Breaking the cellar?

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People love magical thinking.

Break this down rationally. What happens when you age a wine? Chemical reactions occur between the various compounds in the bottle (alcohols, sugars, tannin, any active yeast, etc.). This results in large molecules joining together to form even larger molecules. Some of these drop out, which is why reds may lighten as they age.

The chemistry of beer aging is less understood, but a lot of the same processes go on. Most agree that hop flavors fade over time, which indicates that the hop oils released in the brewing process break down somehow into something different. This goes for other adjuncts added to the beer (berries, coffee, spices, whatever), which is why beers like Abraxas are much better fresh than aged. If the beer is bottle conditioned with live yeast, you'll get a very active reaction until the yeast eats sugar until it dies off, leaving CO2 and sediment.

Reactions happen faster at higher temperatures, so warmer beer = faster changes. That's really the only temperature-related concern with aging. The bigger danger is light, which gets into bottles and generally wreaks havoc.

Your buddy is probably thinking about aging wine, where sudden shifts in temperature may shrink the cork and allow more oxygen. Oxygen is highly corrosive, so it also destroys flavor. Note that oxidation occurs in barrels, btw; it's the nature of the beast and part of what imparts new flavors into barrel-aged drinks.

So, no, it won't "break" the cellar to refrigerate beer. The chemical reactions already happened; you can't undo them. It's not like you're flying around the world backwards or something. Cooling the beer will alter the flavor in various ways... the same ways that any beers taste different cold than warm.

 

That's awesome. Can he also reverse engineer gravity?

Any 'buddy' who tells me something that years of common sense say otherwise isn't a buddy. The only thing that will greatly effect any liquid is rapid temperature change. Rapid, as in instant. Unless your fridge is set at zero degrees and freezes anything inside within five seconds, you're not going to damage anything you put in it. You also aren't going to be able to reverse anything that's already been done to it, that would defy psychics completely.

 

Pretty sure your buddy isn't the only one to believe this nonsense--talked with a guy in my local bottle shop once who wanted to find bottles that hadn't yet been refrigerated due to vague reasons about refrigeration affecting the beers. I rolled my eyes pretty hard, but not worth arguing with superstition.

 

Your buddy was hoping you didn't use the internet.

 

I think even more BMC drinkers think this. Their always asking for the warm beer in the back because apparently you can't chill it warm it up then chill it again with out ruining the "flavor" (little do they know this happens several times during storing and distro.

 

Any good brewery will have a refrigerated truck and any good liquor store will have refrigerated beer storage. You want as slow and small amount of temp fluctuation at all times and you want the temp to be 55 or below. The fridge does not break the cellar any more than a fluctuation of the same degrees but warmer. Wine makers believe that a barrel of wine is an entire living organism that forms structure holistically in a barrel and any changes to the structured organism will destroy it. However that is probably just a bunch of wine bs philosophy. but beer and yeast are living organisms so just keep everything as close to constant at all times and your living organism will thank you. The same way people prefer eternal spring to alternating winters and summers.

 

One of the best posts i have ever read on BA thank you sir.

 

Your friend is an idiot.