Everyone likes to taste his homebrew right after they finish the fermentation process. It’s something we should know even before the creation of large-scale professional breweries.
But what happens when you want to refrigerate your beer right after fermenting it?
Is it safe to transfer it to glass bottles and then refrigerate it? And if so, will you have the same satisfaction and joy from refrigeration?
All these and many other questions will be answered in today’s short article.
We know that homebrew is what you most like because it has no preservatives, and you can control the number of beer hops and yeast in the mix.
However, you need to know how to use the final result wisely and refrigerate it only when the conditions are right to do so.
What is the Minimum Time to Drink Homebrew Beer After Bottling?
A common question asked by those trying to break into craft beer is, “How long should I wait before drinking my first brew after it’s bottled?” And the answer is, depending on the style of beer you are planning to taste and drink, 1-2 weeks at room temperature.
When it comes to drinking canned craft beer, the temperature may be your biggest concern. If you live in a warm climate or plan on sitting outside for an extended period of time, do not let the can sit in direct sunlight.
In general, it’s a lot better to keep your homebrew for at least one or two weeks at room temperature, as mentioned before.
Then you will see everything settle down in the bottom of the mix, and that’s the right time to start getting your beer in the chiller.
Efforts to place it in the chiller earlier will just ruin your beer’s potential and ensure you have the least possible beer hops extracts inside.
Why Chilling Your Homebrew Beer is the Best Possible Practice?
The best home brewers alike have been known to chill their finished product before consumption, but the process is not without controversy.
Some feel it will prevent a fine ale or lager from fully maturing, while others claim that chilling can actually slow the fermentation process and even ruin your beer.
Chilling your brew after the primary fermentation is complete is critical to proper packaging and carbonation.
Brewing requires a steady temperature relationship between the end-of-fermentation temperature, enzyme activity, and yeast strains used.
By quickly cooling down our beer from 70 degrees (F), these major processes will be slowed down, and our beer will remain smooth, bright, and drinkable.
Is it Necessary to Keep Beer Refrigerated After Brewing?
From the moment you start brewing your beer, it’s mostly a matter of waiting.
The waiting is the most important part of the entire process because it determines how well the yeast will work and what carbonation level your beer will reach.
But if you follow our tips below, your patience will pay off: after only a few days of chilling down, we noticed increased carbonation levels in our beers.
Beer should be served at a temperature of 45°F, although it is best served at room temperature.
Because beer can easily absorb the flavors of its surroundings, the best practice is to keep your beer in a cold environment as much as possible.
You can brew beer at room temperature, but it will be out-of-taste value.
There is a big difference in the taste between beers brewed at room temperature and those that are kept cool.
Therefore, it is always better to keep your beer refrigerated when you don’t know when you are going to drink it.
Does Beer Lose Its Taste in the Refrigerator?
Beer will eventually lose its taste in the refrigerator, but usually, it won’t get any worse than that, although some beers are better preserved and might keep their carbonation longer than others.
When beer goes bad, it’s generally a result of yeast changing a beer to where there is a strong, stale flavor.
This can happen quickly, or it can happen slowly over days or weeks, depending on the method used to store and dispense beer.
The beer loses its taste because all three components of beer are affected by temperature.
Water is the most easily affected, lowering the concentration and lowering the overall flavor.
Carbonation is a little more resistant to changes in temperature, but if too much heat is applied, it can result in foaming. When this happens, there might be some water loss due to evaporation.
Which is the Optimal Temperature Level to Refrigerate a Beer?
The optimal temperature to refrigerate your beer depends on the beer’s storage style.
As a rule, lager beers should be refrigerated at around 35° Celsius (88° Fahrenheit), while ales will benefit from a much colder temperature of about 5° Celsius (41° Fahrenheit).
Keeping beer cold will preserve its flavor, so you should store it in your fridge. However, there are exceptions to this rule.
For instance, ales should not be stored in your refrigerator but somewhere colder, such as near freezing.
Do Alcoholic Grades Increase When You Place Beer in the Fridge?
As we all know from Physics and Chemistry, there is no direct relation between temperature and alcohol creation. Except when you place the beer during the fermentation period in the fridge.
That practice could cause the violent cessation of alcohol creation and create a lighter beer with a worse taste than you expected.
However, placing a fermented beer in the fridge after the final bottling will never change the ABV, and that’s something you can really count on when homebrewing.
Final Words
Homebrew beers are more and more accepted by people across the world. Everyone looks to have such beers, and the decision to refrigerate them or not belongs to their owners.
However, you need to know the exact type of homebrew beer you have and what are the final qualities. These will dictate the final refrigeration time as well as the use of a classic fridge or a chiller.
