As of: February 19, 2024, 3:29 p.m
By: Marvin K. Hoffmann
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Martin Neuhaus is the master brewer at the Hövels brewery in Dortmund.
© Screenshot/Hövels
Should you store beer outside on the patio or balcony?
No.
Beer experts reveal the most common mistakes - and what you should do.
Dortmund – Most people enjoy beer best when it’s really chilled.
It has to be cold, Pilsner, export or whatever.
But be careful when temperatures are around freezing point in winter - then the beer can quickly be damaged.
Beer experts therefore advise against one of the most common mistakes.
Storing beer outside – a common mistake leads to a bad taste
Martin Neuhaus, master brewer at the Hövels brewery in Dortmund (NRW), is very familiar with the production of beer.
Thousands of liters leave “its” tanks every year.
Then consumers have to be quick.
“As soon as the beer is in the bottle, it doesn’t get any better,” he says in an interview
with
wa.de.
From the moment the beer truck leaves the brewery premises, “the beer is subject to an aging process,” he explains.
When it comes to storing things correctly – especially outside and in winter – there are a few things to consider.
Alex Pieper from the craft beer brewery “Piepnitz” in Bochum also knows this.
Unlike industrial beers, his creations have a slight advantage at low temperatures in winter, when not only the windshield wipers freeze on car windows.
“Craft beers are basically beers that are handcrafted and not filtered,” he says.
Industrial beers, on the other hand, are heavily filtered.
“This makes the beer very clear and increases its shelf life because you extract a lot of substances,” says Pieper.
Alex Pieper from the Piepnitz craft beer brewery in Bochum knows what is important when it comes to beer.
© Piepnitz
Beer becomes cloudy if left in the cold for too long
But that's exactly what beers become if they sit in the cold for too long: they become cloudy.
The expert then speaks of a “cold haze”.
This is particularly a problem with industrially produced beers.
After all, craft beers are usually cloudy by nature.
So no one has to worry about this cloudiness.
“This cold haze is caused by proteins in the beer, which – this is not entirely correct, but you can perhaps understand it better this way – 'coagulate',” explains master brewer Neuhaus.
If you want to get rid of this visual disadvantage in your beer, you have two options.
“If you heat the beer to 20 degrees, the cloudiness disappears again,” says Neuhaus.
Alternatively, you can let the bottles “thaw” again at room temperature.
But this is exactly where one of the most common mistakes beer drinkers make lurks.
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A beer doesn't like temperature fluctuations
“Our large stainless steel tanks in the brewery always have a constant temperature of between 4 and 5 degrees,” explains the Hövels master brewer.
The beer likes temperature fluctuations even less than a passionate Pils drinker likes the non-alcoholic Radler.
It just doesn't taste good.
“It is important,” says Neuhaus, “that the beer is not exposed to major temperature fluctuations.
Otherwise you will notice a so-called off taste, which you definitely want to avoid.”
Right temperature for beer
The optimal drinking temperature for beer is usually between six and eight degrees Celsius.
Martin Neuhaus, master brewer at the Hövels brewery in Dortmund, doesn’t want to commit to “one temperature” for beer.
“It’s actually up to each individual.
Some people like to drink it ice cold, while others like the 'cellar cold' - everyone can decide for themselves," he says.
Whatever tastes good is allowed.
Constantly switching back and forth between the ice chest, refrigerator and room temperature is not good at all.
There is no difference between industrial and craft beers.
If stored constantly around the freezing point, everything is still relatively OK.
However, beer freezes outside - and of course also inside in the freezer - from -2 or -3 degrees.
Then there could be excess pressure in the bottle, which could cause the cork to leak - at the latest then beer connoisseurs will have a very big problem.
When beer loses carbon dioxide, it no longer tastes good
“The beer loses carbon dioxide and tastes stale,” says craft beer brewer Pieper.
In addition, beer doesn't like to come into contact with oxygen.
“It then oxidizes,” says the expert.
Pieper knows: “The taste of beer usually doesn’t change for the better as soon as the beer comes into contact with oxygen over a longer period of time.” His tip for optimal storage: “It’s best to store beer in the cellar.
It’s dark and consistently cool there.”
If you make a mistake while storing beer, your senses can help.
“Smell, taste, see: This is sensory tasting,” says Hövels brewmaster Neuhaus.
This makes it easy to find out whether you can still enjoy your Pilsener, Export or whatever without hesitation.
Beer, which has a shelf life of around nine months, can be consumed even after the best-before date has passed, says the expert - if it still tastes good.
But it's not just the cold in winter that affects beer.
Sun rays are also not good.
“If you have to use the balcony as a storage location, then you should put a blanket over the beer crate so that it is nice and dark,” advises Neuhaus and, with a wink, adds another tip that will be useful to everyone -my-beer-right-problems are solved in one fell swoop: “Nobody should buy more beer than they can drink.”