Brown Bottles and Tall Tales: 7 Myths About Storing Beer
By Tyler Wells Lynch
Beer is the third-most widely consumed drink in the world, after water and
tea. It’s also the oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. With that kind of
demand, it’s not surprising that everyone has an opinion—opinions that breed
myths about the best ways to store, age, refrigerate, and drink this tasty
malted beverage. But we’re here to clear that all up. Here are seven beer myths
exposed to the light of truth.
1. If Cold Beer Gets Warm, Cooling It Again Will Make It Stale
Wrong! Like Valentine’s Day, this is a myth brought
on by some wily marketing gurus, most likely
that brand that won’t stop
talking about how “cold” their beer is. The fact is, beer experiences
substantial fluctuations in temperature during shipping. Of course, you don’t
want these changes to be drastic, and excessive heat will certainly ruin your
beer. But the notion that it can only be refrigerated once is a total myth.
2. Sunlight Skunks Beer
True! Sunlight is the nemesis of beer—not only in storage but in the
fermentation process as well. Ultraviolet light, in particular, “skunks” beer.
But before I explain how, it’s probably a good idea to clarify the difference
between staleness and “skunkiness.”
There are “off” flavors, and then there are “skunky”
flavors; the former is the result of poor carbonation or excessive heat, and the
latter—an odorous, rubbery taste—is the result of a photochemical reaction.
Specifically, UV light breaks up
acids
in the hop plant (an essential bittering agent in beer) to create a nasty
little compound called “3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol.” or “MBT.” This wordy
concoction combines with other sulfurous chemicals to create a horrid odor that
is darn close that of a skunk, and even more oppressing in the realization that
your precious brew has been ruined. In fact,
researchers at
the University of North Carolina even found a similarity between the
chemical composition of skunked beer and that of the anal glands of actual
skunks.
The lesson? Don’t expose your beer to excessive sunlight—or really any light
for that matter. It’s just another reason to refrigerate beer, as even prolonged
indirect sunlight will cause this very basic chemical reaction. Interestingly,
this is not a threat with wine, cider, or mash liquor, as none of these
beverages contain hops.
3. The Color of the Bottle Affects Beer’s Shelf Life
Yes and no. It’s not the color of the bottle so much as
its translucence that affects beer’s long-term quality. Clear and green bottles
allow in significantly more UV light than brown ones. This leads to skunking, as
mentioned above. So if you were to store green or clear bottles in complete
darkness, then there would be no discernible difference in shelf life from that
of a brown bottle in similar conditions.
For whatever reason, green bottles are rife among European imports (Heineken,
Stella Artois, Beck’s, and Pilsner Urquell, to name a few). You may even have
noticed that these brews are much better on tap (from a opaque keg) than in the
bottle—but you could argue the same for any beer.
Once again, this is really only a threat if you don’t refrigerate your beer,
as coolers and refrigerators keep sunlight out. It is worth noting, though, that
beer that’s been sitting on the store shelf for a while is at a higher risk of
skunking or going stale. For this reason, most craft beers include a “freshness”
tab that tells you how long it’s been since it was bottled.
4. Beer Must Be Shipped, Stored, and Aged Cold
So, so wrong. In fact, certain kinds of beer—mainly unpasteurized,
bottle-conditioned craft beer—can be aged in cellars, just like wine! While
cooler temperatures are ideal, most experts agree that anywhere in the 40-70
degree range is fine for dry storage—again, as long as you keep out the
sunlight.
Refrigeration is a crucial part of enjoying good
beer. But it’s actually discouraged when it comes to long-term storage of corked
beers, used mainly for Belgian-style ales. Despite some fridges’ abilities to
regulate humidity levels,
Beer
Advocate explains that prolonged storage in artificial cooling chambers will
dry out the cork, allow small amounts of air to enter, and eventually spoil the
beer. Best to age these beers in a cellar with moderate humidity, which
describes pretty much every cellar ever.
5. Putting Beer in the Freezer Is an Easy Way to “Quick Chill” It
This is true, but with a caveat: Do not ever freeze beer. Anyone who’s ever
put a brew in the freezer to chill it but then forgot it was in there knows how
disastrous this scenario can be. 70-proof liquor (or higher) is fine, but beer
will explode when frozen.
That said, placing a beer in the freezer for a few
minutes should be fine. Even then you should be careful, as you may still alter
the taste of the beer.
According
to the American Homebrewers Association, freezing beer alters the molecular
structure of the proteins in the beverage. It can also reduce the carbonation
level and, in the case of bottle-conditioned brew, possibly kill the yeast.
On a related note, the
Eisbock style of beer (like the
infamous Naty Ice) uses intentional freezing in the production process. Brewers
chill the beer to the point where it partially freezes. They then remove the
slushy parts, so as to create a more concentrated and alcoholic beverage (water
freezes at a higher temperature than ethyl alcohol). However, this process
usually reduces the hop and malt presence in favor of the alcohol itself.
But if you really want to impress your friends, the
LG “Blast Chiller” is perhaps the most extravagant—and downright silly—way to
cool beer quickly. Despite our
well-documented
enthusiasm for this awesome feature, it has yet to materialize in a
commercially available refrigerator. [Update: It
has materialized! LG
contacted us to let us know it’s been available since July. Let the good times
roll.]
6. Beer Should Be Stored Upright.
True. There are a few reasons why beer should not be
placed on its side, and this applies to both corked and capped bottles, and
especially to bottle-conditioned brews.
First, the yeast—that magical little organism that eats sugar and poops out
alcohol and carbon dioxide (the process of fermentation). Yeast is critical to
beer, but the sediment it leaves behind has a way of corrupting flavor; you want
the yeast sediment (dead cells and chemical byproducts) to settle at the bottom
of the beer. According to Beer Advocate, prolonged storage on the side will
create a “yeast ring” along the walls of the bottle. This is why there’s a
separate craft to pouring beer, and why you’re supposed to decant the liquid and
“filter” out the gunk at the bottom.
Second, upright storage limits the amount of beer that’s directly exposed to
air (the neck of a bottle is narrower than the barrel). This slows the process
of oxidation and prolongs the life of the beer.
Finally, upright storage is especially important for corked beers. When a
beer is stored on its side, the cork—by virtue of being in contact with the
beer—will gradually impart its own cork flavors on the beer, and some corks
contain chemicals and other ingredients that will exacerbate this “corruption”
of the beer.
7. Bottles Are Better Than Cans.
Wrong! Well, actually, this all comes down to
personal taste. Canned beer has gotten a bad rap in recent decades because it’s
often associated with mass-market, “cheap” beer. However, craft brewers are
beginning to can their beer—212 breweries,
according to
CraftCans.com, including notable names like Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn
Brewery.
Some craft brew fanatics even swear by the
distinctive flavor of canned brew. The Huffington Post even
conducted
a blind taste test and found participants preferred the taste of canned beer
to bottled three times out of four. But putting taste aside, you can’t deny that
canned beer is much easier to store and transport—not to mention, you don’t need
a bottle opener.
The choices we were given were the standards and a few extras:
