Cellaring Lambics Horizontally vs. Vertically

Most beers aren't bottle conditioned. I can't imagine that the presence of live yeast and other micro-organisms in the bottles doesn't make a difference vs. filtered / pasteurized beers.

 

No one is cellaring pasteurized/filtered lambics.

 

Sadly I haven't been able to buy a full case of any kind of Gueuze. Also, I totally forgot about this. Maybe now that 3F is back around I'll try getting a full case of 375's to do this with.

 

Did you read what I was replying to?

 

Nope. Sometimes I'm dumb.

 

I guess I should have been clearer and stated other bottle conditioned beers. I did not say most other beers, or mention pasteurized beers, just used "other beers". Of course you are very right, it would certainly make a huge difference as to wether a beer had been pasteurized or not.

 

any thoughts on non-lambic/gueuze that are typically capped rather than corked?

 

There will certainly be SOME oxygen, as cork (and cap) are not air-tight, so there will be some exchange. This is highlighted, as you say, by corks soaking or drying out: the cork is of a poor quality (Cantillon just recently posted on Facebook about improving the quality of the cork in some bottles).

Left to my own devices, the only one I'd store on its side would be Bruocsella, as there's so little (if any) carbonation that I'd assume it wouldn't be enough to ensure positive pressure and a moist cork.

 

Good stuff. However, in the discussion of cork dry-out, you don't discuss the impact of having a carbonated liquid inside the bottle instead of a flat one (as with wine).

The oft-sited (by me, which is kinda bad since I still haven't located an actual copy of the study) as referenced here, http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/19/09/1996/21487/The-lay-down-on-storage.htm, mentions that for champagne (carbonated) the positive pressure will maintain enough humidity to ensure a moist cork, and in fact having the liquid enter into contact with the cork can cause swelling (and therefore leaking and additional oxygen exchange).

All that said, in the final analysis it does not seem like the difference, as you conclude, is liable to be great enough to truly recommend one over the other at the expense of whatever is convenient for a given individual. Certainly the temperature (particularly the stability) and other storage conditions will have more of a direct impact than the orientation of the bottles.

 

I'll agree with money here and take the side of upright, but it's less about any scientific evidence and more about my personal preference. I don't see a concrete reason why you couldn't store capped beer on it's side, but I don't see much of a reason too either. With that in mind I am biased to that view because I have much more vertically orientated storage space than horizontal, but if you had the opposite issue I wouldn't fret too much over storing them on their side.
Thank you errantnight, I did come across some similar information and might edit the article at a later date, or add a part two. Who knows. I immediately wondered if the amount of carbonation is a factor. Any thoughts?