Thread: 'Cellaring' beer in Darwin

right, so i've been getting in to my beer lately, and my 'cellar' (cupboard under the sink) is slowly but surely filling with beer i'm trying to age a bit.

however after doing a bunch of reading, i'm now slightly concerned that the temperature is a) too high and b) varies too greatly for effectively ageing the beer.

i would love to just go and buy a wine fridge, however beeradvocate.com tells me that i shouldn't store beer on its side.

anyone in darwin keeping a beer cellar? or is it too hard? would be very interested in hearing what other people do.

Indeed beer is said to be best stored upright. Importantly for bottle conditioned beer - which is the only beer worth cellaring.

Like wine, it also needs a relatively consistent temperature, and a relatively low temperate. If you're getting large fluctuations in temperature or at any point that temperate is above about 18 degrees, I wouldn't be keen to leave it there for extended periods of time.

Because of Darwin's climate I doubt even a basement would provide the best environment. It's probably best to buy a large second hand fridge and modify it with a temperate control unit.

dig a deep well, fill with water, stick your beer in an esky, weight it, then lower it into the well. win.

I cellar all my beer in my belly. I can take care of yours too if you wish.

No poofter beers tho thanks.

As rec mentioned the main thing for cellaring is constant temperature. Fridges aren’t normally very good at this but if do use a fridge make sure what you are cellaring is the only thing stored in there so the door stays closed.

As for the temperature the higher it is the faster things age. I know with wines about 12degrees is good as this has a reasonable aging rate and leaves your reds at about the right temp to be drunk after decanting and left to sit for a bit, it's not too warm that you can get your white down to <7 degree quickly.

The reason for the constant temperature is the bottles “breath”, the liquid contracts and expands sucking in air because the corks/lids while being water tight are not air tight.

As for bottle on their side only issue I can see is disturbing the particles when you right the bottle. You have the same issue with wine stored on its side the solution is to not drink straight from the "cellar" let the bottle settle upright for an hour before drinking/decanting.

The vintec wine fridge I have allows me to store bottle upright if I want I just fit a lot more wine in the fridge storeing on its side.

Originally Posted by jabsy

I cellar all my beer in my belly. I can take care of yours too if you wish.

No poofter beers tho thanks.

Silly Bogan achievement has been awarded.

i guess what i'm tossing up is which is more important: keeping beer upright, or keeping beer at a steady 12 degrees.

would love to mod a fridge with a thermostat though, i have a refrigeration mate who i may hit up.

Temperature is definitely more important than being upright, I think. I'd go as far as to say most bottle conditioned beers drink better with the sediment poured rather than left in the bottle anyway.

As I said there are wine fridges you can keep beer upright in looking at mine I could fit about 3-4 dozen stubies upright and still have room for a couple of bottles of wine for the missus. That is a 40 bottle vintec wine fridge.

how many wine bottle sized (750ml) beers could you stash upright in that wine fridge?