How to Build a Wooden 6-Pack Holder

By William McEttrick, AHA Member

I’m William from Massachusetts. I’ve been a homebrewer for over two years and, I enjoy DIY projects.

I’ve seen other people with wooden beer carriers, and I have a bunch of reclaimed wood lying around, so I figured I’d make my own. My wooden 6-pack carrier is 11″ × 7 ¼” × 11½” (length × width × height) and includes a removable divider.

Materials

Wood:

• 2 end pieces: Wormy Chestnut cut to 11″ × 7 ¼”. Any wood will do, especially if it’s hardwood. If it’s softwood, I recommend using 1” thick.
• 2 bottom pieces: Oak wood cut 11″ × 3 ½” with a ¼” gap. You can use one piece if you have wide enough wood. I recommend a hardwood of ½” thickness or softwood using 1″ thick.
• 2 side pieces: Pine cut to 11″ long by whatever width you want. In my case, I used four pieces (two per side) so you could see the bottles through the sides. It can be any wood since this is for aesthetics.
• 1 handle for the carrier: Pine cut to 9″ × 1″ inches thick. Any wood will work, including a dowel.
• 3 pieces to make up the divider: ¼” oak wood—one piece cut to 9″ × 3 ½” and two pieces cut to 6″ × 3 ½” wide. You can use any wood here.

Other Materials & Tools:

• Screws, nails, or both
• Wood glue (TiteBond III)
• Saw
• Sandpaper (80-grit and 200-grit)
• Wood stain (I highly recommend Danish Oil)
• A wall-mounted bottle opener.

Construction

Pre-cut all the wood before beginning the build, and sand each piece with 80-grit sandpaper and finish it with 200-grit. Once everything is sanded, thoroughly clean off all the dust and stain every piece. Sanding and staining everything after the pieces are assembled will be much more difficult.

Next, do a dry fit of the assembly to make sure all the pieces fit together. Use the materials list as a guide to determine where each piece goes.

Then, use clamps to hold everything together and pre-drill all the holes that are needed. Once the holes are pre-drilled, put a little wood glue on all the parts that are being connected and screw them together. I chose not to glue the divider in place so that it can be removed and replaced with a divider that works for four 22-ounce bottles. You can also remove the divider altogether and fit small growlers.

Last, mount the bottle opener to one of the sides.

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William McEttrick is a homebrewer and AHA member from Norton, Mass.. You can follow McEttrick’s homebrewing adventures and DIY projects on his Twitter account @TotallyBrewedCo.