Outdoor Root Cellar Help

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Stubs

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Hey all,

I'm looking into buying a house with a root cellar in the backyard. It's completely surrounded by concrete and about 8 ft down.

The previous owners used it mostly for canned and jarred food so I don't think freezing would be an issue.

Would humidity be something to worry about? Does waxing bottles help with this?

Any other concerns or can I just put my beer in there?

Cheers!
 
If the previous owners used it for canning, that is good news and probably means humidity wasnt too much of an issue. Humidity is something I worry about with a ground cellar and its potential to promote rusting/degrading of caps.

My wife and I are planning on building a new home and a ground cellar either affixed to the north side of the house or detached into the mountain is in the plans. I just havent made up my mind yet.

I too would love to hear/read any real world experience or resources anyone has on the topic.
 
If the previous owners used it for canning, that is good news and probably means humidity wasnt too much of an issue. Humidity is something I worry about with a ground cellar and its potential to promote rusting/degrading of caps.

My wife and I are planning on building a new home and a ground cellar either affixed to the north side of the house or detached into the mountain is in the plans. I just havent made up my mind yet.

I too would love to hear/read any real world experience or resources anyone has on the topic.


Being in Colorado could also really help with the humidity. PA is probably a completely different ball game.
 
I would avoid waxing in general -- I've seen more rusty caps from under wax than I've ever seen without. In terms of humidity control, I agree that being in CO is a great first step. You might also pick up a copy of Gold's "How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar", which is an excellent overall resource on passive temp/humidity control (and should have some good info given mow much more important humidity control is for wine than for beer).

Take some pictures once you're done! Would love to see a good root cellar -> beer cellar conversion.
 
I would avoid waxing in general -- I've seen more rusty caps from under wax than I've ever seen without. In terms of humidity control, I agree that being in CO is a great first step. You might also pick up a copy of Gold's "How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar", which is an excellent overall resource on passive temp/humidity control (and should have some good info given mow much more important humidity control is for wine than for beer).

Take some pictures once you're done! Would love to see a good root cellar -> beer cellar conversion.
Ordering book now!

Awesome.
 
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