Beer from fridge to room temperature repeatedly: bad?

Hey all,

I am looking to limit the temptation of having tasty homebrews constantly around. I am planning on keeping my fridge beer-free during the week, and chilling bottles for the weekend only. Any beer that is not consumed by Sunday gets taken back out and stored at room temp.

Is there any adverse effect in changing the beer's temperature? Of possibly doing this repeatedly? Is there any difference if the beer is in bottles as opposed to kegs?

If/when I go to kegs, I think my strategy would be to change the kegerator temp to like 75 during the week, and then to ideal temp for the weekend.

I know that the "skunking" effect is based on light exposure, not contrasts in temperature. But is there any effect on the beer when changing temperature repeatedly?

GEEZ dude, you have no will power. . WHy not just get a lock or something. I dont see any issue in it. But usualy you want your beer to cool over a few days and carbonation to equalize. Maybe you should get a small fridge with a lock and hide the key or leave key at work or something. This is actually quite funny thought. I vote you have 1 beer a day.

Why not just cool down only the ones you want to drink?

I'm also going to ignore your question (because I really don't know).

I will say if this is an issue with bottles, don't start kegging.

Why not just brew more, so you can enjoy a tasty brew or two (or 10) everyday... seems like an uneccesary hardship.

Let's forget about the premise of the question. I have searched through the archives and this question comes up, but never seems to get an authoritative answer.

Do contrasts in temperature (taking a beer from fridge temp to room temperature) effect the quality of the beer?

I dont think that you are going to have an issue with this. I have repeatedly cooled and removed my kegged beer from rotation and I notice no ill effects. In fact, it almost ALWAYS seems that my beer is always better by the time I get back to it. Age is age is age when it comes to beer (IMO)

No, I have not noticed any 'side effects' that would make me stop these practices.
-Me

I'm beginning to believe that temperatures during fermentation have more effects on your beer that you may not be able to change for the better than do temperatures after fermentation is complete and the beer is packaged for drinking. If you aren't skunking your beer in broad daylight in clear bottles, then what JoeMama speaks of is what I've found. Age mellows out flavors good and bad and higher temperatures speed up that process.

As a beer ages, the affect of temperature differential diminishes. That is to say, that a younger beer, that is exposed to large temperature differentials is going to be more likely to develop and problems than one that has been sitting in on a shelf for a couple of months.

That said, I think that there is nothing wrong with your idea, other than - I think that a beer ought to be chilled for about 3 days before it's drank. My experience is that for whatever reason, they seem to form a better head and have better flavor and mouthfeel.

And, a beer that is kept at room temperature will age faster than one that is chilled. A beer that is kept in a cool basement will stay fresh longer than one that was kept in a warm garage. The higher temperature will accelerate the process that causes the staling in beer.

I know that the beer when going from a cold glass from the cold tap to my warm bellah definitely has an effect.
Whether its negative or not depends on the amount.
-Me

I'm really dissapointed in the people that answered the actual question. You'all should have stuck to your guns and argued the premise.

RDWHAHB said:

I'm really dissapointed in the people that answered the actual question. You'all should have stuck to your guns and argued the premise.

Click to expand...

I almost asked for his man card on the 1st post, but I didnt want to be mean.

I know, I can't believe I got that thread back on track. I think that is an internet first.

I especially liked the guy that wanted to put my daily consumption up for a vote!

FWIW, I am going to experiment with a bottle of my better brews. For two to three weeks, I will chill overnight, and place in storage during the day. I will report back if I note any difference. (The batch itself is mature, so another bottle will serve as a good enough control.)

Thanks all for the replies!

i vote 12 (pints) per day!!