I play for the scenario paintball team Pub Crawling http://www.pubcrawling.org . We have more than 20 members on the team and with a name like Pub Crawling we drink a lot of malted beverages after our games. We travel all over the United States to play paintball and have traveled to Scotland and England for events. In order to keep up our supply of beverages and meet the demands of the team several members have begun home brewing beer. Naturally bringing a full keg setup for after the game isn't always a reality, and sometimes I just want to have a few beers put in long term storage to try my hand at aging them. Though mostly aging beers is more a matter of testing my patience.



What I really wanted was something that was fully enclosed and wouldn't have a lid that would come open if tipped over or rolled around in the back of a truck or trailer without anyone noticing. Also it had to have dividers for the bottles and I didn't want it to weigh a ton or cost an arm and a leg.



I looked around for plans to make wooden bottle crates to hold beer and could not really find what I was after. So I incorporated a few of the best ideas that met my needs from all of them and this is what I came up with.



Tools:

Table Saw (though a radial arm saw or skill saw could do it too)

Drill



Material:

1- 1"x12"x8' Pine Board $10

2- 2'x2'x 1/4" birch panel $10

Glue

Screws

3/8" Hemp Rope



Assuming you have some rope, glue and screws on hand $20 is enough to make two crates with very little waste wood left over. These crates each hold 12 bottles and are sturdy enough to take a beating yet aren't so heavy that one person can't carry two of them at the same time. I will also add that I am no where near good enough of a woodworker to make anything super precise, like cabinets or 90 degree angles. So if I can make these crates so can you. It took me about 3 hours to make two crates including the time it took to take all of these pictures. I'm sure someone who has even the slightest clue on what they are doing could make them even faster.





