Buying a beer cellar

Get a cheap mini fridge or even better a chest freezer on craigslist and get a temp control unit for it.

 

Those units are called a Keezer and are fantastic; it holds five Cornelius kegs plus you can use it to store yeast and some bottles of brew. There are some helpful vids on You Tube on how to build one. HOG

 

Go as big as you can, because you'll grow into it quickly. Mine's a Magic Chef 4.7L 'beverage center' which is just their wine fridge with glass shelves swapped in. It was a great value for the size and holds cellar temps well. For 500 you could get something a little nicer in that size range. Holds around 45-60 bottles comfortably depending on size distribution.

 

This unit is the best bargain in wine/beer coolers, and it'll set you back a lot less than 500.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Haier-18-...ine-Tower-Storage-Silver-Refurbished/23809661

 

OP never mentions homebrewing, yet you recommend him a keezer (a chest freezer repurposed to serve draft beer)? Makes sense.

That's like...shit, I can't even think of an analogy that's more out of line.

 

@Drankenstein:
Let me point to a couple of erroneous assumption in your post, and one mistake on mine:
1- I was not responding to the OP, but rather to Paulys55 later part of his post and I quote: “a chest freezer on Craig’s list with a temp control unit for it” That is a Keezer and I was expanding on his post.
2- Yes, Keezers are generally used to store Cornelius kegs; but I have also seen them used to store bottled beer; yeast; and fermenters (when fermenting lagers at lower temps)
As to my mistake….I made a point a long time ago not to post anything on forums because often times I came across AH like you. My late posting proves this point. HOG.

 

That's made for wine bottles though which are ok to be laid down, whereas with beers its not so wise to lay them on their side. Correct me if Im wrong but that's what Ive learned.

 

Interested in this too. Have about 20 bombers and 15 12 oz bottles to cellar.

 

I've only had this for a couple months, but it was fairly cheap for the capacity and seems to do the trick. I pulled out the extra half-shelf on the bottom (to make more room to put bombers and bottle conditioned beers upright). The door is glass but I cut a piece of black tagboard to fit (held in place by the glass-side of the door gasket).

http://www.kenmore.com/kenmore-33-bottle-wine-chiller-black/p-04699269000P

 

Hey, here's a link to a post on my setup in another thread. I'm terribly happy with it, I still get notes/questions on this post from people every month, and a few people have even sent me pics of their recreation of my setup.

@baybassboy also has an excellent writeup on his chest freezer setup in that same thread.

My suggestion as far as wine coolers is to watch out as you really get what you pay for. The ones linked here from WalMart are just terrible. Generally they have a pretty huge temperature variation from top shelf to bottom shelf, and they seem to allow for more flexibility on how far off temp they will go before kicking on than we get with the Johnson regulators.

I wound up getting a very nice 45 bottle wine cooler for my in-house "to be drank soon" fridge, and it took me forever to find a setting that I was okay with that didn't make the beers on the top shelf too warm or the ones on the bottom shelf too cold.

Just let me know if you have any questions, happy to help!

 

Laying beer on it's side doesn't make a difference. There are many people on both sides of this argument but I've never noticed a difference. The ONLY concern I could think of would be that yeast would build up on the one side, but still not a big deal.

 

Truth.

 

Interesting, thats the first time Ive heard that. You dont think that they yeast and other ingredients might wear off/out the inside of the cap though?

 

Nope, not at all. I have found a few breweries...Great Divide *cough*...that will get rusty caps, but it's still not a huge deal. Keep in mind a lot of beers filter or fine so there is not much yeast in the bottle. A lot of beers that are good candidates for aging tend to be bottle conditioned though.

 

Would the fact that a certain beer is NOT bottle conditioned, make it last less? And well I usually store my beers upright so I havent had a chance to experiment and see if they are affected by sitting them on their side. Only time they go on their side is when I stick on in the freezer for quick cooling. Sometimes Ive noticed blurriness (best way I can explain it), or fuzziness on the cap, so I always thought all the lore about storing beer like wine being a big no, no. Ill keep that in mind then if I ever need to rest them on their side. Now that I think about it actually Ive shipped beer a few times, and they usually last 3 - 5 days in the box, and theyre always on their side, and Ive never gotten any complaints, so that adds to that issue.

 

I usually store corked beers on their side, because you really need to keep the cork moist to let it work properly. That, and they're too tall to fit with my other bottles.

 

that theory holds up with WINE, sure, because you have to drill into the cork and a dry, crumbly one makes for a disaster with aging bottles.

but with beer, which all have champagne-style pop corks? it's ludicrous. those corks are already designed to PREVENT moisture from getting in/out, what makes you think they're going to "absorb" liquid from inside the bottle and stay "moist?"

 

Cork is cork. Pretty sure they don't make "corks for wine" and "corks for beer." We've definitely had a couple bottles where cork had gotten into the beer after opening at bottle shares because they've dried out with some cellaring. And FYI, not all corked beers use champagne styles. I've ran across a couple where the bottles have been both corked and capped.