Foo - a question for the homebrewers...

I'm hoping there are some home brewers out there more experienced than myself. I started brewing beer in the fall with a couple of friends. So far it's been a great experience. It's a good hobby for any beer lover. My question is about refrigeration. We've been keeping the bottles at room temp and putting them in the frig only when we want to drink them. Sometimes we don't drink them right away and we've noticed they taste a little different if they've been in there a while, say 24+ hours vs. 1 hour. Why is this? Because of this, we're hesitant to put all the beers in the frig, so we continue to keep them at room temp. Is this safe? How long can they stay at room temp before they go bad?

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you're like me, you'll drink the beer long before it could go bad. Properly bottled beer will survive well at room temperature for quite while. Keeping it out of the light is the most important thing.

Nick is right. You really can't screw it up by keeping it at room temperature. Also, bear in mind that refrigeration will generally slow or stop fermentation and conditioning. I really prefer to have my beer sit at room temperature because I find that aging is almost always helpful to the end product. Not that any of it gets much chance to age a great deal, but what it gets is useful.

That's kind of what I thought. We've saved up enough bottles to keep about 4 batches rolling, so we'll let the beer mature for a while. We usually wait 3 weeks to try the first of the batch, and then save at least a 6 pack for 3-4 months to see how it's changed. What kind of time frame is "quite a while" though? Would I be ok for 4 months, 6 months? At what point might refrigeration be a good idea? Or does it just not matter at all? Will a home brew go bad at the same time whether it's in the frig or not?

All this home brew talk is making me thristy...

That's kind of what I thought. We've saved up enough bottles to keep about 4 batches rolling, so we'll let the beer mature for a while. We usually wait 3 weeks to try the first of the batch, and then save at least a 6 pack for 3-4 months to see how it's changed. What kind of time frame is "quite a while" though? Would I be ok for 4 months, 6 months? At what point might refrigeration be a good idea? Or does it just not matter at all? Will a home brew go bad at the same time whether it's in the frig or not?

All this home brew talk is making me thristy...


I'd imagine by six months, you'd probably start to get a bit of a decline. Still, it's not like the stuff should be dangerous to drink. Once it's fermented, I think nothing too terrible can happen to it--at least nothing that will make you sick. It might not taste as good is all. Generally, I let my batches condition for three to four weeks before cracking open the first one, unless I bottle it with a tap-a-draft system, in which case the first six liters is force carbonated. Even then, letting it sit in the fridge for six or seven days is a pretty good idea, just to let the carbonation really settle in.