Improperly Stored Beer

Thanks MostlyNorwegian, Squire123 and Gaddabble for easing my concerns.

So if the overly cool storage is ok -- what about moving some of the chilled stouts to a proper cellar temp to get the aging speed back to normal levels? I'm thinking as long as I generally keep it 50-55ish it might be ok. Thoughts?

 

That would be a good idea since cool vs. cold temperatures will accelerate oxidative processes (the aging you desire for these beers via cellaring).

Cheers!

 

Yes. It will be ok unless it is super old.

 

I have done it before and it has been ok but I have also had a bad experience. I bought Sixpont Resin DIPA off of a singles shelf and it was a malt bomb and horrible. Once I tried fresh, it was an amazing beer. Be careful about how long a beer has been on a shelf, is all I am saying..............

 

I've been sitting on some Xocoveza in my detatched non climate controlled garage since December. That beer hasn't dropped off. Temps have only increased to 80 once or twice since then. But speaking from a hoppy beer perspective, it's a crazy world out there with many opinions.

I'm wondering, has anyone done a blind tasting of the same beer stored in different conditions?

I am so paranoid now that if I see a beer sitting out in the sun on my patio for more than 5 minutes, I wonder if the sun has affected it negatively. I want to worry, but is there really any worry needed?

When I say test. I mean, take a fresh local canned ipa (light wont be an issue here). Store one here straight from buying it cold and into your fridge. The next one, leave in your car for a week. Maybe a third, leave in your car for a day, then in your house, then maybe a couple days after being at room temp, move into the fridge. At that point, move it into a garage, and then back cold. People say all this stuff, but is there physical BLIND test proof? Now if you can take an even older batch and throw them in too, results would be interesting.


I will say. I'm a sucker for dos equis green bottles. REALLY cold and with a lime. It's whatever. But there are times when it feels like conditions of the beer make it feel quite skunky. Other location buys are fine, or maybe even worse. Green bottles are iffy to begin with. So I do sense some adverse conditions to how beer is stored.

That brings up another point. Not everyone has a cellar. Has anyone aged a beer at closet temps and another one at fridge temps? Light fluctuation in a store can hurt a beer too, but DOES it? A triple test would be something else. A perfectly cellared beer, one that may be took cold, and one that sits on the counter of your kitchen that may take on all of the elements.

 

Around here, there isn't much choice. Grocery stores use almost all of their refrigeration space on macros, that way it's cold when people get it home or to whatever social gathering they're taking it to. And the more craft oriented shops I've been to either don't have the space or the money to have much refrigeration at all, but they also use their little bit on macro beers for the same reason. It's pretty much either shelf temp or nothing. I just try my best to find stuff with relatively okay dates and that doesn't look like it's been sitting in the sun or under fluorescent lighting too much.

As far as my cellaring situation...I'm in a tiny apartment and don't have much space for shelving or a beer fridge at the moment. I keep my beer in a box in my storage room/pantry, where it stays about basement temp except on really hot days. Occasionally I'll peek in on them and they'll be slightly cool to the touch, so I assume they're doing okay in there.

None of this is the ideal scenario, but proper beer storage hasn't quite caught on in my area yet, although there's more and more breweries/taprooms/bottle shops opening every day so I have hope. And if I ever can afford a house in this economy, I'd love to set up a proper cellar (and a laundry room...oh sweet baby jesus, a laundry room!).

 

How else does beer - especially the classic "skunking" examples like Heineken and other green-bottled Euro beers - become light-struck if not at the retailer's? Almost all bottled beer is shipped in closed cardboard cases - removing the beer from the closed case and putting it on the shelves or well-lit, clear-doored coolers is when the beer is exposed to light.

No need to waste one's own beers - the industry has already done all those tests.
See for example Light-Struck Flavor Formation in Beer in Illuminated Display Cabinets

 

I would buy it