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Author Topic: My first storage/aging experiment.  (Read 1356 times)

Offline Steve L

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My first storage/aging experiment.
« on: June 17, 2014, 05:22:56 pm »
I was curious about whether I should be storing my ales at room temp or in the fridge post carbonation. I feel like this will yield different results depending on style, but I recently brewed an ESB and put 3 in the fridge about 3 weeks post bottle priming and let the rest sit at room temp. After about 3 weeks I chilled one of the room temp ones for a couple days  and did a side by side. WOW, two DIFFERENT beers. The refrigerated one still had a bit, albeit small amount of green flavor. Still quite good. But the room temp had bloomed into a really great beer. It had a bigger more complex malt flavor, better head retention, and was overall a more flavorful beer than the other. The refrigerated one was good, but was a bit one dimensional and sort of bland. I'm seeing that the delicate balance that is brewing extends beyond the brewing process into cellaring. I'm going to be taking a lot more tasting notes from now on. I was curious if anyone else has any personal experiences regarding how their beer develops over time.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2014, 05:26:20 pm by swlusk »
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Offline Wheat_Brewer

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Re: My first storage/aging experiment.
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2014, 08:16:24 am »
Before purchasing my current house we lived in apartments that tended to be quite warm in the summers. I noticed that my beers from the apartment which were aged at about 72F+ tended to have a short shelf life, more likely to be gushers, and fruity tasting. My current house has a basement with a temp around 66-68 which results in a beer similar to how you described your room aged beer. I've never compared a refrigeratored beer to a room age beer but that may be the next experiment.
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Offline dkfick

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Re: My first storage/aging experiment.
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2014, 08:22:59 am »
If you store them cold they will oxidize and change more slowly.  If you store them at room temp they will change quicker.  So for a barleywine I would recommend aging at room temp.  For a light lager I would age cold. etc... If you want (slight) oxidation and flavor development I would age room temp.  I have to age everything at room temp because I can't fit 35 kegs in my kegerator (2) lol.
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Offline Steve L

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Re: My first storage/aging experiment.
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2014, 04:29:29 am »
If you store them cold they will oxidize and change more slowly.  If you store them at room temp they will change quicker.  So for a barleywine I would recommend aging at room temp.  For a light lager I would age cold. etc... If you want (slight) oxidation and flavor development I would age room temp.  I have to age everything at room temp because I can't fit 35 kegs in my kegerator (2) lol.

Space is my Achilles heel as well ;)
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Offline brewinhard

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Re: My first storage/aging experiment.
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2014, 11:33:05 am »
If you store them cold they will oxidize and change more slowly.  If you store them at room temp they will change quicker.  So for a barleywine I would recommend aging at room temp.  For a light lager I would age cold. etc... If you want (slight) oxidation and flavor development I would age room temp.  I have to age everything at room temp because I can't fit 35 kegs in my kegerator (2) lol.

sounds like you need to purchase another fridge! 

Offline dkfick

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Re: My first storage/aging experiment.
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2014, 11:34:00 am »
Haha for sure. Condo living though.

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BJCP A0936 National Beer Judge and Mead Judge
Cicerone Certified Beer Server
AHA Member
CRAFT Homebrew Club
Sons of Liberty Homebrew Club
HBT "mors"