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Our top picks keep your favorite brews cold, crisp, and organized. Chest Freezer Double Door
Food & Wine / Kristin Kempa
For beer lovers, nothing beats a perfectly chilled brew. While you could store your favorite lagers, pilsners, and IPAs in your kitchen refrigerator, a dedicated beer fridge is helpful for anyone who loves to entertain or has room for extra storage in a home bar, basement, or garage.
The best beer fridges offer versatility and plenty of capacity with a small footprint. Different models can hold everywhere from dozens to hundreds of cans at a time, with options for adjustable shelving, temperature control, and other handy features. There are standalone fridges and others that are installed under a countertop.
To find the best beer fridge for you, we researched all the available options, looking at editor-owned favorites and our list of the best wine fridges to get insights on the most popular brands and what features are most important. If you’ve wanted to add a dedicated beer fridge to your gaming room, grilling setup, or kitchen, read on for our favorite picks.
With a small footprint and small price, this fridge holds 10 cases of beer and keeps them accurately cold.
It's somewhat noisy, and the interior light isn't very bright.
Whynter's freestanding mini-fridge is a value-priced model that does everything you need, with no unnecessary bells and whistles. It has a powerful compressor and a separate fan, which helps ensure even air circulation, temperature distribution, and faster cooling. The LCD touchscreen controls are simple, letting you adjust the temperature from 34 to 43°F. At maximum capacity, it holds 121 standard 12-ounce cans, but its four pull-out shelves are adjustable to handle bottles and tallboys, and the bin at the bottom is meant to hold odd-shaped or oversized items.
Another nice benefit is the double-paned tempered glass door, which blocks UV light to keep the sun from heating the interior or damaging beer or wine packaged in clear bottles. There's also a lock and key to keep your beer stash safe from curious kids.
Our main complaints are pretty minor: The extra fan makes the Whynter louder than competitors, and its weak interior light doesn't do a great job of illuminating to the back. It may not be fancy, but this beer fridge is reliable, accurate, spacious, and a good value.
Capacity: 3.4 cubic feet | Dimensions: 33 x 19 x 20 inches | Weight: 61 pounds
This dual-zone fridge installs perfectly flush with existing cabinets and countertops.
It's heavy, expensive, and probably requires professional installation.
If you're ready to upgrade from a mere bar cart to a full-on custom home bar, Titan's built-in fridge could be a great choice. It's made to sit flush with counters and cabinets, and its stainless steel doors blend in seamlessly with just about any decor. (It also works as a freestanding fridge if you prefer.)
This is two fridges in one: The left and right sides have independent temperature controls ranging from 38 to 72°F. You can keep beer, soda, and non-alcoholic drinks ice-cold in one half, with your red and rosé wines at the more appropriate just-a-little-bit-cool on the other side. The array of sliding shelves can be arranged to fit all shapes and sizes of items, but the standard configuration holds 64 beer cans and 20 wine bottles at once.
There's no getting around that a built-in beer fridge will be an investment, and the Titan model is pretty expensive — especially considering that you'll likely need to hire someone to install it properly. It's also larger and heavier than other models with similar capacity. But it looks gorgeous, works wonderfully, and is a luxury option for your dream kitchen, basement, bar, or outdoor entertaining space.
Dimensions: 24 x 34 x 23 inches | Weight: 132 pounds
This stylish cabinet stores an entire bar's worth of glassware and gear, plus it has two integrated fridges.
It's a very large and very expensive piece of furniture.
The Monterey Bar Cabinet is literally an entire home bar, all in one piece. The top section holds and displays your beer glasses, wine glasses, and cocktail supplies, complete with adjustable shelf, ambient lighting, and iron-and-glass doors. There are also two drawers to tuck away napkins, coasters, and other drink accessories.
Below, the reclaimed-elm doors open to reveal separate beer and wine fridges with separate temperature controls. There's room for everyone to enjoy their drink of choice at the optimal temperature. The upper and lower sections also have separate locks for customizable security.
Just be aware that this is a very pricey item. It's not just a beer fridge; it's a large piece of furniture. It's meant to be the centerpiece of a home bar or dining room, and you'll need to be sure you have room for it to fit.
This fridge crams 224 beer cans into a surprisingly small space.
Though the shelves are adjustable, it's not as space-efficient with bottles.
Whether you're a beer nerd with a collection of rare imports and limited editions or someone who has a lot of friends over to watch sports on the weekends, NewAir's fridge can hold all the brews you need. It's only a few inches wider than the Whynter above but has nearly double the interior capacity, with the ability to hold an astonishing 224 cans at once.
The NewAir’s temperature settings go from 37 to 65°F, controlled by a digital touch panel, and it also has an automatic defrost feature to prevent ice from forming. It works freestanding built into a kitchen, bar, or even sideboard. There are also red, white, and blue LED lights you can set to match your mood or cycle through colors.
The three shelves in the NewAir are adjustable to handle other types of containers, but it was designed with cans in mind. The capacity is quite a bit lower even with 12-ounce beer bottles, let alone wine bottles or other tall containers. And if you don't need space for hundreds of cans, it's quite a bit more expensive than smaller beer fridges.
Capacity: 5.72 cubic feet | Dimensions: 25.5 x 23.5 x 34.25 inches | Weight: 111 pounds
This stylish fridge has adjustable trays to hold just about anything.
It's expensive and heavy, especially for its comparatively small capacity.
It's not often that we're inspired to call a refrigerator "sexy," but that's exactly how we feel about Rocco's Super Smart Fridge. The unique shape and eye-catching reeded glass door make this beer fridge double as decor, and the top allows for safe storage of bottles, and glassware thanks to its protective lip. It's available in three colors: white, graphite, and yellow.
After testing the Rocco Super Smart Fridge, two Food & Wine editors loved it. It's one of our favorite wine fridges as well, thanks to its slide-out trays that can be arranged to accommodate 27 wine bottles, 88 beer cans, or any combination of drinks, cheese, and charcuterie for effortless entertaining. In terms of actual cooling, it has a temperature range of 37 to 64°F to handle any type of wine or style of beer, with two separate temperature zones inside and an ultra-quiet compressor.
The big downside with this fridge is the price. It costs more than twice as much as others on our list while holding less beer. But it looks much nicer. Another small issue is that it's quite heavy. Be sure to have a second person on hand when you set it up and don't plan to move it around much.
Dimensions: 34.5 x 24 x 16 inches | Weight: 128 pounds
This beer fridge offers big space without breaking the bank.
It doesn’t cool as evenly or as quickly as higher-end models.
For the budget-conscious, the hOmeLabs beer fridge provides cooling and storage for 120 cans at a very reasonable price. It has digital temperature controls, auto-defrost, and an LED light, with three adjustable or removable chrome shelves to handle different sizes of containers. A reversible door can open in either direction, letting you fit the unit into just about any space.
Beyond that, this fridge is quite basic. It works adequately but isn't as powerful, doesn't cool as quickly, and can't hold a temperature quite as accurately as some higher-priced models. On the other hand, it will keep a lot of beer cold, at a budget price. If cost is a major factor in your selection, this is a solid pick.
Capacity: 3.2 cubic feet | Dimensions: 19 x 33 x 17 inches | Weight: 68.3 pounds
This beer fridge can fit into tight spaces but still holds 100 cans.
Its lowest temperature setting is 40°F, which may not be cold enough for some.
If you don’t have a ton of space, this beverage cooler by Antarctic Star is big enough to hold up to 100 cans but small enough to tuck in the corner of an office or garage. It has three adjustable shelves to accommodate cans, bottles, and more, and the double-paned tempered glass door ensures excellent insulation and visibility. (And if even this fridge is too big, Antarctic Star has three smaller sizes with similar designs, all the way down to a 48-can model.)
The thing we don't love about this beer fridge is that the temperature can only go as low as 40°F. That's enough to keep food from spoiling and make beverages reasonably chilly, but if you like your lager served just on the edge of freezing, the extra degrees make a difference. The maximum temperature setting is 61°F, good for cellaring wine or bottle-conditioning beer.
Capacity: 2.6 cubic feet | Dimensions: 17.5 x 19 x 25 inches | Weight: 53.6 pounds
The Whynter Beverage Refrigerator gets our vote for the best freestanding beer fridge thanks to its reliable performance, impressive capacity, and reasonable price. If you're looking for a built-in model to fit seamlessly into an existing kitchen or home bar, the feature-packed Titan French Door Beverage and Wine Cooler is our top choice.
Probably the most important aspect of any beer fridge is just how much beer it can hold. The smallest models can pack in a few dozen cans, while others fit more than 200 into a surprisingly small space. Lots of adjustable shelves make fridges customizable to different-sized bottles and cans, but they also take up space themselves and reduce the amount of beer room available.
In general, a larger-capacity beer fridge will be bigger, but some use their space more efficiently than others. There are also different layouts for the motor and compressor: Sometimes they're on the bottom, which makes for a taller unit that can sit flush against the wall, and sometimes they're on the back, for a squatter, deeper fridge.
Almost every beer fridge has an adjustable temperature, but some have a wider range than others. If you're planning to store perishable food, you want to keep the temperature at 40°F or less, just like a standard refrigerator. But if it's just beer, you might want to raise the setting a bit. Basically, the darker the beer, the warmer you want to serve it: Light lagers are best the chilliest, while IPAs and similar hoppy ales should be served at more like 45 to 50°F. For stouts and other dark beers, you can go even a little higher than that — not room temperature, but more cool than cold. For long-term cellaring-style storage, a steady 50 to 55°F will help prevent flavor loss and make sure your beer tastes great.
There are two basic installation styles for beer fridges: Freestanding models simply plug into the wall and can sit on the floor anywhere, while built-in ones fit in perfectly with existing cabinets and countertops. There's no real difference in performance, so this is all about looks. A freestanding fridge might look fine sitting against the wall in a garage or basement, but something more polished is best for a custom-built kitchen or bar area. Built-in beer fridges tend to be more expensive to begin with, on top of the fact that you may need to hire a pro to get them set up.
There aren't a lot of bells and whistles available for beer fridges, but one helpful feature is an auto-defrost mode, which keeps ice from building up against the walls. Other options include LED lighting and digital displays for adjusting the temperature. Many models are lockable, with a key to keep the beer secure when you're not around.
All canned beer should have an expiration date, though that's about flavor more than safety. Even sealed inside a can and kept at optimal temperature, all beer will oxidize and lose flavor over time. How fast this happens depends somewhat on the style of beer. Hoppy beers with a lot of fresh citrusy flavors tend to fade most quickly — within 2 to 4 months — while darker, higher-alcohol styles last the longest — potentially years.
Once the can is opened, however, putting it back in the fridge won't really help preserve it. It'll lose its carbonation and most of its flavor within a few hours. If you don't finish the can in one night, you should probably just dump it out.
A beer fridge and a wine fridge are both miniature refrigerators; the main difference is the way the racks are set up. Beer typically comes in 12-ounce cans and bottles, while wine is mostly packaged in larger 750-milliliter bottles. Fridges designed for beer or wine have racks spaced to hold these different sized vessels. Many of the models on our list have removable and adjustable racks and can be configured to hold beer, wine, or a combination of both.
One feature that's more common in wine fridges than beer fridges is the ability to set a fairly high temperature. If you plan to cellar wine and store it for months or years, it doesn't need to be at full refrigerator temperature; just a few degrees lower than room temp is ideal.
Both appliances keep beer cold, but a beer fridge holds individual bottles and cans while a kegerator holds one or two large kegs with attached taps. Kegerators are popular with homebrewers and can be fun for a large-scale party, but if you don't regularly buy (or make) beer by the keg, you'll probably find a regular beer fridge more useful.
Bernadette Machard de Gramont is a Los Angeles–based freelance writer specializing in food, wine, and kitchen products. After a two-year stint at Williams Sonoma headquarters in San Francisco, she now researches and tests a variety of cookware, bakeware, and wine tools, and interviews field experts for their insight.
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