Keeping beer in the fridge for a year

All my IPAs go straight to the fridge and food comes out if theres no room

Ive had a heady get stuck in the back of the fridge for over 2 years and it tasted better than it did fresh!

 

Beer doesnt last in my fridge..

 

Has anyone else done this? I would have been worried about the beer spoiling, but I guess not?

 

It won't spoil. It just gets older and loses flavor more slowly. Eventually it will oxidize and may start to taste more like wet cardboard than beer.

 

Is the beer was stored continuously at Refrigerator temperature; 40 °F/4.4 °C then I can see it tasting OK after a year.

Below is a handy curve for beer storage time per a given temperature.

Cheers!

 

Also, the stale character, is sometimes described as wet cardboard. This may help folks with a point of reference.

 

Here in Mexico we don´t have cellars, so I´m storing some high abv in my fridge to age, I hope that works I´ve been kind of lazy and haven´t documented myself about it.

 

I have some tres pistoles and breakfast stout that have been aging for 8-9 months. Anything hoppy gets imbibed because it looses its spark very quickly.

 

At my Dad's place he keeps a separate beer fridge, but only really drinks from it when I'm around. Was going through it on my last visit and drank a couple Great Lakes Oktoberfest beers that were at least 2 years old. They held up ok.

 

I can't seem to keep it either. What's up with that? I may not be good at aging beer. Only time will tell. Ya'll keep posting how aged beers are better, so maybe I can hang! Cheers, Prost, Salude, Happy Fourth to all. Celebrate and be free!

 

Coincidentally, I bought a 6-pack of Deep Ellum Pale Ale earlier this week, and was super excited about it because the born-on date said 6/24 ...

... /14.



I thought I was getting barely a week old, and instead it's A YEAR and a week old. Damn my eyes for not reading the born-on date more carefully. But I had one last night, and honestly it's fine. It's pretty malty for sure, but the carbonation is fine and the overall flavor is well within the ballpark of the decent American pale ale.

I wouldn't recommend doing it with the average hop-forward beer, but as accidents go, this experience and a few others tell me you can do much worse than drinking older beer.

 

I left a hop stoopid in the fridge for nearly a year, sort of by accident. Good thing I expected little, becasue it was pretty awful. Not something I'd recommend

 

That should work okay. By keeping the beer in the fridge, you are slowing down the aging process of your beers that are known to age well. If it is your intent to age these beers, then keeping a record will be beneficial because some beers reach their peak maturity faster than others. Your record will help you know when it is best to drink it before it heads downhill. Check out the Cellaring forum for comments on which ones and their prime cellaring period.

 

I will check that out. Right now I have some Chimay Prèmiere and Gulden Draak 9000 Quadruppel aging. I´ll read about that. But I want to add some coffee porters or imperial stouts too.

Thanks!

 

The only thing that lasts that long in my fridge are the BMCs and Grainbelts I buy for basting grill meat and serving to my wife's relatives. Mike - storing high abv beers in a fridge will slow the aging process to a crawl. If you could pick up a cheap 2nd fridge and bring the temp up to the 50s F you will get better aging. You can get a gadget to raise the temp up at a home brew store and I'm pretty sure if you can't find one in Mexico, a US store will be happy to ship one to you.

 

Sounds good!! I have a mini fridge empty waiting to be converted to a kegerator, I might use that to store beer. 50 F is around the lower setting on that fridge, I´ll give it a try.

 

This makes me wonder... in the wine world, an expert may taste a new vintage and predict how many years it should be cellared before it will be at its peak. Is there any way, other than trial and error, to predict how long a beer should be aged in order to get the best flavor from it? For example, can anyone taste a fresh bottle and say that beer will be at it's best 3 to 4 years from right now (assuming it is cellared properly)?

If not, why not?

If yes, what do they look for that tells them how much aging is appropriate?

 

Not cold enough to use as a kegerator.

 

Id be fine leaving a porter or stout in the fridge for up to a year. Not sure Id leave any other beer though.