Why does my beer taste different after being in the fridge for a couple of days??

Exactly what is says in the title. If I put a few beers in the fridge today when I get home and drink some of them tonite, they are great. But, if tomorrow I go home and pull one out of the fridge, it tastes different than the night before. Why is that? It also seems the longer they are in the fridge the more different they taste. I usually try to put only what I am going to drink in the fridge at one time, but sometimes I don't drink them all. I want to start kegging one day and my concern is that if the beer in a keg, that is in a fridge at all times, is going to taste different than it should. Any ideas?

They taste bad or different?

I notice my beers get more "rounded" after cold-conditioning, probably a result of chill haze proteins dropping out and the CO2 pressure coming to equilibrium in the bottle.

This may be a minor form of cold crashing. When we bottle condition there is a mini fermentation that happens. I will guess that there are proteins and other things that "drop out" with exposed time to cold temps.

My other thought is refrigerators are normally pretty cold. It could also be that the beer is being tasted "to cold" and this will numb the taste buds so you do not taste the flavors. Try pouring a beer and letting it sit on the counter for 5 min and see if this helps...I have noticed that as the beer warms just a bit it tastes better, IMO.

BTW these are 100% guesses. There may be someone much wiser than I can give a more definitive answer...

My beers tend to mellow a bit after few days in a fridge, especially hoppy ones. One beer actually is getting worse - its rather heavy dark ale, I noticed that cold-from-fridge it tastes and smells like... nothing, but after warming up - some malts and hops appear and it becomes very delicate drink that I enjoy savoring while reading/writing, I think I will move this one back to room temp - its heavy brew, 6.2% dark ale.

I wouldn't say bad, but definitely not as good as ones that haven't been cold for as long. It seems to happen with every beer. So I wonder if it's something I'm doing in the brewing process or if it is chill haze or if maybe they're just too cold.

Zamial said:

This may be a minor form of cold crashing. When we bottle condition there is a mini fermentation that happens. I will guess that there are proteins and other things that "drop out" with exposed time to cold temps.

My other thought is refrigerators are normally pretty cold. It could also be that the beer is being tasted "to cold" and this will numb the taste buds so you do not taste the flavors. Try pouring a beer and letting it sit on the counter for 5 min and see if this helps...I have noticed that as the beer warms just a bit it tastes better, IMO.

BTW these are 100% guesses. There may be someone much wiser than I can give a more definitive answer...

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Poste before I read this post. I think pouring and letting it sit for a few minutes may be the best idea. I would agree that it is probably a form of cold crashing and that my fridge is pretty cold.

Zamial said:

I have noticed that as the beer warms just a bit it tastes better, IMO.

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This.

My recent English IPA is very austere and bitter when first poured. As it warms, toasty malt sweetness comes through and the hop aroma gets more flowery.

Sounds like the general concensus is that my beer is too cold then. Works for me. I will let them sit out awhile from now and see what happens. My problem is that my dedicated beer fridge is now a fermentation chamber, so I have to put my beer in the food fridge and of course it's colder than I would like for beer!

Jason_Merritt said:

I have to put my beer in the food fridge and of course it's colder than I would like for beer!

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Not a bad thing, even if it temporarily delays your beer enjoyment.

I've read that even ten degrees difference in storage temps have a significant effect on staling reaction times. Ideally, you want to store your beer as close to freezing as possible, it will stay fresher longer.

I have a bottled Autumn Amber beer that tastes better as it warms up to around 40. Different beer styles have an ideal serving temperature; the key is to finding the sweet spot for each one if it isn't already published.

This seems to be the best thread to resurrect about my problem. I made a black IPA. The first half of the batch I put in the refrigerator once the designated bottle conditioning period was done. The second half, was left in a case in my basement to just sit and wait for refrigerator space to open up.

The first half tasted perfect! What a wonderful beer. However the second half is tasting very sour, almost like a belgium trappist ale. Which I don't like or desired to have. What happened?!?! My basement is 58-62F degrees. What happened?

How long are we talking about here?

It probably sat for about 3 more weeks. I actually kept trying more bottles, and am finding more tasting like they did originally. Now, I suspect that it was bottle infection (wife has drawn the cash flow line in the sand, so I can't upgrade to a keg/co2 system), so I have stepped up the sterilization process of my bottles. Also realized that while I was sterilizing the bottles, I had never sterilized my bottle wash nozzle. So hopefully I mitigate the problem.

The only thing I don't understand about it being a possible bottle infection, is that the carbonation and head retention is good, and there was no ring at the top of the bottle signifying an infection.

Basic rule of thumb is that the darker a beer, the warmer it should be served.