Golden has become one of the Front Range's busiest small-batch beverage towns, with craft distilleries, urban wineries, cideries and taprooms sharing space with the region's larger brewing heritage. As production grows, so does the need for dependable cold storage. Wine and cider need stable cellar-style conditions, distilleries need cold rooms for botanicals, fruit, finished ready-to-drink products and canned cocktails, and every tasting room needs a place to keep kegs and packaged product cold.

BBCOND designs, supplies and installs new walk-in coolers and cold rooms across Colorado. This guide walks Golden distillers, winemakers and taproom owners through planning a new-build cold room, from sizing and layout to refrigeration choices, site work and start-up.

Beverage producers rarely need a single temperature for a single product. Before choosing a box size, list what will live in it and at what conditions. Common needs include:

Because Crown Tonka walk-ins are built from modular insulated panels, one structure can be divided into separate rooms at different setpoints, or a cooler can share a wall with a freezer for fruit and ingredients that are held long term. Each zone gets its own Heatcraft evaporator and controls.

Golden production spaces are often converted industrial units or tight downtown buildings, so layout matters as much as cubic footage. When we lay out a new cold room for a beverage producer, we look at:

If the building is out of floor space, a permanent outdoor walk-in beside the production area can add capacity. In Golden that means planning for heavy spring snow, hail, strong winds coming off the foothills and big day-to-night temperature swings, with a properly built pad and a weatherproof roof system.

Heatcraft walk-in refrigeration is generally arranged one of two ways, and the building usually decides which one fits.

The evaporator hangs inside the cold room and the condensing unit sits outside or on the roof, connected by refrigeration piping. Heat and compressor noise stay outside, which helps when the cold room shares a wall with a tasting room or a warm production area full of stills and fermenters.

The refrigeration is packaged on the box. That reduces piping and can simplify smaller cold rooms, but the surrounding room must be able to absorb the heat the unit rejects. A self-contained system in a hot still room can struggle on summer afternoons.

Golden sits well above 5,000 feet, and altitude affects how condensing units reject heat, so equipment should be selected for the site rather than taken straight from a sea-level catalog. New systems are also chosen to meet the refrigerant rules and DOE walk-in efficiency standards in effect when the project is built. Owners should confirm the current requirements that apply to them.

A new cold room is a small construction project. A typical BBCOND project follows these steps:

Energy-saving features worth discussing include LED lighting, EC evaporator fan motors, quality door gaskets, strip curtains, self-closing doors and temperature monitoring with alarms, which gives staff an early warning when the building is empty overnight.

Many Colorado refrigeration companies are built around repair calls. Since 2015, BBCOND has focused on a different job: designing, supplying and installing new walk-in coolers, freezers and cold rooms, and replacing aging refrigeration infrastructure. We do not offer repair or service work, so our team stays focused on getting the design, sizing and installation right the first time.

For a growing distillery or winery, that means planning cold storage around the business you expect to be in a few years from now. If you inherited a tired used box with failing panels, iced evaporators or refrigeration that is getting harder to keep running, a new cold room designed for your process is usually the better long-term investment. Ongoing care is then handled by the owner and their chosen service provider. Learn more about our new-build walk-in coolers and commercial refrigeration in Colorado.

Brewers planning larger keg storage may also find our guide to keg coolers and cold rooms for Denver breweries and taprooms helpful.

Yes. A modular walk-in can be divided into separate rooms with an insulated partition, each with its own evaporator and controls, so cellar-style storage and colder keg storage can share one structure.

It depends on the building, roof structure, landlord rules, line length and access. We evaluate both during the site survey and select equipment for Golden's altitude and summer temperatures.

Timelines depend on permitting, site work, lead times for custom panels and refrigeration equipment, and installation scheduling. We map the schedule early so the cold room is ready before harvest or a planned release.

If your Golden distillery, winery, cidery or taproom is outgrowing its cold storage, BBCOND can design and install a new walk-in cooler or cold room built around your production. Call 303-219-1000, email sales@bbcond.com or contact us online to schedule a free on-site consultation and estimate.