Storing Beer

  Home brewed beer has a fairly long storage life due to the presence of the yeast. Some beer will keep up to one year, if stored in a cool area. It will continue to mature in the bottle for up to 6 months, after which it will keep well, but not necessarily improve in flavor.

  In general, beer should be stored in a cool place. Temperatures between 35F(2C) and 60F(15) are probably OK. Storing at the warmer end of this scale will increase any aging effects, since any yeast remaining in the beer will be more active. This will cause lower gravity beers to go "stale" sooner.

  The two major detriments to a beer's lifespan are light and heat. Keep your bottled beer out of direct sunlight. Exposure to sunlight or even fluorescent light may cause beer to develop a skunky character. Brown bottles protect your beer from the sun the most. The term for a beer with a skunky character is "light struck". Breweries that bottle in clear glass use a chemical process to resist this problem. Green glass protects beer to a lesser degree. Bottled beer can become "light struck" in less than a minute in bright sun, after a few hours in diffused daylight and in a few days under normal fluorescent lighting. Always store your beer in a dark or shaded area. Keep it in the dark even when transporting it.

  As a natural food product, your beer contains a minute amount of live brewer's yeast in suspension. Over time (the colder-the slower the process), the suspended yeast will secondary ferment in the bottle, causing a cloudiness in your brew. This is a natural process and cloudy beer is fine to drink.

 * cold beer fridge (40-42 F) approximately 8-12 weeks clarity.

 * cool dark basement (50-55 F) approximately 4-8 weeks clarity.

 * warm spot in closet (68-70 F) approximately 2-3 weeks clarity.