Hello! I have a detached garage that I have been planning to turn into garage bar for the past year and a half or so. I have the kegerator / bar mostly built already, but need a bit of advice on other aspects of the garage namely, whether I should insulate it. If anybody has any experience finishing spaces / garages I’d love to chat and would be more than happy to buy you lunch or something for your time!
Definitely insulate it. Don’t forget the ceiling. You don’t necessarily need to drywall, but it’d clean up the look a lot and it’s cheaper than plywood. You’ll want to insulate the garage door too; if it’s a typical steel door you can glue styrofoam sheet to it with construction adhesive.
If you have power, put in a mini-split and you’ll have the coolest garage bar in the neighborhood 
You could also frame a little window air conditioner into a wall.
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+1 definitely insulate as much as possible
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Also, stupid question perhaps, but is there a concern about insulating something wrong and you wind up trapping moisture and causing rot? Or not really a concern?
If this is a DIY what insulation should I go for that balances cost effectiveness / ease of install? Do I need to do spray foam or can I use something else? Mini split is a great idea, didn’t think about that one!
I would say fiberglass is your cheapest option, and probably good enough for a detached garage.
Rockwool is more expensive but has some noise dampening and fire proofing benefits. It’s also easier to install, especially on ceilings where fiberglass wants to sag.
Spray foam is superior for air tightness and getting into awkward spaces, but it requires a lot of prep and can turn into a mess if you’re unsure what you’re doing. I personally would hire out for something like this. But that quickly becomes expensive.
I did a deep dive on flooring during Covid. I ended up going a DIY but not so cheap option - Racedeck. I must say, the anti-fatigue inserts were also worth it. I would put the floor on the list, after insulation+A/C, for two important quality of life concerns: noise, and DUST.
Raw concrete gives off dust all the time. You can sweep and vacuum forever, and fine concrete dust will reappear. It’s part of the natural moisture movement process, as fine dust blooms with moisture and blows or is knocked around. Plus, it is a difficult surface to keep clean anyway. What to do about it depends heavily on the slab and drainage - specifically whether it is allowing moisture through actively. You can kinda test for this by taping down a plastic sheet and seeing if moisture develops. If so, it is probably not a good candidate for an epoxy floor. A modular floor with ventilation would still work, but won’t completely cut the dust.
Next, noise! Garages are echo boxes without some noise absorbing material. Usually this doesn’t matter, but if you’re spending time out there you will notice how bad your music sounds. Rugs help, and some DIY sound paneling on the walls would work too. Finishing the walls with drywall ironically makes this worse, but is still worth it.
For my garage, I was after a place to work on cars with friends - so I needed easy cleanup and oil resistance. It was already finished, and it needed to double as my maker/DIY space for smaller projects as well.
In my case, I went with a porous clear spray sealer (Ghostshield, IIRC), landscape fabric underlayment (for footstep nose from the floating floor), and Racedeck tiles. I did an auto garage looking version, but I recall they had some that look like wood flooring!
You can find other vendors with other styles that won’t be as durable, but are cheaper and may fit your use case. I ordered samples from all the vendors, and used the samples under a jack stand holding a car. All plastic gives way to steel, but there is a reason the expensive ones are expensive - much less damage.
If you were to do just the sealer I assume that would help with the dust right? Wont help with noise obviously. We’re trying to convert it into an Irish pub / where we host gatherings etc. so don’t want to spend too much on the floor, but dust would be a bit annoying.
Also, has anybody added a side entry to their garage before? Doesn’t seem too difficult and from what I can tell you don’t run afoul of any building code / permitting issues as long as the garage is fully detached.