Storing Bottled Beer In The Summer Heat

[matti]

I have found that my beers turn worse for wear in the summer heat as they getting stored at +20 degrees.
A lager I brewed with W34/70 turned out slighly sweater then anticiapted and is turning into crap the longer its stored.
Luckily there is only 6 longnecks left.
My finding is that the beer taste slighty earthier.
it is hard to explain but it taste a bit like soil.
When it ice cold it is drinkable but as she warm up that full body earth comes through and the enjoyment of drinking it disappears before the glass is empty. <_<
You keggers are laughing all the way to the bank.
I am stuck with 1 fridge and bottling for a wee bit longer......

Has this earthy taste got to do with bottle storing or is it my brew that is flawed??
What is you experience with this...?

Last year I didn't even bother brewing in the summer because of this.

Matti

 

[braufrau]

My finding is that the beer taste slighty earthier.
it is hard to explain but it taste a bit like soil.

Hmmm. Soil is a taste I associate with fungus, like botrytis on strawberries, yuk!
But I don't think that's possible in beer is it?

Check out this article about geosmin or earth smell produced by bacteria.

And this article on musty flavours in beer.

Since its a seasonal phenomenon I'll put my money on the water as the source. Either something is growing in the hot weather
or the council is adding more stuff to kill off what's growing. A carbon filter should take care of that right? Or buy water for the summer period.

But! That article also says that beer can aquire a musty taste by being stored in a musty environment. Is it musty where you keep it?

 

[goomboogo]

Hi everyone, first time posting. Matti, the earthy flavour is a difficult one to pinpoint but different people's description of flavour can vary. One person's earthy may be another person's musty. However, as you suspect, the storage over 20c is definitely gonig to degrade the beer. I was told once that a general rule of thumb was the lifespan of a beer is reduced by half for every 5c over 20c. This is especially the case for bottle conditioned beer as autolysis is also an issue.

I'm sorry that I don't have a practical solution for you. A temperature controlled cellar to store a few hundred bottles of beer is probably out of the question. Someone on the forum may have developed a storage set-up that allows their stock of bottles to avoid the heat of summer.

ps. You're right about this being one of the big advantages of kegging.

 

[mika]

Had a beer with an earthy flavour, was a dark kit beer and I always put the taste down to the fuggles hops I was using as people have described them as 'earthy'.
Who knows, might have been a mild infection of some description.
I'm still struggling with the storage of bottles thru the summer. I like to bottle a couple of batches so I have take-a-ways. Only thing you can do is store them under a stumped house, or get's lots of those cheap foam eskies, that'll help moderate the temp a little. After that, you're looking at a coolroom

 

[johnno]

Long term storage is bad in the hot weather.

The trick is to drink them as quickly as possible. One thing I do like about bottling in the heat is that the bottles carb up within a few days.

A batch is lucky to last 2 days here after being bottled anyway.

cheers
johnno

 

[detourism]

I've just started putting my bottles in those blue chiller shopping bags from Coles Supermarkets.

They only cost a couple of bucks each and hold 10 or 11 bottles. They're got a foil lining which I'm hoping will stop the temp getting too high and a zippered lid so that no light can get in. Great for me because the only place I have to store them is the laundry which can get a bit of sunlight at times.

Dave

 

[Kleiny]

i store them in the styrofoam boxes that the supermarkets throw out
gives them some insulation from the heat

im building a new shed so i might be able to build a small cellar just big enough to fit
a few crates. that should keep them at a good temp

 

[sanders4_]

Heats a killer, a brewing mate of mine was slack with his stock pile and suffered lots of casualties. Skunked a good 30 bottles due to heat.

Personally, my house semi finished section underneath it that never gets above 20'C and I've never had any problems. You almost need another fermentation fridge to condition bottles in...

 

[Juzz]

Think I better get into some of my stockpile soon with this added knowledge. I have quite a few slabs, 10+, that are sitting in the shed maturing at the minute - cant have them going to waste!

 

[RobW]

If you have the space why not store them in an old busted fridge or (better) a chest freezer.
You'll get one for nothing and they're well enough insulated to even out the worst of the temperature fluctuations.
Cycling through a few PET bottles filled with water & frozen will help too.