Beer Fridge Suggestions?

12 oz bottles means 10" between shelves. So you need a minimum outside height of 26" and that will only give you the bottom plus one shelve.

My suggestion is you go to an appliance store or two and tell them what you want. Then see if you can get a better price plus freight off the internet.

Another thought is to get a freezerless refrigerator with adjustable shelves and on shelves where the bottles will not fit standing up, just lay them on their sides.

Dick

Dav Vandenbroucke wrote on 19 Jan 2008:

It would probably be worth the research to go to a Home Depot or similar store, armed with an empty bottle or two, and look at the refrigerators on the floor.

If you regularly bring home larger-format beer and some wine, I'd recommend buying a wine refrigerator. I wound up with one (it's a Franklin, also sold as an Everstar) comprising two doors, each side programmable to a different temperature, which is designed to hold

36 750ml bottles, 18 per side (5 shelves hold 3 apiece, plus 3 "showcased" at an angle at the bottom, to allow for the compressor unit behind). I took that angled shelf and the lowest shelf out of one side and can comfortably stand a dozen 12-ounce bottles in that space. Bombers and half-liter formats work well there, too, and the space above the compressor can still hold a few cans should you enjoy Oskar Blues' or Surly's beer on occasion.

Witzel

We've looked at small fridges. They're not really set up to hold beer bottles. They have crispers, small shelves, ice making compartments, Yes, one could stick beer in them, lying bottles on their sides, etc., but that's awkward. It was after looking at what is typically available that we decided to look for something more specialized.

Dav Vandenbroucke davanden at cox dot net

Indeed they do. But, as I said in my original post, I can't find out the distance between shelves. Their pictures show only beer cans, not bottles. I sent an email to Avanti, and another to a dealer, but neither has replied.

Dav Vandenbroucke davanden at cox dot net

In case anyone is interested, we finally decided on an Avanti Town Tavern wine and beer cooler, model WC491BG. It comes with six shelves, three of which are the "wavy" kind for storing wine bottles horizontally. If one takes out all but two of the shelves, there is enough space to store 12 ounce beer bottles upright. We can easily get 40 bottles in it, and we might be able to get in 48 with some squeezing.

We set the temperature at "medium--white wine," which works out to 52 degrees (F). That seems to be a good compromise between lower temperatures for lager and higher for ales.[1] We may fiddle with that a bit after we have had a chance to try out the results.

[1]Yes, it briefly crossed our minds that we needed two refrigerators, but that's getting silly.

Dav Vandenbroucke davanden at cox dot net

==========Thanks for closing the loop and the info.

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

On 2/3/2008 12:27 PM Dav Vandenbroucke ignored two million years of human evolution to write:

You could always get a Cooper Cooler for those times you want to cool a beer a bit more in a short amount of time. You can set 'em so they don't spin the bottles (not a problem with wine, obviously, but a bit annoying with beer bottles).