Well another week and another topic has come by my way. Aging beers. Now if you have a nice house with a great beer cellar than you are probably already in the know about how to age beer.
But if you live in an apartment and have no cellar never fear you are not out of luck. We have a some tips on the pubcast #21 You too can age beer. I'll have some notes here and a link to a great site about aging beer, down to the chemistry involved.
Aging beer is a great way to take a really good beer and make it even better. Aging lets the beer flavors mellow, mingle, and mix to achive some really astounding tastes and depth of character. A few pubcast ago I had talked about aging a beer accidentally. It was an Edmund Fitzgerald from Great Lakes.pubcast #11 I had left it in a fridge for about a year and I tell you there was a big difference. the beer had a richer more complex taste to it. I like the beer but this was even better than fresh. There are some beers that should be fresh but we are not worried about those. We are thinking about beers you can age.
When you want to ager a beer. In a cellar or in a beer fridge you should consider a few things.
1st and foremost is get a quality beer. Not some mass produced low grade swill but a good solid beer from a reputable and good or excellent brewer.
2nd Decide what kind you would like to age or if you can pick one style get a varity of what you like and experiment. Look for beers with big taste like an Imperial IPA or a a good Barleywine. Belgium strongs both light and dark. You get the idea.
3rd check out the ABV% higher the better for the most part. You really don't want to age a beer that is under 5-6% they jsut won't last the time you need to develope those tastes. A good idea is to star with 10% and up but that 7-9% range can work. Try them out and see how it goes.
4th Place to age. If you have the cellar you want a nice cool dark out of the way place where the beer can sit and develope. Store them up right and let nature take its course. Stay away from places taht have a wild range of temps. You do not want it too cold the beer chemistry will not take place. Too warm and you spoil the beer. There is lots of thought on the temperature range but I think a good rule of thumb is around 45- 55 degrees F. If you do not have the cellar get yourself a spare fridge. Get a good thermometer set you fridge up and get it to that nice stable temp range and then filler up. Though with a fridge corked bottles are not really a good idea. A fridge is a very dry place and that could ruin your corks and lead to spoilage. If you want and can afford the wine fridge go for that. It keeps the inside more humid so corks don't dry out. Again store up right as much as possible.
So you see it is possible to age in an apartment if you give it some thought and figure out what you want to do. The one draw back of course is you limit your aging stock if you can only get a small fridge. Although it is worth the effort and it gives you a great place to experiment.
Oh one more thing about aging. PUT THE DATE ON YOUR BEER! it helps to know how long its been in there :)
What we are aging.
Bells 3rd coast Old Ale
Hop Wallop
Edmund Fizgerald from
Duvval
3 Philosophers
North Coast Old Stock Ale
Bells Two Hearted
All that aside don't forget the
But if you live in an apartment and have no cellar never fear you are not out of luck. We have a some tips on the pubcast #21 You too can age beer. I'll have some notes here and a link to a great site about aging beer, down to the chemistry involved.
Aging beer is a great way to take a really good beer and make it even better. Aging lets the beer flavors mellow, mingle, and mix to achive some really astounding tastes and depth of character. A few pubcast ago I had talked about aging a beer accidentally. It was an Edmund Fitzgerald from Great Lakes.pubcast #11 I had left it in a fridge for about a year and I tell you there was a big difference. the beer had a richer more complex taste to it. I like the beer but this was even better than fresh. There are some beers that should be fresh but we are not worried about those. We are thinking about beers you can age.
When you want to ager a beer. In a cellar or in a beer fridge you should consider a few things.
1st and foremost is get a quality beer. Not some mass produced low grade swill but a good solid beer from a reputable and good or excellent brewer.
2nd Decide what kind you would like to age or if you can pick one style get a varity of what you like and experiment. Look for beers with big taste like an Imperial IPA or a a good Barleywine. Belgium strongs both light and dark. You get the idea.
3rd check out the ABV% higher the better for the most part. You really don't want to age a beer that is under 5-6% they jsut won't last the time you need to develope those tastes. A good idea is to star with 10% and up but that 7-9% range can work. Try them out and see how it goes.
4th Place to age. If you have the cellar you want a nice cool dark out of the way place where the beer can sit and develope. Store them up right and let nature take its course. Stay away from places taht have a wild range of temps. You do not want it too cold the beer chemistry will not take place. Too warm and you spoil the beer. There is lots of thought on the temperature range but I think a good rule of thumb is around 45- 55 degrees F. If you do not have the cellar get yourself a spare fridge. Get a good thermometer set you fridge up and get it to that nice stable temp range and then filler up. Though with a fridge corked bottles are not really a good idea. A fridge is a very dry place and that could ruin your corks and lead to spoilage. If you want and can afford the wine fridge go for that. It keeps the inside more humid so corks don't dry out. Again store up right as much as possible.
So you see it is possible to age in an apartment if you give it some thought and figure out what you want to do. The one draw back of course is you limit your aging stock if you can only get a small fridge. Although it is worth the effort and it gives you a great place to experiment.
Oh one more thing about aging. PUT THE DATE ON YOUR BEER! it helps to know how long its been in there :)
What we are aging.
Bells 3rd coast Old Ale
Hop Wallop
Edmund Fizgerald from
Duvval
3 Philosophers
North Coast Old Stock Ale
Bells Two Hearted
All that aside don't forget the
Wife's birthday is Feb. 14th
... I'm going to have to get her Something nice.. maybe beer.
Ok links time
The Brew Basement This guy know his beer aging. Check out all the information
Oy Sinebrychoff Ab Makers of the Porter I tried this week
Ok links time
The Brew Basement This guy know his beer aging. Check out all the information
Oy Sinebrychoff Ab Makers of the Porter I tried this week
Kerry Piper Not a beer bar so to say but a great place to go and have a good time
So thanks for coming by we will see you in a week!
EDIT
This was sent to me by a listener. He as a lot of great ideas here and the invention is pretty cool too.
Some tips on laying beer down for storage…
1. You are right; you don't actually lay it on its side. Keep itstanding upright, this will compact the yeast on the bottom of thebottle.
2. If you will be keeping the beer a long time you may want to dip thecap in Wax. Over a long time O2 can leak in around the cap or throughthe cork, oxidizing the beer. Regular candle wax will work, but mosthomebrew shops have the good wax like they use on wine bottles.
3. Refrigerators cycle temperatures that are how they do the frostfree trick. So it is a good idea to insolate the bottles in the fridge. That way the bottles do not swing in temperature as much as the air in the fridge. Even just a beer cozy will help.
I have invented a little part used in long term storage of fermented beverages inCornelius kegs www.kegpasties.com
Thanks Jeff!
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