How to Keep Your Beer Fresh

Posted on March 18, 2019 by xtxwebmaster

As one of the most popular alcoholic beverages, storing and cellaring of beer is a crucial part of the brewing process. Want your product to retain its flavor and freshness after it has been sold for consumption? Here’s what you need to know.

Be Wary of Pasteurization

There seems to be an ongoing debate regarding whether or not beer should be pasteurized. Pasteurizing it stabilizes the beverage by killing off microorganisms that may be present in the beer. This eliminates the risk of infection and impurities in the beer content.

Unfortunately, pasteurizing also kills the yeast present within the beer. Since the yeast is what really enhances the flavor of this particular alcoholic beverage, eliminating it is almost like robbing the drink of its main component. The beer will still taste the same as it did before, but its shelf life will be greatly reduced. To prevent your product from going stale and losing its freshness, it needs to be consumed quickly within a few weeks.

You can opt for producing unpasteurized beer as well. This way, the contents would include a certain amount of suspended yeast that’ll add to the flavor profile of your product. You can also allow your beer to mature and release more flavors over time by storing it in sealed containers or kegs.

On the downside, this very step of aging can actually change the desired flavor of the beer. If left unattended and not tasted frequently by brewers during this storage period, the beer can start getting stale and losing its flavor. Moreover, unpasteurized beer also adds a risk of infection and impurities.

When selecting your preferred method, it’s imperative to keep these factors in mind and plan storage and consumption of your product accordingly.

Keep It Away From Heat and Light

When it comes to storing your beer, you need to steer clear of light and heat. These are variables that can be easily controlled to keep your products fresh and flavorful, and care must be taken to maintain optimum conditions.

If beer is placed in areas where there is too much warmth or exposure to high heat, it encourages the growth of bacterial groups within the contents. Furthermore, it spoils the taste of the beverage. To reach the right balance of the precise flavors of the beer, brewers carefully regulate the temperature during the brewing process. You want to ensure this flavor doesn’t deteriorate in the cellaring stage and should keep it in a cool place.

Light, too, has an adverse effect on beer. Exposure to light can trigger a chemical reaction within its contents, causing the beer to be light struck or skunked. When this happens, the beer goes bad, and is extremely unpleasant to drink. To avoid losing customers over skunked beer that could’ve been prevented through proper storage, make sure you store it properly in kegs or dark colored bottles.

To produce high-quality beer, you need top quality equipment as well. Cedarstone Industry provides brewing equipment to breweries all across the US, including keg washers, mixing tanks, and fermentation tanks.

Call us at (281) 397-3700 to learn more about our services!