the seasons. Depending on soil conditions, between 20-28 feet will keep you constant year round. As can be seen in this article, even trench-type ground source systems buried at 10-feet have temp swings.

smoa · 10-02-2009, 12:03 AM

That was a great link! That pretty much answered all my questions. I guess I'll scrap that idea.

**BargainFittings** · 10-02-2009, 01:51 AM

It might be worthwhile. Make a test hole and measure the temp.

shortyjacobs · 10-02-2009, 02:56 AM

I love this forum. You folks have the most off-the-wall ideas!

**the_bird** · 10-02-2009, 03:07 AM

Balls-out, dude, go balls-out.

Build yourself a fallout shelter.

LordHedgie · 10-02-2009, 04:05 AM

When you say PNW, there's a lot of variation in what that means. Seattle? Yakima? Bellingham? Portland?

Depending on where you live, you might be able to swing it. Ten or twenty degrees seasonal variation may not be a killer if it's 40-60 degrees, and depending on your soil type you might be able to keep daily swings down to a few degrees if the top is buried 2 feet.

2-0turbo · 10-02-2009, 09:37 AM

http://www.bomb-shelter.net

For the truly paranoid, you can get yourself some really, really fancy bomb shelters. I am sure that you could store hundreds of kegs underground in this thing! And, your beer would be safe from nuclear bombs, tornadoes, hurricanes, theft and many other natural disasters. They are pricey, but you have to ask yourself how important is your beer.