stupac2
Well-Known Member
First, the purpose of this FAQ is to address some of the most common questions about cellaring beer. But before starting to cellar beer, you need to ask yourself this question, “What do I want to get out of this?” Know your goals. Do you just want to keep beer until you can drink it? Do you want to see how beer develops with time? Do you want to keep beer for 1 year, 5 years, or 20 years? What kind of flavors do you like in your beer, the kind that fade with time (coffee, fruit, etc) or the kind that increase with time (leather, tobacco, etc)? The way you approach cellaring will depend a lot on the answers to these questions.
Second, the process of beer aging is called “staling”, and you can find a lot of information on the science of it here. The process of staling is primarily caused oxidation, though there are many other processes to consider (for more information on them, read the link). I’ll be using those terms throughout the FAQ, and I wanted to introduce them now.
Finally, I want to be upfront about the fact that people overthink cellaring. Beer is a pretty robust beverage, you don’t need to worry too much about it. To modify Charlie Papazian’s phrase: relax, don’t worry, have a cellared brew.
Q: Does beer get better with time?
A: No, beer changes with time. Whether those changes are good or bad are subjective and only you can decide if you prefer beer with age or not.
That said, the vast majority of people will prefer the vast majority of beers fresh. But since there’s someone who likes everything, there are no categorical truths about what ages well. Some suggestions are listed below.
Q: What styles age well?
A: The canonical list is things that have one or more of the following qualities:
1) Dark
2) Bottle conditioned
3) Sour
4) High ABV
But even then, it will depend a lot on your personal preferences. If you’re not sure what you like, just grab some inexpensive beers in a few styles and put them away for a while. You can also try some aged beers at certain bars, or people in your tasting group may have older stuff if they’ve been around for a while. Either way, the most important thing is to figure out what you like, then to age those styles. It takes a while to actually do this, but it’s the only way!
Q: What styles don’t age well?
A: As always, this depends a lot. In general, fruit fades. If you like fruit beers to be really fruity, don’t age them. In general, coffee fades. If you like a lot of coffee in your beers, don’t age them. Hops fade, if you like hoppy stouts and barleywines (or IPAs, but that goes without saying), then don’t age them.
In addition, beers that are light, non-sour, and low-ABV are unlikely to age well.
Q: What’s the best temperature for cellaring?
A: This depends on your goals. The colder it is, the slower the staling process will be. If you just want to maintain your beer while you find time to drink it, then you should refrigerate it. If you want to see how beer ages with time, then the exact temperature isn’t as important as having it be fairly stable (though you definitely want it to be below around 70 degrees).
The classic answer is that beer should be stored at 55 degrees, though there’s no evidence I’m aware of that backs that up. But if you have a temperature controller and need to set it to something, 55 is a fine choice.
Q: My only available cellar space is in my closet/garage/basement and I can’t control the temperature/humidity/light there, will it be okay?
That depends. Humidity can be an issue for capped bottles, as it can make them rust. If you’re worried about it you could wax your bottles, though make sure they’re bone dry first, otherwise you could cause yourself more issues by trapping moisture inside the wax. Direct sunlight (hopefully through a window, you aren’t cellaring outside, are you?) can be a problem, but if you store your beer in some cardboard boxes that should mitigate it pretty significantly. Throw a tarp over the beer if you have to.
Finally, the uncontrolled temperature can be an issue. When you’re considering a location, get a thermometer and take a few readings over the course of a few days. How stable is it? How much does it track the temperature outside? If you extrapolate that to the hottest and coldest days of the year, what kinds of temperatures are you seeing? As long as the beer doesn’t freeze there’s no such thing as too cold, but if beer gets hot you can develop off flavors really quickly (in a matter of days or hours once you get to 100 degrees). I’m not comfortable aging beer at temperatures much over 70, but if you’re only looking for storage space then it’s probably okay up to about there. It might be fine higher. Try it out with some beers you wouldn’t mind getting overly stale and see what happens.
Q: What orientation should my bottles be stored in, horizontally or vertically?
A: Whatever’s easier for your setup. There are a lot of people who think one way is better than the other, and they have some arguments for their way and against the other, but they all roughly cancel out. The only systematic examination of this in a carbonated beverage was done with Champagne and came down in favor of upright storage, but that was because of cork failure and may be specific to champagne.
Either way, lots of people have had great success with both methods. It’s probably not very important.
Q: Do bigger bottles age better than smaller ones?
A: People claim this, but I’ve never seen a real study of it done. The general claim is that since oxidation is responsible for aging and bigger bottles have a smaller surface area exposed to headspace compared to their volume, they’ll age more gracefully. But that’s conflating oxygen and oxidation (easy to do), and molecular oxygen is not a great oxidizer (see the link above). It’s still possible that this matters, but it strikes me as unlikely.
Q: I really liked beer X, except for this one part, will I like it aged?
A: That depends, does the thing you don’t like about it change with time? Are the other aspects of the beer likely to stay consistent, or change in ways you will enjoy? Without that information, it’s impossible to say.
Q: How do temperature controllers work?
The way that these units work is basically the same as the way the fridge works. It turns the compressor on when the air temperature gets high enough, and then turns it back off when it gets low enough. The only difference is that the fridge’s internal thermometer is bypassed, and a more accurate and controllable one is used instead.
These controllers are a great solution to turning a normal fridge into a cellar, and are available at numerous places online.
If you have any questions that aren’t on here (or take issue with an answer I give) either BM me or ask here and I’ll update the post.
Second, the process of beer aging is called “staling”, and you can find a lot of information on the science of it here. The process of staling is primarily caused oxidation, though there are many other processes to consider (for more information on them, read the link). I’ll be using those terms throughout the FAQ, and I wanted to introduce them now.
Finally, I want to be upfront about the fact that people overthink cellaring. Beer is a pretty robust beverage, you don’t need to worry too much about it. To modify Charlie Papazian’s phrase: relax, don’t worry, have a cellared brew.
Q: Does beer get better with time?
A: No, beer changes with time. Whether those changes are good or bad are subjective and only you can decide if you prefer beer with age or not.
That said, the vast majority of people will prefer the vast majority of beers fresh. But since there’s someone who likes everything, there are no categorical truths about what ages well. Some suggestions are listed below.
Q: What styles age well?
A: The canonical list is things that have one or more of the following qualities:
1) Dark
2) Bottle conditioned
3) Sour
4) High ABV
But even then, it will depend a lot on your personal preferences. If you’re not sure what you like, just grab some inexpensive beers in a few styles and put them away for a while. You can also try some aged beers at certain bars, or people in your tasting group may have older stuff if they’ve been around for a while. Either way, the most important thing is to figure out what you like, then to age those styles. It takes a while to actually do this, but it’s the only way!
Q: What styles don’t age well?
A: As always, this depends a lot. In general, fruit fades. If you like fruit beers to be really fruity, don’t age them. In general, coffee fades. If you like a lot of coffee in your beers, don’t age them. Hops fade, if you like hoppy stouts and barleywines (or IPAs, but that goes without saying), then don’t age them.
In addition, beers that are light, non-sour, and low-ABV are unlikely to age well.
Q: What’s the best temperature for cellaring?
A: This depends on your goals. The colder it is, the slower the staling process will be. If you just want to maintain your beer while you find time to drink it, then you should refrigerate it. If you want to see how beer ages with time, then the exact temperature isn’t as important as having it be fairly stable (though you definitely want it to be below around 70 degrees).
The classic answer is that beer should be stored at 55 degrees, though there’s no evidence I’m aware of that backs that up. But if you have a temperature controller and need to set it to something, 55 is a fine choice.
Q: My only available cellar space is in my closet/garage/basement and I can’t control the temperature/humidity/light there, will it be okay?
That depends. Humidity can be an issue for capped bottles, as it can make them rust. If you’re worried about it you could wax your bottles, though make sure they’re bone dry first, otherwise you could cause yourself more issues by trapping moisture inside the wax. Direct sunlight (hopefully through a window, you aren’t cellaring outside, are you?) can be a problem, but if you store your beer in some cardboard boxes that should mitigate it pretty significantly. Throw a tarp over the beer if you have to.
Finally, the uncontrolled temperature can be an issue. When you’re considering a location, get a thermometer and take a few readings over the course of a few days. How stable is it? How much does it track the temperature outside? If you extrapolate that to the hottest and coldest days of the year, what kinds of temperatures are you seeing? As long as the beer doesn’t freeze there’s no such thing as too cold, but if beer gets hot you can develop off flavors really quickly (in a matter of days or hours once you get to 100 degrees). I’m not comfortable aging beer at temperatures much over 70, but if you’re only looking for storage space then it’s probably okay up to about there. It might be fine higher. Try it out with some beers you wouldn’t mind getting overly stale and see what happens.
Q: What orientation should my bottles be stored in, horizontally or vertically?
A: Whatever’s easier for your setup. There are a lot of people who think one way is better than the other, and they have some arguments for their way and against the other, but they all roughly cancel out. The only systematic examination of this in a carbonated beverage was done with Champagne and came down in favor of upright storage, but that was because of cork failure and may be specific to champagne.
Either way, lots of people have had great success with both methods. It’s probably not very important.
Q: Do bigger bottles age better than smaller ones?
A: People claim this, but I’ve never seen a real study of it done. The general claim is that since oxidation is responsible for aging and bigger bottles have a smaller surface area exposed to headspace compared to their volume, they’ll age more gracefully. But that’s conflating oxygen and oxidation (easy to do), and molecular oxygen is not a great oxidizer (see the link above). It’s still possible that this matters, but it strikes me as unlikely.
Q: I really liked beer X, except for this one part, will I like it aged?
A: That depends, does the thing you don’t like about it change with time? Are the other aspects of the beer likely to stay consistent, or change in ways you will enjoy? Without that information, it’s impossible to say.
Q: How do temperature controllers work?
The way that these units work is basically the same as the way the fridge works. It turns the compressor on when the air temperature gets high enough, and then turns it back off when it gets low enough. The only difference is that the fridge’s internal thermometer is bypassed, and a more accurate and controllable one is used instead.
These controllers are a great solution to turning a normal fridge into a cellar, and are available at numerous places online.
If you have any questions that aren’t on here (or take issue with an answer I give) either BM me or ask here and I’ll update the post.
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