Beer Storage in San Diego

The SD Wine Storage guys (across from Homebrew Mart) will allow beer, but they will heckle you. I used to store my beer there, but at some point I think I was paying more in storage fees than the beer was worth. Something to keep in mind. Total accumulation of month rental > paid for beer. Beer also doesn't appreciate like wine can. A few beer geeks have gone through there though, so they won't be surprised. They don't have after hours access or anything either...so make sure you get what you need during their business hours.

 

I'm just curious as to how much beer you are storing to make that a reasonable option, and why you aren't able to do it at home?

I thought about doing off-site storage, but then I saw the price tags of the places and just LOL'd. Then I went and bought a couple of fridges and temp controllers off craigslist.

 

I had a storage unit for many years at the WineSeller (just off the intersection of the 805 & 5 Freeways) and that worked out very well. An added benefit: there's an outstanding restaurant at the front of the building.

 

I use Cold Case. various pricing based on size and location of the cage. I have the smallest most inconvenient one...

 

I use San Diego Wine Storage, they are very good people and it is close to my house (which is most important).

Not sure how the prices compare to other cellar locations, I think I've heard it is a bit more $$$ (since they are wine-collection focused) but the cages are also larger.

 

Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondio offers various sizes and prices

 

I use Holiday as well and have been very happy with them. They offer a wide range of sizes from small lockers to whole cages that would fit about 60 cases. They don't offer 24/7 access, but you can get in there any time they are open, which are much better hours than some of the places that are pretty much only open 9-5.

A friend of mine uses Cold Case and has been very happy with them. 24/7 access is nice when you have to grab bottles in the morning before heading to a release or bottle share. It's a little too far out of the way for me and I tend to go near holiday for lost abbey and stone more often than I go down south to sd.

 

Don't bother with Coastal Wine Storage in Oceanside. They seemed like a good option in terms of price, features and location, but I called to ask for a quote and they rudely told me that they don't allow beer.

 

Hey there,
Beer certainly ages gracefully over the years provided you are attempting to age the right type of beer and aging beer certainly isn't for everyone. Most of what I have are Imperial Porters, Barrel aged stuff, some sours, and a few of the heavy hitters from Brew Dog, Avery, Etc. Its fun to experiment though, sometimes I'll buy a random beer and see how it ages, sometimes its great after a couple years, and, sometimes it total shit! lol, thats part of the fun of it for me though so I dont mind paying someone to store my beer properly. Temp, light, and storing the bottles upright are the most important parts of storing beer, temperature fluctuation is probably the most damaging with the exception of being in direct sunlight. I have almost 400 bottles stored at San Diego Wine Storage including one 1/6bbl and I like it there. The temp is a constant 57 degrees and when we had the power outage in san diego a couple years ago the temp dropped by 1 degree I think. Its nice to know that my investment is protected (yep, investment, Vertical Epic anyone? lol, just kidding, Im drinking all of those on 12/12/12 with my friends!). I suppose I wouldnt pay to keep my beer in a storage place if I wasnt so into it but hey, thats what I like, I wouldnt pay a dime for someone to keep wine in a cellar for me because I just am not a huge fan of wine. lol.
Back on topic, I called a couple wine places and I felt the most comfortable at SDWS. They were the most welcoming to me as a beer guy and always ask me to tell them about whatever beer I am bringing in every time I go in there. I secretly am planning to convert them to beer lovers but we'll see. Plus they know that I like Brew Dog so they found a cool story on them in a magazine and slipped it into my cage, I thought that was thoughtful. Having Ballast Point across the street comes in real handy too when they release Sea Monster Stout and Victory at Sea!

 

I'm not in SD but what I use is a 7.0 cubic foot chest freezer and a temp regulator. Total cost was around 350ish for the whole setup but I had a gift card and get 10% off at Lowes and Home Depot so it was closer to 200 for the freezer and the temp regulator runs about 100. Somebody owed me some money so I also got the temp regulator for free. It doesn't run very often and it isn't taking up any extremely valuable real estate in my house. Plus it's at my house so I can visit it whenever I want.

I don't know how much your storage fees are but it's something to think about

 

Sentry Wine Vault is a better place to store your beer. Nobody will laugh at you and storage is by the case.

 

How many cases can you fit into the chest freezer? I was debating going this route, but instead built a insulated room with an AC

 

Fixed that for you . . .

 

I have a question about Temp fluctuation. I live in Northern California where the temp stays around 65 all year round. I have a massive closet with a door (no windows in the closet) and a windor directly in front of the closet door. Inside I'm able to put them back away from the door (door stays closed all the time) and the window open right in front. Thus it stays around ~60 or so in there all year round. Though last week we had a bit of as heat wave and it probably heated up to around 70 in there for a day or, how much impact will this have? If it does this couple times a year? Will it just mean I can only age some for a couple of yrs vs 5+ or have even more of a direct result?

 

This is the first I've heard of Cold Case. Wow their website is horrendous.

 

You must live on the coastline, otherwise, NorCal has waaaaay more extremes than that.

Anyways, I think under the setup you describe, you'll be fine for short term cellaring (up to 2 years). I'd be shocked if you ever had someone over to drink a beer aged ~2 years (or longer frankly) and they said. . . "OMG, this tastes like you aged it at 60 degrees instead of 55/this tastes like it was aged on its side, not vertically!"

 

Dont worry it was made on a Mac

 

I have a 25 cubic foot chest freezer and when it dies I don't think I'll buy another one because of the rust, moisture, mold, space, and electricity costs. It cycles on quite often and when you use the chest freezer as a beer cellar it costs a lot more in electricity than the amount advertised.