Weather warnings

[Billy365]

Like many other members I have a large number of maturing beer bottles in my garage. Approx 400. At the moment they are covered with wet tea towels to try to keep them reasonably cool. I have also set up a couple of house fans to help with the process of latent heat of evaporation. Next week I am going on holiday and fear that this hot weather will continue in my absence. What suggestions do home brewers have for helping me to keep the garage cool and ensure that when I return I won't have a garage filled with fragments of broken glass and beer draining over the walls and floor!?

 

[Sam_92]

As long as you used the correct amount of priming sugar and were at terminal gravity and don't have an infection the bottles shouldn't explode. The bigger concern might be that very warm temps will speed up the staling process, oxidation in particular has a huge detrimental effect on bottled beer. Can you move the bottles into your house while you're gone and let the AC do the work for you?

 

[hotbeer]

Is the house airconditioned? Why not put the beer inside where the temps will be more stable?

If these are just bottled beers put them in plastic storage containers inside the house.

With a little effort you can cut some cardboard inserts to keep them all spaced properly and upright just like a proper case of beer has.

Or if you have them in cardboard cases already, get a plastic container big enough for the whole case.

Bottle bombs are probably rare. Most of the things I've seen called bottle bombs are just seething volcano's after they have been opened. Though that doesn't mean you shouldn't be somewhat prepared and wary of them.

 

[Billy365]

As long as you used the correct amount of priming sugar and were at terminal gravity and don't have an infection the bottles shouldn't explode. The bigger concern might be that very warm temps will speed up the staling process, oxidation in particular has a huge detrimental effect on bottled beer. Can you move the bottles into your house while you're gone and let the AC do the work for you?

Thanks for your reply. I don't have Aircon and anyway the wife wouldn't approve! Nice thought though. I'm not so sure you are correct about the bottles. I am very careful about waiting for the end of fermentation and batch priming 3.04g/L but the temperature is a variable. Bottling at 12C retains 1.1Vol CO2 in the wort (so you have to add this to your calculated primer) and at 20C only 0.9Vol CO2/bottle. Also there is the variable of non-fermentable sugars. Over time some of these do become available to the yeast in long secondary fermentations. I keep bottles for up to 5 years. Lastly if a bottle is accidentally knocked but doesn't break this seems OK to use again but isn't.

 

[Billy365]

Is the house airconditioned? Why not put the beer inside where the temps will be more stable?

If these are just bottled beers put them in plastic storage containers inside the house.

With a little effort you can cut some cardboard inserts to keep them all spaced properly and upright just like a proper case of beer has.

Or if you have them in cardboard cases already, get a plastic container big enough for the whole case.

Bottle bombs are probably rare. Most of the things I've seen called bottle bombs are just seething volcano's after they have been opened. Though that doesn't mean you shouldn't be somewhat prepared and wary of them.

No Air-con available. You must live in the US? I have 400+ bottles so it's quite a lot of work to move them. They are all on the garage wall shelves. I've only had one (fingers crossed I'm not speaking too soon) bottle bomb in 7 years but it was one too many. Makes such a mess. The glass goes everywhere. The beer gets into every nook and cranny. Maybe I should move them all to the garage floor (concrete) cover with wet towels, cover this with a tarpaulin, and if any explode it will be contained.

 

[DBhomebrew]

cover with wet towels, cover this with a tarpaulin

That screams mold and mildew. The point of the wet towels is for the water to evaporate, taking heat away with it. Trapped under a tarp, it won't bring the temp down.

 

[Zambezi Special]

If you only use 3 gr sugar per litre, you won't have a problem.
I use 6 to 8, live in a hot climate (40+ oC is normal) and have never had a problem.
Put them in boxes if you are worried. Then if something would happen, there is no mess to clean

 

[wsmith1625]

I don't have a quick fix to offer, but a long term fix would be a fridge and temperature controller. Something ugly and used would be fine for this purpose. In the States they can often be found for free with a search on the Internet. The temperature controller would allow a wider temperature range and stop the fridge from running too frequently.

 

[hotbeer]

Maybe not stress about it so much and just go on your holiday. I bet they'll be fine. If they aren't you can shout "nanny nanny boo boo" at me!

Take a cue from this title and watch the movie:

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the (bottle) Bomb

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
Still, when you have time in the future you should think about how to make your storage of bottles not be such a pain to clean up if by chance they do go nuclear or something else befalls them.

 

[mashpaddled]

I agree about not putting a tarp over the towels. You want airflow on the towels because the moisture cools hot dry air which cools the bottles. If you take away the airflow you lose the evaporative cooling.

It may help to have the bottles in direct contact with the cement pad (assuming there is one) in the garage. The cement pad is a large block of essentially stone that will stay slightly cooler than the ambient temperature in the garage. Just a little thing that might buy you an extra degree or two.

Ultimately I don't think there is a lot to do here and as long as your bottling practices are good you shouldn't have an issue with bombs, more just that the heat is degrading the beer inside the bottles.

 

[Brewdog80]

You are pretty much wasting your time putting wet towels over the bottles. You might be changing the temp a couple of degrees ON THE SURFACE of the bottle. There is no motion in the bottle. There will be no reduction in temp of the liquid. 400 bottles? Lots of volume That would cost a good sum for plastic bins. Just go on vacation, and stop with the wet towels.

 

[Beermeister32]

400 bottles is a crazy amount of beer to be aging in temperature fluctuating garage. I’d be concerned with staling of the beer even without the summertime heat wave. Those bottles should be stored at a consistent and cool temperature for best results. Time to go find a couple spare refrigerators and put them to use.

 

[ncbrewer]

It may help to have the bottles in direct contact with the cement pad (assuming there is one) in the garage. The cement pad is a large block of essentially stone that will stay slightly cooler than the ambient temperature in the garage. Just a little thing that might buy you an extra degree or two.

And I would try covering them with a tarp for insulation. They should stay cooler (closer to the garage floor temp) with a tarp insulating them from the interior garage temp. The tarp would prevent a mess if some explode, but I think the chances are very low.

 

[505-Brewer]

I suggest starting with a new wife.......