I am not asking about aging beers. I am just wondering what is acceptable for storing your bottles. The reason I ask is that I have a closet that I'd love to use, but since I'm in a third floor apartment in Texas, it gets warm in there if I leave the door closed. I haven't put a thermometer in there to check yet, but during the day I set my A/C to around 80, so its probably a few degrees over that. I realize this is really warm. Do I have any chance of making good beer at these temperatures?
Temperature for storing bottles
- Thread starter kerklein2
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ChshreCat
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You mean... for storing bottles that don't have beer in them? I"m misunderstanding.
BillTheSlink
Well-Known Member
From what I have been told, the beer will have a somewhat shorter shelf life, but once fermentation is complete your not going to develop off flavors. Some fermentation does occur of course from your priming sugar, but its never been a problem for me. I store in a basement that gets quite hot. I drink a couple of bottles a day and they have held up well. I wouldn't plan any 15 gallon batches though.
boredatwork
Well-Known Member
I've always thought this was an interesting question.
On the one hand you get people that will tell you higher temperatures are fine for some of the reasons already stated. But then you will have other people that will tell you that the most critical part of "freshness" is temperature control.
On the one hand you get people that will tell you higher temperatures are fine for some of the reasons already stated. But then you will have other people that will tell you that the most critical part of "freshness" is temperature control.
rmchair
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i am in Florida and have had off flavors develop during bottling that I attribute to high temps. The beer tasted fine going into the bottle- three weeks later "blech". I know, could be attributable to other things, but tastes fusel-like to me and won't go away. I have seen people from colorado dismiss the heat issues, but they just are not dealing with the continuous heat factor. The temp might be the same in the house, but when a kid leaves a door open in florida or texas the effect is much more intense.
Meatball358
Well-Known Member
please excuse this if it's a stupid question...but is it going to hurt the beer to be stored in a fridge? I only ask because that seems like the most logical place to store them and i dont understand why one would choose to store their beer in a warm place if they have a fridge available (unless of course the fridge causes problems...?)
Well I don't know about you, but I have about 6 cases of beer conditioning in my pantry. My wife might get a little angry with me if I took out all of the food and stuffed every nook and cranny of the fridge with beer bottles.
vitoma
Well-Known Member
I don't know about you, I have about 20 gallons in bottles right now. No way am I going to fit that in my fridge with food.
I guess your just going to have to throw out the food man!
Quick side question: After priming sugar is added to a bottle and u fill and cap: Is 15C-10C to cold to keep them in straight away? Im kinda wondering where i can put 40 pint bottles at the moment, besides my gut....for now
WorryWort
Well-Known Member
I have answered similar posts multiple times and always the same way.
Dr. Charlie Banforth from UC Davis (arguably more learned in the realm of brewing science than anyone on this forum - no offense) thinks temperature control is absolutely one of the most critical, if not the MOST critical, steps a brewer and or brewery can take to preserve the flavour stability of their beer.
There's a principle called the Arrhenius Equation that dictates (roughly) that for every 10 degree Celsius increase in temp a reaction's speed will double.
Well, in beer there are many reactions threatening your beer and warmer temps will speed them up. So, warmer is always worse. But if we are talking about a few weeks storage at warmer temps it shouldn't be a big deal.
I store my beer at 7C. If you store yours at 27C (80F) then yours will 'spoil' twice as fast as mine. In other words, a beer that last 4 months in my storage will last only 2 months in yours - not the end of the world, but something to be wary of.
No, don't store them that cold. You want them to be at about room temperature (21C) for at least a couple of weeks for the yeast to do their job carbonating.
WorryWort
Well-Known Member
+1 on that.
Thanks. Ive come up with a solution.
Im gonna check the temp in the attic several times in one day and hope it stays under 24C. Then ill get a large lidded plastic tub, drill a few air holes in it and insert bottles. Job done
Goosta
Well-Known Member
Believe it or not, I also live in a third floor apartment in Texas and use a closet for all of my brewing storage/fermentation. We keep usually set the temp to 80 during the day and cool it down to 75 or so at night. I haven't had any issues with bottle storage so far. I have been keeping all the bottles on one side of the closet and cracking the door (they are sliding doors) on the opposite side to get a bit of air circulation going.
I am fermenting a Saison at the moment so the higher temps are working in my favor. Planning to use the wet t-shirt/towel and fan technique for my upcoming IIPA to get the temp down.
Someone's been listening to brewstrong... I think you mean 4x because that's a 20 degree difference. So if it lasted four months for you, it would last one month for him.
WorryWort
Well-Known Member
You are correct. 4x is right. Thanks.
Also, there is one of his books on Google - Essays in brewing science - Google Books
Hope that link works!
On a similar topic, what's the best temp to condition your beer at for the 2 - 3 weeks after bottling? I was thinking of putting my freshly bottled beer back into my fermentation chamber set at about 70 degrees F. Since I have a dedicated fridge with a Johnson A419 temp controller, I figured it would be better than letting 50 bottles of fresh beer sit in my hot apartment.
To revisit the long-term (few months to a year) refrigeration question... If one were lucky enough to be able to dedicate a shelf or two, or even an entire fridge, to bottled beer that has been fully carbed, does anyone see a problem?
BillTheSlink
Well-Known Member
No, that would be better than use poor guys who cannot. It would more than likely be good for over a year. I've had bottles in the basement now for six months plus that I don't think even peeked in goodness. Chilling them would slow the aging process. If I had unlimited space and funds I would have at least four chest freezers, two for lagering and two for storage, using temp controls on each of course to prevent freezing; however, this isn't the case. For my lagers I'll have to build a Low Tech Lagering System and put it in an A/C room and store the beer in the non-a/c basement. You have to go with what you got.
boredatwork
Well-Known Member
That is exactly who I was referring to. But I still think that contradicts some of the anecdotal evidence on these forums. I have never seen enough evidence that I can understand to suggest that one is more right than the other. I just find it an interesting question.
It probably depends on what your goal is for storage. If you have a beer that ages well and you keep it really cold, it's not going to age. If you have a beer that doesn't age well and you keep it warm, it's going to go stale.
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