Beer Cellar thread - real cellars, closet cellars, fridge cellars, freezer cellars, wine coolers

[Bill2]

I know there are some bomb ass cellars lurking out there... come out of the woodwork and playyyy.

 

[stupac2]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

Jesus ****. Is that barrel for homebrew? (Also, are you still hanging out with Matt? I remember our trade ages ago that he set up.)

 

[mjmoser]

Jesus ****. Is that barrel for homebrew? (Also, are you still hanging out with Matt? I remember our trade ages ago that he set up.)

Don't home brew, picked it up from Goose for display. Have we traded?

 

[Shmeal]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

Holy robot Jesus!

 

[stupac2]

Don't home brew, picked it up from Goose for display. Have we traded?

I thought so, though I may have you confused with someone else. I traded with an M Moser in Illinois in June 2011. If that's not you, then I'll be SHOCKED.

 

[Usofar]

In the back! Gotta hide the whales!

You don't want them easily accessible for those drunken benders.

 

[mjmoser]

I thought so, though I may have you confused with someone else. I traded with an M Moser in Illinois in June 2011. If that's not you, then I'll be SHOCKED.

That's funny. Did you have an alternate handle on BA? My brothers name starts with an M, but don't think he traded much.

 

[stupac2]

That's funny. Did you have an alternate handle on BA? My brothers name starts with an M, but don't think he traded much.

Nope, I'm stupac2 everywhere. It could've been him, it was a noob trade, RR locals for New Glarus stuff.

 

[Mandark]

My "cellar" is my wife's family heirloom steamer trunk, tucked away in our year round 60-68 degree basement:

It's perfect as it only holds about 55 to 90 bottles, preventing me from allowing too much to molder for too long, what with new purchases and all. The picture below was taken a year or so ago, and I'd say 75% of that has been drunk and replaced:

Also: a Google image search of "steamer trunk" moments ago brought up the first picture among the first 30 or so results, from the time I posted it on the other site. Odd to find a piece of your furniture on the interwebz....

 

[Bill2]

Incredibly sweet beers should also make that canon. Belgian Red, Rasp, Apple Ale, etc, all can be cellared with excellent results, but dont fall under any of those four categories.

 

[Hanzo1]

that looks great, but where do you put the other 420 or so bottles?

In my mouth.

 

[JulianB1]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

I can't believe the opportunity was missed to call this thread "Have U Seen My Cellar?"

 

[MordorMongo]

Not a very good pic but only one I have handy.

I mix things up, some good stuff in front, most in back though....because you know last tasting I had someone tried to bury Framboos in my yard. And that isn't a joke at all. Srs. Super srs.

For those that care it is a 21 or so cuft freezer, shelves upgraded to marine grade lumber. Ranco controller at 52 as God intended.

PS if you try super hard you can spy dat dark lerd creeper. FTW.

 

[Iliketurtles]

I have a question for people, do you store your most impressive beers at the front of your shelves? I ask because it often seems somewhat likely from these pictures, but I store my rarer stuff farther back. Then again, I'm in earthquake country, so that weighs heavily on my mind...

I always put my best stuff closest to the ground. I have a nice basement than never gets above 65 even when it's 105 outside.

 

[imfrommichigan]

I just have a closet in the basement with 2 shelves and then the concrete floor. Top shelf is for large format bottles. Middle shelf is all small format bottles. Then the concrete floor is for any format that I feel I'll age for the longest out of everything.

 

[SeaWatchman]

But we have crawlspaces, and they can be nearly as good!

It stays <70 even in the middle of summer. Not the best, but not bad. It's fuller now, I should get updated pictures. I have about 330 bottles total, and a buddy is storing his stuff in my place too. He has like 24 on my racks and another 340 or so in boxes.

I'm genuinely interested as to why you've angled the shelves downward like that. I'm usually a store standing up, but am happy to store horizontally as well, but I imagine with lambics that angling them downward like that would put all the sediment and gunk right at the base of the cork? I'll be building my new shelving soon I'll be having the woodshop kids build my new shelving soon, so I was curious.

 

[surlytheduff1]

My "cellar" is my wife's family heirloom steamer trunk

I've been trying to come up with some snarky ass way to incorporate a Cleveland steamer joke into a reply all day and been coming up empty.

 

[Bill2]

I'm genuinely interested as to why you've angled the shelves downward like that. I'm usually a store standing up, but am happy to store horizontally as well, but I imagine with lambics that angling them downward like that would put all the sediment and gunk right at the base of the cork? I'll be building my new shelving soon I'll be having the woodshop kids build my new shelving soon, so I was curious.

At that angle the sediment will collect in the curve of the glass not the neck.

 

[stupac2]

I'm genuinely interested as to why you've angled the shelves downward like that. I'm usually a store standing up, but am happy to store horizontally as well, but I imagine with lambics that angling them downward like that would put all the sediment and gunk right at the base of the cork? I'll be building my new shelving soon I'll be having the woodshop kids build my new shelving soon, so I was curious.

So, those shelves are not made 100% from scratch. I bought some of the parts off of craigslist and then made the front parts (which hold the necks so they won't go flying in a minor earthquake) myself. In order to be able to use the standard parts while still being able to get bottles in and out easily, they have to be angled down.

Someone else asked this earlier and I said that I have not experienced any dregs in the neck. I haven't had them like that for all that long, though, since I completely rearranged the system during the summer after first making it last November, they haven't been sitting for more than a few months.

But I think that Bill is right that the angle is not so much as to get a lot into the neck:

That's approximate as it's hard to get SW to get the tangencies right, but I think it's a steeper angle, if anything. We'll see though, after a few more months it'll probably be clear where the dregs want to settle, I can post a picture at that point.

(If that image dies let me know, imgur is being a ****head right now and after 10 minutes it hasn't uploaded it, so I used some random site.)

 

[jaIsPoAn]

Moving out of the city and into the burbs has some pros...

Holy botchy balls

 

[SeaWatchman]

So, those shelves are not made 100% from scratch. I bought some of the parts off of craigslist and then made the front parts (which hold the necks so they won't go flying in a minor earthquake) myself. In order to be able to use the standard parts while still being able to get bottles in and out easily, they have to be angled down.

Someone else asked this earlier and I said that I have not experienced any dregs in the neck. I haven't had them like that for all that long, though, since I completely rearranged the system during the summer after first making it last November, they haven't been sitting for more than a few months.

But I think that Bill is right that the angle is not so much as to get a lot into the neck:

That's approximate as it's hard to get SW to get the tangencies right, but I think it's a steeper angle, if anything. We'll see though, after a few more months it'll probably be clear where the dregs want to settle, I can post a picture at that point.

(If that image dies let me know, imgur is being a ****head right now and after 10 minutes it hasn't uploaded it, so I used some random site.)

Interesting. When I start building I was thinking about angling mine up in basically the same position as what it would be if it were sitting in a lambic basket. Thanks for the analysis.

 

[stupac2]

Interesting. When I start building I was thinking about angling mine up in basically the same position as what it would be if it were sitting in a lambic basket. Thanks for the analysis.

If you're building from scratch that should be doable, I'm just lazy and not very good at wood working (though I'm a lot better than I was at the beginning of this ****). Really, if you want to build something with a huge capacity, you should look at mickey's or mjmoser's. That style of rack seems pretty easy and stores horizontally, though if you were feeling bold you could angle it pretty easily.

 

[SeaWatchman]

Indeed. I've got around 400 bottles and I'll likely (unfortunately?) need room for more. I need to find decent plans for 375ml bottles.

 

[stupac2]

Indeed. I've got around 400 bottles and I'll likely (unfortunately?) need room for more. I need to find decent plans for 375ml bottles.

Have you run out of space with the "hanging upside down in a room full of fireflies" method?

You could always just make a special rack for 375's, if you're going from scratch that wouldn't be all that hard.

 

[SeaWatchman]

Have you run out of space with the "hanging upside down in a room full of fireflies" method?

You could always just make a special rack for 375's, if you're going from scratch that wouldn't be all that hard.

Well I recently found out that that method turns my lambics into world-class Oud Brunes, so I need to switch now.

 

[Mandark]

I've been trying to come up with some snarky ass way to incorporate a Cleveland steamer joke into a reply all day and been coming up empty.

Drink less, think more.

 

[mjmoser]

Indeed. I've got around 400 bottles and I'll likely (unfortunately?) need room for more. I need to find decent plans for 375ml bottles.

I bought all my wine racks on Craig's list for cheap. To be fair, only the one on the left is beer, the 3 on the right are full of wine. I think each rack hold 144 bottles. 375s fit in there just fine too.
I think my wife let my cellar room slide because now our wine has a good home too.

 

[SeaWatchman]

I've been pondering what route to take with the aesthetics of my cellar and I ran across this Craigslist picture previously. An interesting use of steel siding if I want to take an "industrial" looking approach to it.

 

[Bill2]

Interesting. When I start building I was thinking about angling mine up in basically the same position as what it would be if it were sitting in a lambic basket. Thanks for the analysis.

Lambic baskets hold the bottles at a pretty steep angle, are you trying to avoid beer contacting the cork?

 

[ForkAndSpoonOperator]

Real basic shelving unit I built in my basement. Best I can do in a rental. I have reorganized it three times in six months already, because I am crazy.

 

[SeaWatchman]

Lambic baskets hold the bottles at a pretty steep angle, are you trying to avoid beer contacting the cork?

Nah, but if I'm planning on drinking a specific lambic I usually put it in a basket a day or two in advance. So if I can have a whole shelf set up like that it would be nice.

 

[claaark13]

Not really a good example of a deep cellar, but I tout them enough so I thought I'd take some photos today.

Exterior of both:

Interior of laying cellar, with a capacity of ~100 bottles when it's been full:

Inside of standing cellar. I cut and wrapped some double-wall cardboard in layers of tape to allow for the bottles to safely stand (can be seen in photo). The shelves are able to be moved, which was utilized in the standing cellar, as I actually took one out once I measured everything. Works pretty well, there are only some old De Dolle bottles and Westvletern 12 that I don't really have room to put in there. Also, the top shelf on both units rolls out (can be seen in photo):

I love these, but it can be a hassle to get to some bottles in the laying cellar. I'll get the open racks once we move to a home with a basement. Only having two of these and really no other place to store beer helps limit my purchasing though, which is necessary.

 

[willseph]

You all have some kickass cellars full of kickass beer. Here's mine, it's just a fridge I bought on the cheap when I worked for Sears.

Cellar door (decorated with many stickers from some of you very generous BTers)

The inside:

The door:

 

[stupac2]

You all have some kickass cellars full of kickass beer. Here's mine, it's just a fridge I bought on the cheap when I worked for Sears.

Cellar door (decorated with many stickers from some of you very generous BTers)

The inside:

The door:

What's in the drawers?

 

[cosmicevan]

What's in the drawers?

that's what she said...


(sorry couldn't resist)

 

[willseph]

What's in the drawers?

Spiteful Brewing cans.

 

[1v1willwreku]

 

[davey101]

twocardboardbeercasesstuffedintoabasementcloset.jpg

 

[nedvalton1]

I actually use my crawl space which stays at a nice 57+- 2 all year round. Count fit all my stuff in a fridge so its good to have all the room. Needs to be straightened up currently though

 

[stupac2]

I actually use my crawl space which stays at a nice 57+- 2 all year round. Count fit all my stuff in a fridge so its good to have all the room. Needs to be straightened up currently though

Pics or gtfo.