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Quick question guys..

I put down a brew in Decemberish.. it has been bottled and has been sitting in the bottles in the garage getting older (and better with a bit of luck!).

The question is this.. will I stop the aging process if I now put them in the fridge and leave them there until I am ready to drink em?

I recently got given a spare fridge and I have put in the garage.. so I wanted to know - what the pros and cons are of putting my brew in the fridge so I always have a cold one.

The advantage of having a fridge full of beer is, of course, that you have a fridge full of beer.

Put a half dozen aside in a cool dark corner to age for 12-18-24 months, and the rest in the fridge to enjoy over the coming weeks of that horrible task of emptying the fridge.

Cheers,
Greg

Right so the answer to the question is.. when you fridge them it kills the yeast and it stops performing?

putting beers in the fridge will just make your yeasties dormant, not kill them. The beer may not age the same way as if it was kept out of the fridge (if it changes at all).
I generally keep mine out of the fridge in the cupboardw hich is a constant 20-23 degrees. I only have a comparitively small amount of beer in the fridge permanently as if you are going out, havinga bbq etc you can just whack more beers in the fridge that morning.

After all, do you really need a fridge full of multiple brews which are producing 60 odd stubbies each?

Hi,
Putting the beer in the fridge actually is more benefical then leaving at room temperature to condition. Obviously you need to allow carbonation for 2 weeks at room temps (straight after bottling), then pop them in the fridge the cold conditioning actually speeds up the maturing process.

Ac

Aussie Claret wrote:Hi,
Putting the beer in the fridge actually is more benefical then leaving at room temperature to condition. Obviously you need to allow carbonation for 2 weeks at room temps (straight after bottling), then pop them in the fridge the cold conditioning actually speeds up the maturing process.

Ac

Beat me to it! Exactly what I was going to say.

Just make sure there is two weeks at room temperature after bottling, to allow carbonation.

Putting beer in the fridge does not kill yeasts, just slows them down, or even down to a dormant activity level.

Oh great! Thanks guys.. they have been in the bottle at normal room temp for about 3 or 4 months.. I have only just put them in the fridge.. thanks for the responses..

Sorry to drag this old thread back up but I'm a little confused?

We have a couple of posts saying that putting your beer in the fridge will make the yeast dormant and slow down the maturing process and another couple of posts saying it'll actually speed up the maturing process. So which is it?

Trouble is brent, being in the fridge means they dont get a chance to mature. They are fair game once they are cold.

LOL...that's true. BUT I'll drink a warm beer too if the need arises.

I've never had the opportunity to use a dedicated brewing fridge, as I don't have the space at home. But this is what I've hered about fridges.

- Good for keeping beer cold while in the fermenter, like you'd have to do with lager yeast. This yeast operates best at lower temperatures to produce that crisp lager taste.

- Cold conditioning: Either done as secondary fermentation after racking, or in the bottle. Apparently cold temps encourage microscopic floaties to come out of suspension, (ie more crisp feel)

Almost all chemical or bio-chemical reaction will be slowed down if the temp is lowered, so this will definately add more ageing time before your beer is carbonated. Ways around this would be keeping it at room temp in the bottle for a few weeks before putting in the fridge for a few months, thus allowing carbonation to happen quickly before lowering the temp. Another option would be to use a "lager cube," where you rack your beer into a contaner and chuck it into the fridge for a while, allowing stuff to come out of suspension, then bottle and let carbonate at room temp.

I'm guessing that this is a much more valuable thing for lagers compared with ales.