• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

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

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.


Might build an enclosure to look a bit less WT and pipe this bad boy into the cellar. Seems pretty simple and easy to maintain to bring the cellar down a few degrees.
 
but having to switch out the ice every couple of hours seems like a pain in the ass, especially if you're living in a hotter part of the country
 
but having to switch out the ice every couple of hours seems like a pain in the ass, especially if you're living in a hotter part of the country
Tested, he said it will continue blowing cold air for 5 hours. So I'd only be changing it out in the morning before work and changing when I get home. Cycle two jugs in the freezer - no big deal. Maintenance is up there with feeding the dog.

EDIT: From the looks of the vid, he tested in a hotter region. So cooler, dryer region (say Colorado), I may be able to squeeze out a few more hours. My cellar is at about 63 degrees. I'd like to drop it by 5.
 
Tested, he said it will continue blowing cold air for 5 hours. So I'd only be changing it out in the morning before work and changing when I get home. Cycle two jugs in the freezer - no big deal. Maintenance is up there with feeding the dog.

EDIT: From the looks of the vid, he tested in a hotter region. So cooler, dryer region (say Colorado), I may be able to squeeze out a few more hours. My cellar is at about 63 degrees. I'd like to drop it by 5.
If you're only looking for that kind of drop then it should be pretty doable, although honestly if my cellar were stable at 63 I wouldn't worry about the extra few degrees. I think the worry here is that someone was looking to take their garage down from 80 to something reasonable, which would obviously be a pipe dream.
 
Yeah, I have a lot of humidity in western Mass being along the Connecticut River, so if I were going to try and cool my basement it would probably be a little harder
 
New house I'm moving into doesn't have the nifty subterranean storage that I have now.

Are there any drawbacks to using an older refrigerator (with adjustable temp, ideally) for a makeshift cellar? Other than space issues, but my collection isn't terribly vast.
 
New house I'm moving into doesn't have the nifty subterranean storage that I have now.

Are there any drawbacks to using an older refrigerator (with adjustable temp, ideally) for a makeshift cellar? Other than space issues, but my collection isn't terribly vast.
As long as it's in the right temperature/humidity range you should be fine. I'm sure some other folks will have insightful input as well. My "cellar" actually consists of several fridges kept at "cellar" temps.






I am jealous of you ******** with proper cellars though. So much room...
 
New house I'm moving into doesn't have the nifty subterranean storage that I have now.

Are there any drawbacks to using an older refrigerator (with adjustable temp, ideally) for a makeshift cellar? Other than space issues, but my collection isn't terribly vast.
As long as the fridge works, you'll be fine.
 
34wfggO.jpg

panoramic...its only about 5x5
 
Thought this might amuse people, just ran across an old picture of my very early cellar (this would have been... late '08 or early '09, I think):

3343078138_538cf1b2e8.jpg


I lived in a basement apartment at the time which still had the original icebox -- this space was built under it and had a (nailed shut) doorway into the rear basement so that the ice/milkman could drop off their products. I think that bottle behind and to the right of the Black Golds is an '08 Dissident that I just opened this past Saturday.
 
New house I'm moving into doesn't have the nifty subterranean storage that I have now.

Are there any drawbacks to using an older refrigerator (with adjustable temp, ideally) for a makeshift cellar? Other than space issues, but my collection isn't terribly vast.

Get a plugin temp controller. I use one for homebrew that cost me $100 or so (you could make one heaps cheaper if you are that way inclined). It'll be way more precise.

Check out your local homebrew store.

It's a good solution.
 
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.

10085267103_8acd602c85_c.jpg



PS if you try super hard you can spy dat dark lerd creeper. FTW.
As much as I love all the lambic in there I'm even more impressed with the meads...I had two Dark Dark Goose until I domed them myself...also love the Kuhnhenn nips top right. :)
 
I said I'd take some pictures of my shelves now that they're decently full, and since I was adding some stuff today, I finally got around to it! So here they are:

Shelves 1&2:
Xc6pCk7.jpg


Shelf 3:
yRxz07o.jpg


That weird white box to the side:
mgF0r5G.jpg


The stuff in the box is Eclipse, RR beers, random small bottles (at this point mostly Pannepot), and some Stone/Deschutes/FW things. This box is being hit really hard as I've decided that most of that **** doesn't age. Fortunately, it's Eclipse season again, so it'll be filled back up soon.

So obviously my favorite thing about your cellar is the 3L beat hiding in the middle on the floor...just awesome.
 
Having drank down nearly all my beer, I'm left with *gasp* a single shelf in my wine fridge.

4OK5p4r.jpg


The bottom section is actual wine. I don't know why I even buy this.

Rm3vMnP.jpg


My most special booze sits in a cardboard box in our guest bedroom. These are the opened whiskies. Too lazy to go downstairs for a picture of the closed stuff.

X4kijxp.jpg
 
Having drank down nearly all my beer, I'm left with *gasp* a single shelf in my wine fridge.

4OK5p4r.jpg


The bottom section is actual wine. I don't know why I even buy this.

Rm3vMnP.jpg


My most special booze sits in a cardboard box in our guest bedroom. These are the opened whiskies. Too lazy to go downstairs for a picture of the closed stuff.

X4kijxp.jpg

I spy some Master of Malt samples in there
 
I spy some Master of Malt samples in there

Very good spot :). Three lagavulins and some leftover glendronach sitting in there right now. I plan on ordering from them once a quarter. Great service all around.
 
Finally got around to finishing the design of my Armand'4 rack, if anyone wants it let me know and I'll upload it. Here's the result:

8hng1B4.jpg


And here's the rest of the cellar as it is now:

yRH7UJH.jpg


VtI6A2g.jpg


lFnyHiI.jpg


You'll notice in that last picture that there's an Ebony & Oak on the floor. Funny story, I forgot my hammer upstairs and am very lazy, so I ended up using that bottle as a hammer to take apart/reconstruct the racks in order to get the Armands where I wanted them. It worked great! So Ebony & Oak is good for at least one thing.
 
Back
Top