beer/keg storage cool room

[carlyg13]

hi --
was wondering if anyone had any advice...

am looking to build a 12' x 8' refrigerated cool room for keg & case storage in the basement of my bar. was wondering if anyone had advice on the best way to go about cooling the room/best system, etc. thanks so much!!

carly.

[admin]

Carly, this seems like an odd question to me. Aren't you essentially building a walk in cooler? It's not necessary to keep case beer cool at storage (unless you're short on cooler space), but for sure you want to keep your kegs at 38 or so.

[David]

Carly:

I have had good luck with the built-in type and the modular type of Walk In Coolers.

There are advantages to both.

Built-In: This type of cooler is built in place in your business. It is meant to be a permanent fixture. Once built, they are very difficult to add on to in the future.

Modular Type: This type of cooler comes as a pre-manufactured unit. It consists of panels that are bolted or snapped together. The configuration and size is very easy to change. The advantage to the modular type is that it is 100% depreciable. Where as the built in is not (this is how our accountant explained it to me). Also, you can take the modular ones with you when you leave.

I hope that this helps. When it comes to coolers, no matter how large you build it, in time it we be too small. Ours was OK until all of the new malt beverages came out. Now we have to store our overflow outside of the cooler and pay closer attention to how we stock and how we rotate our stock.

When you merchandise your cooler stock, pay close attention to where you position your product. Make sure that it is ergonomically efficient and that you can pull product and restock it with little effort.

[carlyg13]

it will definitely be a built-in as opposed to a modular...so what type of cooling unit for a built-in have you found to work best?

thanks so much for the advice so far!

[Baudtender]

I built one (albeit upstairs rather than down) with exactly those
dimensions and can offer some advice.

1) Get a Superior Products catalog- you can order your refrigeration
unit from them and save a bundle. I always love to pass along
links but a prior nightclub forum I was involved in hated it - you
can request a catalog at www.nextdaygourmet.com. If you
use U.S. Foodservice, their reps can get you the products from
this company (which they own) and save you the shipping cost
(potentially significant for items this heavy.) You definitely want
to consult with a refrigeration repairperson before ordering as
you'll have to hire them to install and charge the system with
coolant gas and want to make sure you order an appropriately
sized unit and all the parts you need for installation. Oversize
your unit based on your size - I'd recommend a 1 1/2 horsepower
unit for a cooler that's 8 X 12. It recovers faster after you open
the door, and it works less hard in humid/hot ambient conditions
compared to a smaller unit. Consider a plastic strip door inside
your cooler door - a really good investment.

2) Don't skimp on insulating the walls of your cooler - the best
insulation I found is called "Thermax" made by Celotex
Corporation - any building supply company should be able to
order it for you. It is available in a number of different 4X8 foot
sheet thicknesses - we put in 8-12 inches all the way around -
including floor and ceiling and then used small cans of spray
insulation foam to seal all seams. We ended up with close to
an R-80 factor where most pre-made coolers brag about an R-30.
A higher R-factor translates directly into less cooling costs, and
that's where you save money building your own.

3) Make sure you have a really good sealing door. You can buy
one from the aforementioned catalog, but it will set you back
around $700+. Any good carpenter can fabricate one, but just
remember that the door should be just as well insulated as the
walls of the cooler, and the jamb should be overlapping to
prevent leakage/condensation problems. With a well insulated
cooler, condensation will be your biggest challenge, but one that
is easily met if you remember that this is not a cooler that is
meant to be opened and closed 10 times a day.

4) Consider - real hard - how you get the cases of beer from the
cooler to the bar. You'll be duplicating this route a few gazillion
times over the next few years. Is a trap door/dumbwaiter
possible? If so, spend the $ now and you'll be a happy happy
person in the years to come.

5) If you'll be running draught beer from this cooler, build your
keg shelves while your building the cooler. If your beer-line
cleaning isn't provided for free by your local distributors (yeah,
I hear it happens everywhere but here) talk to the owner of
this company:
http://www.kegworks.com/pages/draft/clean.html
who is a damned genious when it comes to setting up a line-
cleaning system that is owner/manager-friendly.

6) Unless you've got the bucks to finish the inside in stainless
steel or aluminum sheeting, you'll probably finish the inside with
wood. If you finish with wood, make sure you paint it with a
really strong marine grade epoxy based paint - coolers are
subject to lots of abuse.

So what to do with the money you save (about 50%, on our
venture, but we scavenged refrigeration and a door from a
beat up unit we got at an auction for around $500)? Don't
put it in your pocket - spend it first on F.O.B's (foam detectors
that keep your beer lines full when a keg is detected empty
eliminating the foamy mess when tapping a new keg), and then
start thinking about a flowmeter system to keep track of sales
vs. usage.


Good luck!
Baudtender