Store in house or outside shed

mancer62 · Dec 23, 2016

Hi there have just brewed batches of woodfordes wherry...dark velvet stout and coopers draught lager as well as 30 bottles of sol grundy cab sauv.
My problem now is storage. Would I be better storing the wine or beer in either the house or outside shed.

Bigd2657 · Dec 23, 2016

mancer62 said:
Hi there have just brewed batches of woodfordes wherry...dark velvet stout and coopers draught lager as well as 30 bottles of sol grundy cab sauv.
My problem now is storage. Would I be better storing the wine or beer in either the house or outside shed.

Hi Mancer 62,

I have been doing some research myself on this area , and the answers I have found is that it is okay to store outside, so long as it is not a freezing temperature, as this can cause your bottles to explode.
This seems much the same as putting bottles of lager in the freezer to chill quickly and then leaving one of them in as it will do much the same expode or crack, hence not having any lager to drink.
Also I have found that they will suffer with a bit of chill haze, but I believe that when you bring the bottles back inside, they should return back to normal and remain clear.
I hope this helps you in your answer and gives you a bit of room.

Happy drinking.
Big D 2657

Bigd2657 · Dec 23, 2016

I believe it is okay to store outside, so long as it is not in freezing temperatures, as this can cause your bottle to possibly crack, or explode slightly. :doh:

From what other resources I have checked myself, the beer may suffer a bit of chill haze but this will rectify itself once it has gone back into room temperature, and I also believe it should not alter the taste of the beer either.:thumb:

I myself am going to store my bottles outside until we get a cold weather spell and then just bring them inside at night as like most of us we need the space.:whistle:

I hope this answers your question Mancer 62 and hopefully this is as other forum readers would answer as well.

Good luck in brewing.

Big D 2657

Bigcol49 · Dec 23, 2016

Hi!
You will be OK for the odd night when the temperature dips below zero, but if there is an extended cold spell with long periods of freezing temperatures you need to get some gentle heat in there - a tubular heater if you have power.
One further precaution would be to lag the bottles - wrap each one in layers of newspaper or similar insulating material. Radiator "foil" makes excellent tubes to insulate individual bottles.

mancer62 · Dec 23, 2016

Ty for your comments...
And the wine?

engineer · Dec 23, 2016

It depends on the alcohol content and how you are storing it.
The higher the alcohol content the lower the temperature it can cope with in storage before freezing.

Beer in glass bottles should be ok down to around -5c as long as its not over primed. I have not / would not want to test that assumption directly but my garage got to -12c a few years back and (commercial) beer in glass bottles stored their survived ok, ie without exploding. In any case i bottle my homebrew beer in plastic bottles to avoid the issue.

Same goes for wine which given its usually a higher alcohol content could take lower temperatures but again that would depend on whether its in a glass bottle sealed with a cork, plastic or some other type of storage container.

In fact if its in a glass bottle with a cork, then its likely the cork would be ejected if the content froze and expanded. I have seen this happen after leaving a bottle in an industrial freezer for to long once :whistle:

Interesting subject though, i am more concerned with high temperatures rather than low as i have had wine spoil in storage where temps reached high 20's and beyond. Either way its very annoying when you lose beer or wine to extreme temperature fluctuations.
Happy brewing.