How to store your bottles of beer.

Bottles with a crown-cap can be stored vertically or horizontally (laid down). It is best to lay the bottles with cork down, as you would do with your wine-bottles, when you want to store the bottles for a long time (longer than 3 months). Horizontal storage has several advantages:
- the cork can't dry and shrink, which prevents infections to come into the bottle
- the underside of the cork can hold some micro-organisms. Since this side is completely submerged in the beer, an alcoholic and oxygen-free liquid, these micro-organisms have far less chance to develop.

When you store beer, that is refermented in the bottle, like our Augustijn, Bornem, Piraat and Golden Dragon, you have 2 more important advantages:
- the dispersal of the yeast is better, so the fermentation evolves more equal
- the distribution of the taste of the beer is more equal. The first glass of a vertically stored bottle may taste differently compared with the last glass.

Temperature is an other important element. The ideal temperature depends on your own taste. Just remember these rules:

- if you want that the taste of the beer evolves slowly, than a cool place (cellar) of about 40-45 degrees Fahrenheit is the best. At this temperature the refermentation in the bottle goes very slowly and takes years to finish.
- if you want the fermentation in the bottle to go fast, so that the beer looses faster its sweetness and wins bitterness, than store the bottles in a 60-70 degree Fahrenheit environment.
Some of you want to create your own Beer-collection. The best place to store your beer is in a cool (40-45 degrees) dark place, because this is the best situation to control the evolution of the taste and aroma. A cellar is normally OK if not too humid, because the temperature tends to be stable all year round. Swift temperature changes have to be avoided, since then you can't predict how the beer will taste and there is a chance that the beer becomes very cloudy.

How long do you want to store your beer? The answer depends completely on your own taste. If you want your beer less sweet, than you have to wait longer. If you want a port-wine-like taste, you will have to wait at least 5 to 8 years. It is always necessary for you to drink at least one bottle per year per brand you have stored. This allows you to monitor and to enjoy the evolution of the taste and the aroma. All Belgian brewers have at the brewery an elaborated selection of their product from over the years. Tasting different "vintages" of a certain beer, like a young 6 months old bottle, a 3 years old and a 8 and 12 year old bottle is a feast and a revelation.

Needless to say, that all of the above is only valid for good beers, good living ales, that are refermented in the bottle. If you store a dead product (dead meat, dead vegetables, dead beer ...), the taste will not evolve for the best, but the whole product will deteriorate. Do you know that the USA-domestic common beers are withdrawn from the shelves, when not sold within 40 days?

(Newsletter February 1996)