Bottle Storage Solutions

[the_yobbo]

I've presently got a 3mx3m tin shed out the back which gets well hot in summer and pretty cool in winter. There isn't much area outside of the house that is protected from the weather, and inside, well, the missus doesn't appreciate a stack of beer cartons in the corner of the living room.

Anyone have any brillant ways of storing beer at room temperature that SWMBO won't complain about?

My initial thoughts would be to build an insulated cupboard in the shed, but would the temperature extremes penetrate such an item (especially those 4 day heat waves of 37+ deg each summer).

Has anyone built a similar item that passes the asthetics required by SWMBO to be put inside the house?

 

[benno1973]

a. Does the shed have power? Can you buy a fridge and store them in there? If you're concerned about the power consumption, you could hook up a tempmate and set it at 18C, which means it wouldn't be running as often, and it'd still keep beer at a constant coolish temp.

b. Get rid of the missus

 

[JestersDarts]

a. Does the shed have power? Can you buy a fridge and store them in there? If you're concerned about the power consumption, you could hook up a tempmate and set it at 18C, which means it wouldn't be running as often, and it'd still keep beer at a constant coolish temp.

b. Get rid of the missus

c. store under her pillow

 

[the_yobbo]

a) No power in the shed, yet. Will one day. However, was hoping for something that doesn't require power. I saw someones setup in there massive tin shed which was simply a shelving unit with about 40 open ended cartons of beer, with the brew label written on the bottom flap of cardboard exposed. It looked good, and his shed being large enough that the heat in there wouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately a 3x3 warms up way too quickly.

B) Heh, not the first forum I've been in that someone's said that. Think it was a satellite TV forum when I mentioned I was getting rid of a 2m dish from my backyard because the missus thought it was an eyesore.

c) Ah, no. Way too hot there .

 

[Dazza_devil]

Store the bottles in the bedroom next to the bed until carbonated then remove all the food from the fridge and store them there until consumed.
If she complains lock her in the shed.

 

[Tiny_Tim]

Another problem solved thanks to the friendly, resourceful folks here at AHB.

 

[benno1973]

Long and the short is... no, cardboard housing won't do much on consistent 37C days. Even an insulated cupboard would be fairly useless unless you started putting frozen bottles in it each day (which would get old pretty quickly). There's absolutely nowhere in your house you can store them? Small cellar under the floorboards? Disused cupboard?

 

[Dazza_devil]

Styro box under the house.
If she's that bad perhaps move a cupboard to the side, cut a hole in the carpet and floorboards. Make a trap door and put your bottles in a styro box with a lid under the house.
I guess you could also bury them in the ground, deep.

 

[Fourstar]

Styro box under the house.
If she's that bad perhaps move a cupboard to the side, cut a hole in the carpet and floorboards. Make a trap door and put your bottles in a styro box with a lid under the house.
I guess you could also bury them in the ground, deep.

You could also move to tassie. :icon_cheers:

 

[Dazza_devil]

You could also move to tassie. :icon_cheers:

I've got a 3x3 out the back 4* and I reckon it hits 60 degrees inside in the summer and falls below 5 degrees in the winter.

I wouldn't even keep a woman in those conditions.

 

[bum]

Styro box under the house.
If she's that bad perhaps move a cupboard to the side, cut a hole in the carpet and floorboards. Make a trap door and put your bottles in a styro box with a lid under the house.
I guess you could also bury them in the ground, deep.

I'm pretty sure he's only talking about one SWMBO, Boagsy.

 

[Sydneybrewer]

I have a similar problem atm as swmbo insists i put my beer bottles in the shed from now on which is all well and good for now with cooler weather, but it will become a real problem when the weather heats up again not to mention the pita it is running across the lawn in thunder, lightning and pouring rain to grab a six pack out of the shed. anyway i was thinking about getting some knd of cupboard with decent shelving inside to put in the laundry to store all the bottles in which i am sure she will have to accept especially after it magically apears there one day after she wasnt home.

 

[the_yobbo]

Cheers for the response, although, not sure I've got a solution yet.
It is certainly a fairly substantial sized house so must be somewhere I can put shelving.
Unfortuantely, the majority of the house has floating timber floors, and concerned a single bottle bomb (which I'm bound to accidently to produce one day) would be highly detrimental to the floor.
I like the idea of the cupboard in the laundry idea, and there's even room in our laundry to do it, except the laundry has a north facing glass sliding door which makes it easily the hottest room in the house. Perhaps tint the laundry window to reduce the heat and put a cupboard in there I guess.

 

[QldKev]

Cheers for the response, although, not sure I've got a solution yet.
It is certainly a fairly substantial sized house so must be somewhere I can put shelving.
Unfortuantely, the majority of the house has floating timber floors, and concerned a single bottle bomb (which I'm bound to accidently to produce one day) would be highly detrimental to the floor.
I like the idea of the cupboard in the laundry idea, and there's even room in our laundry to do it, except the laundry has a north facing glass sliding door which makes it easily the hottest room in the house. Perhaps tint the laundry window to reduce the heat and put a cupboard in there I guess.

Now your thinking;
Geese dear, I noticed the laundry gets quite warm, it must get hot in there for you and detrimental to the white goods. Let me tint that window for you.

Some sort of external shade / awning keeps the house a lot cooler than tint will, but tint doesn't get in the way.

Also before you spend too much trying to store the bottles, think about a kegerator. New $$cupboard + $$tint + nagging SWMBO cause bottles bombs vs kegerator.

QldKev

 

[praxis178]

Cheers for the response, although, not sure I've got a solution yet.
It is certainly a fairly substantial sized house so must be somewhere I can put shelving.
Unfortuantely, the majority of the house has floating timber floors, and concerned a single bottle bomb (which I'm bound to accidently to produce one day) would be highly detrimental to the floor.
I like the idea of the cupboard in the laundry idea, and there's even room in our laundry to do it, except the laundry has a north facing glass sliding door which makes it easily the hottest room in the house. Perhaps tint the laundry window to reduce the heat and put a cupboard in there I guess.

Get a second fridge, convert it into a keggerator and go kegging, no more bottle bombs and you can make a fizzy something for her too that way. :beerbang:

 

[Pollux]

What design is your bed???

Seriously, as ours is a wooden frame with slats and a mattress, we currently keep the empty suitcases and stuff like that under there but you could also keep bottles there, just surround the boxes in the centre with a row of other boxes, or go buy one of those flounce (I had to google that word to see if it was the right one, haven't used it since I used to help in the parents hotel) things that give you a nice layer of fabric to hide everything behind.....

 

[bum]

I have a similar problem atm as swmbo insists i put my beer bottles in the shed from now on which is all well and good for now with cooler weather, but it will become a real problem when the weather heats up

Just start buying boxes of the beers you're cloning instead. She'll probably change her mind in a hurry.

 

[davewalk]

Carefully remove floorboards and dig a trench about 6 foot by 3 foot by 6 foot deep. At this depth the temp should be ideal. Now, throw your missus in, fill in the hole, replace floorboards, move bottles inside, refit sattelite dish. Invite drunks (from this site) over to watch footy tonight and ply with your brew.
Problem solved.

 

[HoppingMad]

Storing beer under bed? Geez bottle bombs in the middle of the night would become pretty exciting in that location. Kinda like sleeping in a mine field.

My thoughts:

- Plastic milk crates 8-10. Or as many as you can get. Stack them one on the other up to the ceiling in the corner of a room, then cover that space with panelling, a curtain or a screen. They would take up an area of under 1m scare.
- Under the house. Or digging out a cellar and reinforcing the earth.
- Kegging as others have suggested.

Insulating a box is problematic. I have an insulated space (made with ply and roof batts) at the back of a car-sized weatherboard shed and in hot weather it can still reach 28 degrees (in Melb). I would hazard a guess that in a tin shed your temps would go way higher than this.

As others suggest some placating of the missus so you can fit an inside beer cupboard may also help.

Good luck!

Hopper.

 

[Pollux]

Okay, perhaps only under the bed if you lay a sheet of steel on top??? Or use that as inspiration to bottle only when it's finished and keep awesome sanitisation....

+1 for a beer bunker then, or kegging, kegging is awesome..