I don't post here much, I frequent the site for info, but I wanted to share my current project I am working on. For the past year, I have been brewing smaller batches of beer (2-3 gallons). This has allowed me to increase the variety of beer I have on hand. I have been using an old fridge to store my bottles of beer, I also ferment in this fridge so space is becoming a problem. The solution I decided on was to build a "Beer Locker" or insulated cabinet to store my beer.
I started with a pine shelving unit I found at Home Depot. This was about 6 feet tall, a little taller than I needed. I cut this down and rearranged the shelves a bit. I ended up with a shelf about 37" high, 34" wide and 12" deep. I am able to fit 18 6 packs on this shelf.
The next step was to insulate this shelf. After some research on the forums, I decided to use 1/2" extruded polystyrene. I figured if others were using this for fermentors, it should work great for my beer locker. I cut the material to fit, and glued it with Liquid Nails foam board glue. After the glue was dry, I calked all the seams with silicone calk.
The back has 2 layers of foam board, to build it out, and the sides have 1.
I had some casters I wasn't using, and bolted them to the bottom of the cabinet. I also glued in another piece of foam board for the bottom.
I picked up some 1/4" plywood sheets that looked really good for pretty cheap. I used the liquid nails to glue the plywood to the foam board.
While this was drying, I built up the front door. This was 2 layers of foam board like the back, topped with plywood. I attached some handles, these were a bit tricky. The 1/4" plywood wasn't strong enough and the foam board wouldn't add any support, as the door panel is a little heavy. I ended up making notches in one layer of the foam board and added a strip of plywood to help reinforce things.
This pretty much catches me up for the weekend. I have some baseboard corner material I am going to glue on yet. I need to start painting the inside of the locker. I did a few test areas with white indoor latex paint. Coverage was poor, I may need to use primer or a couple of coats.
I also need to figure out how to attach the door panel. I was thinking about gluing in some magnets, not sure if they will hold the door or not. I wanted to use hinges, but the thin foam board and plywood doesn't give me much to screw into.
You may notice I haven't done anything to the top yet... I haven't decided what I want to do here. I may just do like the sides and back, foam topped off with plywood.
I plan on keeping this in the basement, its plenty cool in the summer and the insulation should help keep the temperatures consistent year round. My other thought was to find a small refrigeration unit, somehow install it and I could keep this upstairs. If it were refrigerated, I might make a counter top mini bar/serving area on top of the locker. Maybe someone has ideas on a refrigeration unit? Would frozen water bottles be enough to cool something this size?
Wow, I typed a lot more than originally planned. Thanks for reading. Thoughts/suggestions welcome.
I started with a pine shelving unit I found at Home Depot. This was about 6 feet tall, a little taller than I needed. I cut this down and rearranged the shelves a bit. I ended up with a shelf about 37" high, 34" wide and 12" deep. I am able to fit 18 6 packs on this shelf.
The next step was to insulate this shelf. After some research on the forums, I decided to use 1/2" extruded polystyrene. I figured if others were using this for fermentors, it should work great for my beer locker. I cut the material to fit, and glued it with Liquid Nails foam board glue. After the glue was dry, I calked all the seams with silicone calk.
The back has 2 layers of foam board, to build it out, and the sides have 1.
I had some casters I wasn't using, and bolted them to the bottom of the cabinet. I also glued in another piece of foam board for the bottom.
I picked up some 1/4" plywood sheets that looked really good for pretty cheap. I used the liquid nails to glue the plywood to the foam board.
While this was drying, I built up the front door. This was 2 layers of foam board like the back, topped with plywood. I attached some handles, these were a bit tricky. The 1/4" plywood wasn't strong enough and the foam board wouldn't add any support, as the door panel is a little heavy. I ended up making notches in one layer of the foam board and added a strip of plywood to help reinforce things.
This pretty much catches me up for the weekend. I have some baseboard corner material I am going to glue on yet. I need to start painting the inside of the locker. I did a few test areas with white indoor latex paint. Coverage was poor, I may need to use primer or a couple of coats.
I also need to figure out how to attach the door panel. I was thinking about gluing in some magnets, not sure if they will hold the door or not. I wanted to use hinges, but the thin foam board and plywood doesn't give me much to screw into.
You may notice I haven't done anything to the top yet... I haven't decided what I want to do here. I may just do like the sides and back, foam topped off with plywood.
I plan on keeping this in the basement, its plenty cool in the summer and the insulation should help keep the temperatures consistent year round. My other thought was to find a small refrigeration unit, somehow install it and I could keep this upstairs. If it were refrigerated, I might make a counter top mini bar/serving area on top of the locker. Maybe someone has ideas on a refrigeration unit? Would frozen water bottles be enough to cool something this size?
Wow, I typed a lot more than originally planned. Thanks for reading. Thoughts/suggestions welcome.
