Underground Keg Cooling

[WelshDev]

Hey,

I've got a log cabin style bar in the garden with a beer cooler, taps and everything else. It works great however things start getting a little hot during the summer. Temperatures can reach as high as 30c inside which means the keg gets far too warm and the beer cooler struggles to do its job.

Just to be clear, I'm using 50 litre (11 gallon) kegs here.

My idea is to pull up a few floor boards and dig out a nice big space beneath - just about big enough to store a keg or two. My cooler has water recirculation which I'm hoping will bring the keg temps down and with it being underground I'm hoping it'll be able to maintain a much cooler temperature.

I wanted to see if anyone else has tried something like this or if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions? Is this just a stupid idea and if so, what would be the best alternative?

Thanks!

 

[Hacksawbob]

I'm thinking something similar, although my house is built into a hill so I have about a 4 foot space under the floor boards so I should be good to go. The temperature down there stays failrly constant thoughout the year. I haven't measured it but I would guess it doesn't go much above 15 deg C. Your floorboards will go perpendicular to your joists, you can run a multitool or circular saw to cut the floorboards using the nails as a guideline. Ideally having a blade that can deal with metal, (remove one floor board and check for pipes before you go any further) If you are looking to store 50L kegs then weight will almost certainly be an issue, that is a really good way to put your back out, and the space between your joists may prevent you fitting the keg between your joists in which case you may need to fit some sort of trap door that spans two joists and reinforces them. If you can switch to corny kegs for final dispense it would make your life a lot easier, and if you don't mind lying them down with a floating tube you may not need to dig out a big hole.