Refrigerated Beer Caves & Vaults
Custom beer caves and walk-in beer vaults.
Cold beer sells. A beer cave puts your entire packaged beer set behind glass at the right temperature, lit and merchandised, instead of squeezed into a few reach-in doors. Southeast Cooler builds them to your store’s footprint — glass door runs, keg storage, customer-entry caves, and everything in between.
Southeast Cooler has been manufacturing refrigerated walk-ins, vaults, and cold storage structures since 1979, with in-house CNC fabrication and a staff of close to 100 people.
Get a quote on a custom beer cave.
Tell us your available footprint, how many doors you want on the sales floor, and whether you’re storing kegs. We’ll spec it for you.
GET A BEER CAVE QUOTE
Manufacturing Since 1979
Nearly 100 Dedicated Employees
Up to 30-ft Tall, One-Piece Panel Heights
Serving Customers Globally
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Beer Cave or Beer Vault?
Both are refrigerated walk-ins built for retail beer. The difference is where your customer stands.
Walk-In Beer Cave
Customers walk into the refrigerated space and shop from inside, turning cold storage into a destination inside the store.
A walk-in beer cave gives you room for floor displays and seasonal placement. It will require the most square footage.
Glass Door Beer Vault
Customers shop from the sales floor through a run of lighted glass doors while the space behind is stocked from inside.
It takes less floor area than a walk-in cave and puts everything at eye level. This is the most common configuration in convenience stores.
Keg Cooler
A back-of-house or semi-accessible refrigerated space built around keg storage, with reinforced floors and wall protection where kegs are handled.
Most stores end up with a hybrid, which includes a glass door run on the sales floor with a service door into a deeper stocking and keg area behind it.
Built to Sell Beer, Not Just Store It
Lighted glass doors with auto-close returns
Attractive displays use lighted glass doors with auto-close return features, so doors seal themselves after every customer, and the beer and liquor products stay lit and visible.
Lighted displays increase purchases
Lighted displays draw attention and increase the number of purchases. That’s the whole argument for putting your beer set behind glass rather than on a shelf, and it’s why the door count and the lighting spec matter as much as the box.
A seamless transition from refrigerated to frozen
Runs can move from refrigerated to frozen product across a continuous line of doors, so beer, beverages, and frozen product read as one merchandising wall instead of three separate coolers.
Recessed cut-outs and flush-fitting access doors
Custom designs allow for recessed cut-outs and special access doors. A recessed access door sits flush-fitting with the display case, so your stocking door disappears into the merchandising line instead of interrupting it.
Keg Storage & Wall Protection
Kegs are the hardest thing a retail cooler has to survive. They get rolled, dropped, and stacked against walls and doors, and a standard panel skin dents. Southeast Cooler offers aluminum diamond plate protection specifically for this:
- Interior wall protection for lower sections of beer keg coolers
- Door protection for lower sections that see heavy cart traffic or beer kegs
- Exterior panel protection in hallways or corridors with heavy cart traffic
- Floor surface areas, the most common diamond plate application
Optional reinforced floors are available and are recommended when using mobile carts or dollies — worth specifying anywhere kegs are moved regularly.
How Our Beer Caves Are Built
Beer caves and vaults use the same panel system as every Southeast Cooler walk-in: prefabricated modular panels in metal-clad extruded polystyrene insulation, 4″ and 6″ thicknesses, joined with cam-lock fasteners and tongue-and-groove edges for a tight, well-insulated joint at every seam (urethane insulation is available upon request).
Full-width panels are 47″ wide, with narrow panels in various widths as required, and one-piece panels run up to 30 ft tall, which matters because a long, uninterrupted door run is exactly what a beer vault needs. Enclosure sections can be constructed in any size to accommodate your actual requirements.
Finishes
The sales-floor-facing side and the interior can be finished differently. Most stores spec the customer-facing exterior to match the store build-out and use a lower-cost interior finish behind the doors.
Standard finishes include galvanized steel, white-painted galvanized, aluminum, and 304 stainless in #4 polished or #2B.
Doors & Hardware
Door selection is the whole design on a beer cave, because the doors are what your customer touches.
Glass display doors
Lighted glass display doors with shelving packages and auto-close returns, in runs sized to your merchandising plan.
Access and service doors
A standard hinged access door for stocking, flush-mounted in a 47″ panel with a 34″ × 78″ clear opening, pre-wired with a vapor-proof light fixture and a light switch with digital thermometer.
Every door carries a replaceable magnetic gasket, a dual neoprene sweep, polished chrome spring-loaded hinges, a positive-latching chrome latch, and an inside safety release handle. Access doors can be recessed to sit flush with the display case line.
Larger openings
- Hinged pallet doors in custom sizes up to 5 feet wide and 7 feet high
- Manual horizontal sliding doors
- Electric horizontal sliding doors with heavy-duty tracks and drive assembly (115/1/60 electrical required)
- Bi-parting sliding doors, single or double, manual or electric
Replacing doors on an existing beer cave? We build replacement doors for Southeast Cooler walk-ins and for walk-ins from other manufacturers.
Refrigeration Systems
Southeast Cooler supplies refrigeration engineered to match the enclosure, with each system provided with the proper accessories and controls. For beer retail, that usually means holding a consistent temperature through heavy door traffic during peak hours.
Remote outdoor, indoor, and self-contained top-mount systems are available.
Installation
A complete approved set of drawings is supplied with every unit. Wall panels must be level on installation, with a 2″ clearance allowed between the wall panels and the existing room walls and ceiling. All panels are tagged with easy-to-read part numbers for a smooth and rapid installation.
Because beer caves are usually built into an operating store, the drawing set matters more here than almost anywhere else. Your GC needs to coordinate the cooler footprint against the display case line, the electrical, and the merchandising plan before anything ships.
Industries Served
Southeast Cooler provides beer caves and beer vaults for the following industries:
Liquor & Beverage Retail
Convenience Stores
Grocery & Supermarkets
Gas Stations
Breweries & Taprooms
Warehouses & Distribution
What We Need to Spec Your Beer Cave or Beer Vault
Rough numbers are fine to start. We’ll confirm everything on the approved drawing set before the beer cave is built. Send us:
- Wall length available for the glass doors. The run the door bank will fill, in feet and inches.
- Depth available behind that wall. How far back the cooler can extend before it hits the next wall, a column or a walkway.
- Ceiling height at the installation point. Allow 2″ of clearance between the cooler panels and the existing ceiling and walls.
- Number of glass doors. And whether you want refrigerated doors only, or a refrigerated-to-frozen run with a freezer section.
- Staff entry door location. Back wall or side wall, and which side.
- Floor. Concrete slab or other, and whether the cooler needs its own floor panel.
- Anything in the way. Columns, ductwork, sprinkler heads, electrical panels, floor drains.
- Refrigeration location. Roof access for a remote condensing unit, or no roof access (self-contained top-mount).
- What you’re merchandising and the temperature you need to hold.
Have a floor plan or a sketch? Attach it to the form or email it to sales@secooler.com and skip the list.
Beer Cave/Vault FAQs
Here are some of the most common questions we get about our beer cave and vault products. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 770-941-6703.
A beer cave is a refrigerated walk-in that customers enter and shop from inside. A beer vault is shopped from the sales floor through a run of lighted glass doors and stocked from behind. Many stores combine both. SE Cooler can build either configuration.
Enclosure sections can be constructed in any size to accommodate your requirements, so the answer depends on your door count, keg storage, and aisle space. Send us your available footprint, and we’ll work through it with you.
Yes. Runs can transition from refrigerated to frozen product so beer, beverages, and frozen goods read as one continuous merchandising wall.
Aluminum diamond plate protection is available for interior wall lower sections in keg coolers, door lower sections, and corridors with heavy cart traffic, along with optional reinforced floors.
Yes. Recessed access doors can be built flush-fitting with the display case so the stocking entrance doesn’t interrupt the merchandising line.
Glass display doors with lighting and shelving packages are available as part of the build.
Yes — most beer caves are retrofits into operating stores. A complete approved drawing set is supplied so your contractor can coordinate the build against the existing floor plan.
Yes. We build dedicated keg storage as a standalone cooler or as part of a larger beer cave layout.
Beer Cave/Vault Warranty & Repair
Southeast Cooler guarantees the panels to be free from defects in material or workmanship under normal use and service. In the event of failure, Southeast Cooler shall be limited to repairing or replacing with a like panel section, after our inspection, if it proves defective and cannot be placed back in operation with normal service efforts. (F.O.B. Factory Lithia Springs, GA).
The warranty is in force for five (5) years from the date of original shipment. Southeast Cooler’s obligation on items not manufactured by Southeast Cooler shall be limited only to the extent of the warranty extended to Southeast Cooler by that manufacturer.
This warranty does not apply to equipment which has been subject to removal from the original installation site, dismantled and rebuilt, or subjected to any accident, alterations by unauthorized service, negligence, misuse, or improper installation. This warranty does not include any labor or mileage charges for replacement or repair of defective panels.
Southeast Cooler extends the warranty to the original purchaser or user, which shall be deemed to mean the individual who originally purchased the product or the company where the product was originally installed. The warranty applies only within the continental boundaries of the United States, its territories and possessions, and Canada.
In the interest of continued product improvement, we reserve the right to change specifications without notice.
Our Beer Caves & Vaults
Check out our beer cave and beer vault products below, or reach out for a quote today.
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