Storing Beer in water?

Update your facebook status asking if anyone has an extra fridge. I guess this is age dependent (I'm 37) but I got 4 offers.

 

Even though I think the premise of this thread is ridiculous, I'll play along because I like home engineering projects. Regardless of my following "solution" I still think the OP should just drink their beer fresh, or use the mini-fridge they say they have.

Forget the water bath, too many variables and upkeep. Know when to quit on a bad idea.

If the OP has AC coming through floor vents they could simply turn a cardboard box over one of the vents and store the beer in there. If you're willing to leave the AC on during the day*, even at the highest temp setting the air/beer inside the box would stay cool and air would eventually come out of the box, so there shouldn't be much cooling/energy loss on the home either. You could even throw a throw a towel or blanket over the box for insulation. Window A/C units might require some MacGyver work to route your AC to a cardboard beer storage box...like flexible dryer vent pipes, cardboard box, a roll of duct tape, and a swiss army knife, of course, but the premise is the same.

* - I understand the OP said they felt leaving AC on during the day was a waste of money, but in this setup the AC only has to come on enough to periodically cool the box/beer, not the entire home, so the additional electric cost shouldn't be too high.

 

I believe the correct answers have already been furnished, which are (1) the temps in your house are not going to affect your beer, it's the extreme temps you want to avoid, (2) just refrigerate your beers. If I didn't have a basement (aka my beer larder) I would invest in a freezer-less fridge. I'm not a fan of the mini fridge, they don't hold enough (for me) plus they are not energy efficient. I would get the largest I had space for since I like to have a large supply on hand.

 

I don't know a lot about heating and cooling, but I don't think this is correct. Isn't there going to be a thermometer somewhere that tells the thermostat when to do work? Not sure where this thermometer/sensor thing is, but it's not in the box.

 

Or you could just use a picnic cooler with a few dry ice packs.

 

So I just went on a trip to canada and on the way bought beer that I kept in an iced cooler which eventually turned to water. To me its a horrible idea because of a few reasons. The first is that its tough to regulate the temperature of the water, its going to still get too hot or cold. Second the labels will get wet and fall off. Third they bob around and are hard to keep upright. I even put the bottles in double freezer bags and somehow the water (or condensation) found its way into the bags.

A small beverage fridge is around $250. Put it on low to medium to keep everything stored and when you want an IPA put it in the main fridge for a little longer to chill it further.

 

As long as you're not blocking a vent that is in the room with the thermostat (or that is in a space that will directly influence the temp in the room with the thermostat), you should be good. If you do obstruct a vent in the room with the thermostat, then it's absolutely going to take longer to cool that room, and the AC is going to run longer/more often than it should. That's why I had to train my Rottie to stay the hell off of the vents in the den (the "not your vent!" command, that's "nein ventschloggen" in the bastard German that I use).

You may not even need to spend any money. Residential fridge/freezer combos are kind of funky in how they work, but dorm fridges and household kegarators that are cooled using a freezing plate usually have a rheostat that can be easily adjusted to change the range of operation. I'd point you here for starters.

 

Precisely the point I was trying to make. @Ranbot suggested that the box over the vent will cool down the temp indicated by the thermostat, and the A/C will kick off. For the reasons you presented, I don't think it would work that way... Unless I'm thinking about this all wrong... Because the box would get cooler quicker... yeah... yeah I stand by my assertion. Your A/C would keep working to get the rest of the place down to that temperature.

 

A nice trick for cheap ice packs is to use bottled water. You can buy some cheap grocery store brand bottled water, freeze them, and then rotate them out as needed to keep your cooler at the desired temperature. It won't be perfectly temperature control but you should be able to get in the ballpark of what you are seeking.

 

You are correct, sir.

 

Correct. The home thermostat and it's thermometer is somewhere else in the home and would not directly regulate the temperature of the beer box. However as long as the AC kicks on occassionally and the box is regularly filled with cool air, it will maintain a significantly cooler temperature than the rest of the house. Furthermore, because the beer has a lower heat transfer coefficient the temperature of the beer will go up and and down much more gradually and won't experience the same sort of temperature fluctuation as the air in the box.

Yes, you would probably want your box of beer to be in another room than the thermostat, and/or allow air to pass through the beer box relatively easily so that it can still escape into the room. Unlike @OldManMetal's rottweiler, a cardboard box will still allow air into the room, but will channel it past the beer first, cooling it.


I actually did something similar once in a car. It was summer and I had a soda I wanted to keep cool on a long road trip, but I forgot to bring a cooler. This car [possibly an early 90's model Plymouth Voyager] happened to have a cup holder just below a dash vent. I put the soda in the cup holder near the vent and then draped a blanket over both. The AC kept the air below under the blanket and my soda cool for hours until I was ready to drink it. Other AC vents and air escaping around the blanket still kept the rest of the car cool. The beer box + AC works on the same premise.

 

I guess I was assuming that you were talking about using a solid/unventilated box that would completely occlude the vent. I gotcha now.

 

Big words, eh? Whhhyy I auughtta....

 

Actually, what threw me off was when you said this:
"* - I understand the OP said they felt leaving AC on during the day was a waste of money, but in this setup the AC only has to come on enough to periodically cool the box/beer, not the entire home, so the additional electric cost shouldn't be too high."

Since we're still talking about cooling the entire home, and letting the beer box just sort of groove on it, I still don't see how we're saving on the energy bill in this scenario.

 

Just store them in a dark area (cabinet/closet/etc) on the lowest level of your home. Preferably in a room that does not get direct sunlight. For added insulation/protection, keep them in a cooler w/o ice.

 

Full disclosure: I had to google that to make sure I was correctly remembering my high school/college thermodynamics.

I see how that was confusing.... It's not that it will save money, persay, just that it wouldn't cost much if the OP was willing to use some AC on the home while they are away; and there are other benefits to keeping a home temperature a little regulated even when no one is around.