Cork Top Storage

You will hear many opinions, and this topic has been covered many times already in this forum.

My view: it depends. If you are holding onto the beer for 10+ years, and it is a wild ale, then sure put it on its side. If it is something you will likely cellar a year or two don't bother as laying it on its side won't help anything- and some would argue that laying a beer on its side with modern agglomerated corks will actually impart a "mushroom-like" flavor that you may not like.

If they are synthetic corks, they don't dry out so no need to do anything.

 

Beer Advocate's own recommendations: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store/

 

I know this has been discussed but it isn't on page one and I'm lazy.
What is the proper way to store bottles with a cork? Ive heard on the side and rotate monthly, I've heard standing straight up is fine as well.

Any scientific proof on proper storage techniques?

 

Standing up. See the discussion in the article in Beer 101 on bottle storage.

Beer is not wine and the "side and rotate" come to us from the world of wine (or from breweries who don't have lots of storage space so they use side storage). Standard wine bottles benefit from side storage because the wine keeps the cork moist and helps ****** the disintegration of the cork over several years of storage. There are very few beers that will be stored for years and almost none of them should be stored for longer than about 5 years.

Basically, unless you are going to invest in a wine basket for decanting corked beers my own experience is that its easier to have all the sediment on the bottom of the bottle, rather than on the side, when I'm pouring from a beer that's been stored for a long period.

 

Upside down to keep the cork saturated and coagulate the yeast in one convenient location...

 

Thanks, I've started storing some Cantillion and Drie Fontein that I've obtained. I've got a 3 year vertical going of several variations and wondering best way to store.

 

In his book 'Vintage Beer', Patrick Dawson does recommend upright storage. However, he does state that an argument can be made for storing lambics on their sides at least for the first few years while the yeast is still active. I currently have a couple Cantillon geuzes stored both ways and will compare the two in a year or so.