Home Bar

petebricquette

So myself and a couple of my mates will be moving in together some time in the next few months and we really want to set up a little wet bar in whatever apartment/house we end up in.

What I'm wondering is if any of you lovely people have one of your own and if so, what tips would you give? If anyone has any suggestions for must-have drinks/accessories that'd be great too!

Cheers.

Sky King

The home brewers forum (which i also post in a bit) might be a better place to enquire about this.

Personally, I would love to have one if I had a house big enough, but i wouldn't keep it stocked because i wouldn't be able to stop drinking.

You need serious willpower to come home in the evening after a hard day in work and not crack open a beer. Next thing that beer becomes 4 beers and that one day a week becomes every day! Slippery slope!

I am into homebrewing so I always have beer, but i don't keep it at home once it's finished fermenting to avoid this temptation (I have ZERO willpower - haven't you guessed?

Regarding your own bar - the big question you need to ask is whether to go draft or not, and if you do go draft, which beer will you have.

You can buy all the bits you need on done deal... basically a cooler, mixed gas bottle, regulator and fittings, and a dispensing tap. You're looking at a few hundred quid.

Otherwise get a fridge and just keep bottles and cans and mixers, and get a measure for your few bottles of spirits as well. Job done.

Sky King

You should consider home brewing as well. It's easy peasey lemon squeezey and you won't get a cheaper pint. You can bottle or keg your beer afterwards (requires a slightly different keg setup which I'll explain if you want).

ToxicPaddy

I know a few people who have them.. some make their own wine, others do the home brewing thing.. while others simply stock it up when decent offers come up at Tesco and do a run to the UK/France on the ferry maybe 1-2 times a year with a small van and stock it up that way..

It really is down to your own preference..

A previous house I shared with 4 mates had a drinks press and small fridge for beer.. we used to do regular runs to the supermarkets north of the border where we could get a box of 20 bottles for £10.. stock up on spirits etc.

A few of us regularly travelled for work or holidays so when we did, we bought whatever was required at the time on the duty free or just from supermarkets abroad which was always cheaper than here in Ireland.

A few things to agree first:

Decide what you guys like to drink. It always helps if you have a preference list of drinks, so if its beer, select 3-4 beers that you prefer and keep an eye on offers for them, same goes for spirits/mixers etc.

Set a budget and stick with it.. We worked off £50 each when going North and between €50 and €75 each if we were planning any parties in the house.

Discipline is the key, if one or two are constantly dipping into the drinks then things will quickly get out of hand, so if you just want a beer or two some evening, buy your own down the local offy.. this saves arguments later about whos been drinking all the beer/whiskey/vodka etc.

If it works, it will be the best thing ever, if it doesnt it could cause major tension in the house..

I would love to have my own bar.

I'd love to have the space for a room with a pool table and a bar. That would be pretty awesome. But I don't I do have foosball table, a dart board, a wine rack and one of these, but it's not the same. *Sigh* a girl can dream.

Built one myself in the house. Three taps, cocktail making equipment, and good refrigiration. The best advice I can give is be sure what you want before you get into it and do not chop and change plans as you go.

Draft taps? If so how many. How will you cool it. Where will the kegs go. If somewhere like a basement can you easily put lines up through the walls and floor? So on so forth.

Shelves? Fridges? Sinks?

The flooring has to be considered too. Spillages will happen and beer and other stuff is sticky and awful when walked into the floor and dried. Get a flooring behind the bar thats easy to clean and difficult to stain. Obviously avoid carpetting unless you want to use serious shampoos to battle stains and smells.

Spirits? How many? Just the standards? Or are we going for full cocktail bar here? If aiming for things like cocktails think of space. There are machines to help mix and slice and juice but that is all stuff that takes up table top space so look into options that can be fitted into space saving cupboards and shelves. Read forums on carpentry and stuff and learn all the tricks on space saving and utilisation. You will be shocked just how much space gets wasted if you let it. Especially with all the little fininky things you accumulate through the art of cocktail making. Fitting speakers into the actual body of the front of the bar is also fun and if done right just takes up space that would not have been used anyway.

Whatever space you think it will take up, plan for more and expect more. The finished project almost always ends up larger than you thought.

Think power points too. Nothing worse than having to trail cables from all corners of the apartment just to power the thing.

petebricquette

Thanks a million for the replies guys! Lots of stuff I hadn't even considered would be an issue. Ideally it'd be a full cocktail bar with a small fridge for beers. Are there any spirits that any of you would recommend? I mean stuff that's kinda specialist or unusual. Thanks again, everyone!

I think what sprits to actually stock such a bar with is probably the last thing you should worry about. Just worry about how best to stylishly house, store and access the bottles. I have them hanging on my wall in a kind of latice pattern which got them as close together as I could without any one of them blocking access to any other. Bottle holders that can attach to a wall to hold the bottles upside down and dispense come in a variety of forms. I aimed for slightly adjustable ones to increase the number of bottles they were compatible with.

Equipment to make your life easier such as electronic fruit juicers and blenders and the like come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Powering them and storing them and cleaning them is a concern. I got ones I could store on a rotary system so they took up less space. I open a door and the juicer is there for example but I could rotate that and get to the next appliance. All removable for cleaning.

Aim for easy but impressive cocktails first with good flavour. Use real fruit juice you made yourself rather than concentrate where possible. Use good ingredients like Coconut Cream in blocks rather than whipped cream from a spray can for pina colada for example (Shivers at memory of Pina Cocktail in the Dragon Bar in Dublin which was 50% whipped cream from a can).

Obtaining unusual spirits kind of happens by itself. Once you get known as somoeone who has good house parties and makes good cocktails you find when people go away on holidays they come back with strange and unusual spirits for you. I have got a lovely bottle of tequila for example which appears to contain a dead scorpion.

petebricquette

Deleted User wrote: »

I think what sprits to actually stock such a bar with is probably the last thing you should worry about. Just worry about how best to stylishly house, store and access the bottles. I have them hanging on my wall in a kind of latice pattern which got them as close together as I could without any one of them blocking access to any other. Bottle holders that can attach to a wall to hold the bottles upside down and dispense come in a variety of forms. I aimed for slightly adjustable ones to increase the number of bottles they were compatible with.

Equipment to make your life easier such as electronic fruit juicers and blenders and the like come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Powering them and storing them and cleaning them is a concern. I got ones I could store on a rotary system so they took up less space. I open a door and the juicer is there for example but I could rotate that and get to the next appliance. All removable for cleaning.

Aim for easy but impressive cocktails first with good flavour. Use real fruit juice you made yourself rather than concentrate where possible. Use good ingredients like Coconut Cream in blocks rather than whipped cream from a spray can for pina colada for example (Shivers at memory of Pina Cocktail in the Dragon Bar in Dublin which was 50% whipped cream from a can).

Obtaining unusual spirits kind of happens by itself. Once you get known as somoeone who has good house parties and makes good cocktails you find when people go away on holidays they come back with strange and unusual spirits for you. I have got a lovely bottle of tequila for example which appears to contain a dead scorpion.

Yeah, you're right. I reckon we're putting the horse before the cart especially seeing as we've no idea what kind of storage we'll have in the gaf. Great advice all round though and we'll definitely take it on board. Need to have a good think about what the bar should look like too!