Can I Move That Beer Out Of My Fridge?
By jason on Feb 6, 2008 in Beer Cellaring Basics
This is without a doubt the most common question I’ve been asked here at the Brew Basement. Somebody always has been storing a brew in the fridge, and now they want to move it back into their cellar or send it off in a trade. Is it safe to take it out, or will the beer be ruined?
Thankfully, in a recent issue of Beer Advocate magazine, they asked and answered this question in their monthly column “Ask The Beer Geek”. Here’s the abridged answer:
….. When it comes to beer and temperatures, it’s the extremes that can damage beer. Although storing your beer in a constant cool environment is ideal and best for all beer, it’s not always an option. Sometimes beer will be put in a situation where it gets a bit “warm” but as long as it doesn’t get hot or freeze the beer will most likely be just fine ….
That’s some great info to know, although I wish they would have discussed the effects of temperature on bottle conditioned beers that still have live yeast in them. I’m still not convinced that a sudden temperature change wouldn’t have a catastrophic effect on the brew. Sounds like a future experiment is in order….
Jason
jason@brewbasement.com
I think that you, of all people, should be doing the experiment. Every time I read the answers to these questions it always includes a “most likely be” or “shouldn’t”.
If you took a 12 pack of Paulaner Pils (pick any other decent mass produced beer) and subjected parts of it to different levels of miscare, the difference should be apparent if it’s an issue.
Freezing and extreme heat/sunlight would be obviously bad, but I would think repeated cooling and warming should cause a discernible difference in taste as well.
The problem is there will be little exact way to prove it due to other variables the individual bottle has encountered we don’t know about.
TruthBrew | Feb 7, 2008 | Reply
I used to store my beer in mini fridges. I had an accident where beer broke; it was a mess. I later moved the beer to a cellar like atmosphere in my in-laws basement.
I have yet to have a beer from it, but I’ll let you know from a beer I’ve had from the mini fridge if it has any ill effects.
The point of this story- I was cleaning my back screened in porch and I found a dark horse barley wine under a chair (one of my favorites). It had been subjected to three weeks of 60-90 Summer weather. I brought it in and chilled it. I opened it and drank it to find that it had little affect on the beer. It was still slammin!
Not that I would recommend doing this, but I think we get too worried about damaging beer. Yes it is an investment, but its still beer. Big complex beers were made to weather the storm, so to speak, and we need to remember this before we get anxious because it is not in a “perfect environment” and drink all of it up before we give it a chance to develop.
Work with what you got. We can’t all afford temp controlled gold mines.
Jmac | Jul 16, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the great insights, guys.
I think you’re both right, and we shouldn’t get TOO worked up if our brews aren’t stored in perfect environments.
jason | Jul 30, 2008 | Reply
I think the more pertinent issue for bottle-conditioned beer is will storing it in a fridge kill the yeast and further fermentation. I’ve had a brewer tell me it would. That’s not to say a beer aged in a fridge will taste bad, it just won’t age to its potential.
Before I was told this, I had a 2004 Thomas Hardy’s Ale stored in my fridge. I opened it this January — fabulous! Of course, my thought was, could it have been better? I now have three 2006 Thomas Hardy’s in my closet, which has a fairly stable, moderate temperature. We’ll see…
Rick Green | Sep 15, 2008 | Reply