Walk-In Cooler Size?

[rolandj]

The girlfriend and I are going to be building a house next year. We are in the design phase and i want to get it right the first time.

We are going to have a bar room and want to put a walk-in cooler behind the bar. I hope to end up with about 8 brews on tap. I can make it as big as i want, but i do not want to make is way to big. (If thats possible)

What would be a reasonable size, or what have some done that they found was enough room.

My hope is 8 kegs tapped and maybe 4 on standby. Then a few shelves for bottles.

 

[tnorman93638]

How are you going to be cooling the room? That may determine how big you go. I'm going to be doing something similar and I'll be using a window AC. So I'm looking at where I'll put the AC and how much room I'll have that will determine the unit I can get and my room size.

 

[rolandj]

I was thinking of going with a Coolbot and a Haier windows a/c unit. There is a 24,000 BTU one that coolbot recommends. It is probably a little bigger than i need but i would rather my beer stay cold.

Plus we could decide to store some vegetables in there longer term. Or other food items that wont impart unpleasant odour to the beer.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Lets do some math:

8 kegs on tap realistically 1 sq ft per keg so either 8' x 1' or 4' x 1' (stacking two high)
How many kegs will be "on deck"? Let's assume 8 kegs so another 8 sq ft.
What about bottle storage and food storage and lagering?

My best guess assuming very little non-beer storage would be as follows for interior dimension assuming an outward opening door:

8' x 6'

This gives you 1' x 8' on the front wall for double stack of kegs (8 serving 8 aging). 2' on the back wall for bottle, fermenter and misc storage. 3' walkway.

P.S. For not much more money or work a walk-in cooler can be an approved tornado/hurricane shelter. The two biggest adders that have to be considered NOW in the planning stages are a second form of egress and two sources of fresh air. A normal framed wall can be upgraded to correct spec by just having 3/4" plywood on the outside and inside (usually under the drywall) and the entire stud frame has to have appropriate connectors/anchor bolts of uplift.