Beer Cellar thread - real cellars, closet cellars, fridge cellars, freezer cellars, wine coolers

[mjshearer1]

I have almost this exact same setup, including the bending top shelf, which always scares the **** out of me that it's going to suddenly snap and I'm going to wake up to a huge crash of bottles breaking.

 

[stupac2]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again, I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

 

[Shmeal]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again, I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

I don't have a particular order on how I store things.

 

[Penguin3200]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again, I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

In the back! Gotta hide the whales!

 

[claaark13]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again,I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

i store mine in the most constant temp area, mostly behind less important **** or under a large pile to deter myself or visiting drunks from drinking them randomly or without reaaaalllly trying.

 

[cbeer881]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again, I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

I store it where it is safest. On my shelves I put the rarest stuff on the bottom shelf or the back of upper shelves. Not terribly worried about earthquakes, but drunken hands and ******* cats can definitely knock bottles over.

For the most part my cellar isn't for display purposes. Half the bottles just sit around in unmarked boxes anyway, though I'd like to clean that up one of these days...

 

[ExPimp]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again, I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

All my whales are out of sight in both pictures, in boxes or tucked in the back... I don't think there is massively impressive one in either.

 

[xscottypx]

i have that johnson controls on a freezer, works pretty well. mine is set to 58 degrees but has tons of condensation.

i had a Transtherm wine fridge that died on me but a true wine fridge is bomb.com as it nails humidity levels.

if you look at wine coolers, make sure it has a compressor as it will regulate the temp better

 

[cosmicevan]

I used to use a dark closet but I have since moved onto this.

Holds around 30 22/750s which is perfect for me.

that looks great, but where do you put the other 420 or so bottles?

 

[mjmoser]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

 

[Bill2]

I know there are some bomb ass cellars lurking out there... come out of the woodwork and playyyy.

 

[stupac2]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

Jesus ****. Is that barrel for homebrew? (Also, are you still hanging out with Matt? I remember our trade ages ago that he set up.)

 

[mjmoser]

Jesus ****. Is that barrel for homebrew? (Also, are you still hanging out with Matt? I remember our trade ages ago that he set up.)

Don't home brew, picked it up from Goose for display. Have we traded?

 

[Shmeal]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

Holy robot Jesus!

 

[stupac2]

Don't home brew, picked it up from Goose for display. Have we traded?

I thought so, though I may have you confused with someone else. I traded with an M Moser in Illinois in June 2011. If that's not you, then I'll be SHOCKED.

 

[Usofar]

In the back! Gotta hide the whales!

You don't want them easily accessible for those drunken benders.

 

[mjmoser]

I thought so, though I may have you confused with someone else. I traded with an M Moser in Illinois in June 2011. If that's not you, then I'll be SHOCKED.

That's funny. Did you have an alternate handle on BA? My brothers name starts with an M, but don't think he traded much.

 

[stupac2]

That's funny. Did you have an alternate handle on BA? My brothers name starts with an M, but don't think he traded much.

Nope, I'm stupac2 everywhere. It could've been him, it was a noob trade, RR locals for New Glarus stuff.

 

[Mandark]

My "cellar" is my wife's family heirloom steamer trunk, tucked away in our year round 60-68 degree basement:

It's perfect as it only holds about 55 to 90 bottles, preventing me from allowing too much to molder for too long, what with new purchases and all. The picture below was taken a year or so ago, and I'd say 75% of that has been drunk and replaced:

Also: a Google image search of "steamer trunk" moments ago brought up the first picture among the first 30 or so results, from the time I posted it on the other site. Odd to find a piece of your furniture on the interwebz....

 

[Bill2]

Incredibly sweet beers should also make that canon. Belgian Red, Rasp, Apple Ale, etc, all can be cellared with excellent results, but dont fall under any of those four categories.

 

[Hanzo1]

that looks great, but where do you put the other 420 or so bottles?

In my mouth.

 

[JulianB1]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

I can't believe the opportunity was missed to call this thread "Have U Seen My Cellar?"

 

[MordorMongo]

Not a very good pic but only one I have handy.

I mix things up, some good stuff in front, most in back though....because you know last tasting I had someone tried to bury Framboos in my yard. And that isn't a joke at all. Srs. Super srs.

For those that care it is a 21 or so cuft freezer, shelves upgraded to marine grade lumber. Ranco controller at 52 as God intended.

PS if you try super hard you can spy dat dark lerd creeper. FTW.

 

[Iliketurtles]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again, I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

I always put my best stuff closest to the ground. I have a nice basement than never gets above 65 even when it's 105 outside.

 

[imfrommichigan]

I just have a closet in the basement with 2 shelves and then the concrete floor. Top shelf is for large format bottles. Middle shelf is all small format bottles. Then the concrete floor is for any format that I feel I'll age for the longest out of everything.

 

[SeaWatchman]

But we have crawlspaces, and they can be nearly as good!

It stays <70 even in the middle of summer. Not the best, but not bad. It's fuller now, I should get updated pictures. I have about 330 bottles total, and a buddy is storing his stuff in my place too. He has like 24 on my racks and another 340 or so in boxes.

I'm genuinely interested as to why you've angled the shelves downward like that. I'm usually a store standing up, but am happy to store horizontally as well, but I imagine with lambics that angling them downward like that would put all the sediment and gunk right at the base of the cork? I'll be building my new shelving soon I'll be having the woodshop kids build my new shelving soon, so I was curious.

 

[surlytheduff1]

My "cellar" is my wife's family heirloom steamer trunk

I've been trying to come up with some snarky ass way to incorporate a Cleveland steamer joke into a reply all day and been coming up empty.

 

[Bill2]

I'm genuinely interested as to why you've angled the shelves downward like that. I'm usually a store standing up, but am happy to store horizontally as well, but I imagine with lambics that angling them downward like that would put all the sediment and gunk right at the base of the cork? I'll be building my new shelving soon I'll be having the woodshop kids build my new shelving soon, so I was curious.

At that angle the sediment will collect in the curve of the glass not the neck.

 

[stupac2]

I'm genuinely interested as to why you've angled the shelves downward like that. I'm usually a store standing up, but am happy to store horizontally as well, but I imagine with lambics that angling them downward like that would put all the sediment and gunk right at the base of the cork? I'll be building my new shelving soon I'll be having the woodshop kids build my new shelving soon, so I was curious.

So, those shelves are not made 100% from scratch. I bought some of the parts off of craigslist and then made the front parts (which hold the necks so they won't go flying in a minor earthquake) myself. In order to be able to use the standard parts while still being able to get bottles in and out easily, they have to be angled down.

Someone else asked this earlier and I said that I have not experienced any dregs in the neck. I haven't had them like that for all that long, though, since I completely rearranged the system during the summer after first making it last November, they haven't been sitting for more than a few months.

But I think that Bill is right that the angle is not so much as to get a lot into the neck:

That's approximate as it's hard to get SW to get the tangencies right, but I think it's a steeper angle, if anything. We'll see though, after a few more months it'll probably be clear where the dregs want to settle, I can post a picture at that point.

(If that image dies let me know, imgur is being a fuckhead right now and after 10 minutes it hasn't uploaded it, so I used some random site.)

 

[jaIsPoAn]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

Holy botchy balls