Storing bottles in the shed?

[Bobba]

Just a quick storage question.
I've always had a hard time deciding where best to keep my beer. I live in a small flat, without a cool porch or anything, but it does have a shed. I've got all my bottles there currently, but having a beer just now it's definitely below cellar temp, prob something like 8C and being in Scotland is going to plummet.
What I'm wondering is if there's a lowest storage temperature? Will the flavour start to go bad if the beer is kept at average 5C or lower?

[Dr. Dextrin]

I'm not sure what temperature beer freezes at, but I'd say that's your biggest risk in winter. PET bottles might survive being frozen, but glass ones definitely wouldn't.

[Bobba]

I'd certainly pull them if it starts frosting up out there. Although I suppose beer must have a lower freezing point that water.
Might nacker any chance of yeast recovery

[jonnyhop]

I leave all my bottles in the shed; swing top PET, crown cap. No damage yet. Get the odd frost chill (slightly cloudy) which dissipates in warm weather. The main advantage is that the beer is drinking cold straight away from November through to March.

[Bobba]

ta for reassurance jonnyhop....might stick my keg out there too then

[Invalid Stout]

I wish I had your shed. I'd spend all winter making lager.

[Bobba]

I wish I had your shed. I'd spend all winter making lager.

If it had power and water it'd have a copper chimney banged through the roof already!! Just a storage shed for the time being
How stable does the temperature need to be for lager making? Might be quite fun to get a batch going in there and forget about it for a while

[booldawg]

All my beer lives in the garage all year round. It dropped down to -7 in January (which I guess is nothing in Scotland ) and no frozen bottles even on low alcohol ales. Its beneficial this time of year as the beer clears so much quicker.

[edit1now]

I did a couple of respectable lager-type beers last winter - the temperature in my shed fluctuated between about 15°C and about 2°C between November and February, but both the Munich Dunkel and the alleged Schwarzbier were very nice. I did give them a diacetyl rest in the (cool-ish) front room after about a fornight.

I'm looking to repeat this shortly.

Bottles - it's worth giving newly-primed bottles a week in the house to get the bottle-conditioning going before you put the poor things out in the cold, otherwise it may take more than the month I usually allow to get any condition...

[Cheshire-cheese]

I'm not sure what temperature beer freezes at, but I'd say that's your biggest risk in winter. PET bottles might survive being frozen, but glass ones definitely wouldn't.

Although I've kept glass bottles of spirits in the freezer before.

[Dr. Dextrin]

Yes, 40% alcohol (and all the sugar in liqueurs) lets you keep spirits in the freezer. I've done that too. I wouldn't put beer in there though.

There's a formula here that gives the freezing point of beer...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_f ... nt_of_beer

from its OG and percentage alcohol, but it's in American units. I've tried plugging in figures for an OG 1046 bitter and I get a freezing point of -0.83C, which seems to disagree with the statement below the formula that no beer will freeze at -1C. But maybe they're only considering American strength beer (or maybe I've messed up the calculation).

[Cheshire-cheese]

Agreed I wouldn't put beer in the deep freeze, I was referring to the glass. Mind you, the glass in a bottle of spirits isn't under pressure so isn't going to be tested too much.

I have a 6% lager chill-proofing in a fridge at the moment (in a keg) and the temperatures on the max/min thermometer is between -2 and +2 degrees C and it is still liquid. Although I guess the temperature of the beer probably isn't lower than -1C.

[boingy]

Obviously, I have never been dumb enough to put a can of beer in a freezer then forget about it, but if I had done that then I would be in a position to confirm a very strange piece of physics. How come the beer froze and expanded enough to split the can yet was liquid enough to p1ss all over the inside of the freezer?

[Cheshire-cheese]

lol
Me neither. When it didn't happen to me, I assumed that the beer froze gradually and the expanded solid portion made enough of a volume change to force the remaining liquid beer through the weakest part of the can around the opening. Which then coated the contents of the freezer, or would have done if I was really that stoopid

It wouldn't be to do with pressure, because I gather that the melting point of ice is not affected much by pressure and if anything, under higher pressure, the melting point is lowered. So it's more likely to be liquid in the can than out if you look at it from a pressure point of view.

[Bobba]

Heheheh, sounds very funny.
I'd imagine extra pressure builds up in the can as it starts to freeze and expand. At some point the expansion of the beer ice will be enough to burst the can, splatting the contents all over your freezer. Of course that's what would happen if anyone were do anything as thick as that haha!
Honestly tho, there's nothing to be ashamed of putting cans in the freezer...... lets face it, sometimes you have to go to extreme measures to make a can of fosters barely palatable

Thanks for all the shed tips. Think I'll leave them out there till it's regularly close to freezing, say Dec, then pull them in. Not sure where i'll keep them at cellar temp then but hey, i'll just have to quaff em before they warm up!