Can I cellar in the fridge?

i cellar the vast majority of my beer in fridges and its fine. all it will do is slow down the aging which i prefer.

 

One does not cellar beer in a fridge, one preserves beer in a fridge at the low temps that they are known for. One cellars beer in anyplace that is not well lit and does not get above 80*F nor below 35*. These temps are purely arbitrary and to be used as an "eyeball" temp guide.

So many folks wanna say refrigeration is the way to go. I disagree. Refrigeration ******s yeast growth and maturation. Putting ones beer in the fridge is like sending your kids to public school- they don't grow, evolve, or change in any way for the better, and it does no one any good having them there. My $.02.

 

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: No one really knows, and it's highly variable.

From what I understand, aging is a series of chemical reactions occurring in the bottle over long periods. In general, heat accelerates reactions and cold ******s them. So, warmer temps should = more/faster reactions should = more changes in the beer. Cooler temperatures don't stop reactions; they just slow them (to some degree)

The reason no one really knows is that there are very few studies on how aging affects the chemical composition of wine or beer. There are several studies about ways to accelerate wine aging (for obvious reasons), studies on ways to detect wine aged in oak barrels vs. macerated with oak chips, and studies on which yeast strains/storage conditions will preserve a wine in its initial state longest. There's a lot of focus on the evolution of phenolic compounds and changes in Ph (for wine) but, again, it's focused on how to mature wine faster (so you can bring it to market faster).

On the beer side, there's a lot of study about making beer more shelf stable (surprise). The influence of Ph levels shows up a lot, too. But, it looks like the majority of the research is in how various factors affect how long a beer's flavor will stay stable, not how it changes in desirable ways over time.

Disclosure: This is all taken from a very quick search on Web of Science, so I probably missed a bunch of articles that a more thorough search would catch.

Edit: Neat; there's a Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, and one of the authors publishing there is a D. Saison.

 

You can age a beer properly in a fridge provided you increase the temperature to something more suitable to cellaring, like between 50F-60F. If it's as cold as most fridges are usually are (typically 40F or even lower) you aren't aging it anymore, you're preserving it.

However, fridges are designed with food in mind. That means they are supposed to prevent spoilage. Besides being cold, this means their air is also very dry. Not the best air for cellaring even if you keep the temperature a bit warmer. Especially if it's a beer sealed with natural cork (which is fairly rare, mind you, but still).

Contrary to popular belief, unless the beer in question contains wild yeast (brettanomyces) or bacteria (lacto, pedio, aceto et al) the effect yeast has on the aging of beer is quite minimal. The majority of yeast activity in bottle-conditioned beers is essentially over within 6 months.

 

My first home brew was supposed to be a nut brown ale. Turned out ink black with a green head, was kind of funny but not very good. We choked back a bunch of them, but finally gave up and left them in the fridge. Went on to make many other tasty beers over the year. Then found them in back of the fridge and decided to open up the motor oil as a joke. It was absolutely amazing ( at least for home brew). Was mellow, kind of like a porter and the head was a creamy tan. My take, definitely can age in the fridge, just may take a while longer, especially if you are trying to tame a beer.