OnTap Magazine

It’s a sentence I’ve heard uttered more than once, but does it hold any truth? Well yes, and no. I mean, if I accidentally left a bottle of milk in my car boot one sunny afternoon then brought it into the house only to leave it on the kitchen counter for a few hours before chilling it to drink, well, I wouldn’t chill it or drink it. But if the same thing happened with a six- pack, I’d still be happy to polish off the beers – once I’d finally got them cooled to the right temperature of course. Beer isn’t nearly as quick to spoil as milk, and it certainly won’t make you sick if stored outside the fridge. But like milk, beer is a natural, perishable product, and wherever possible it should be kept cold to extend its shelf life. And this is particularly true of craft beer. Most craft beers are not pasteurised, a heat treating process which inhibits the growth of microorganisms that can spoil the beer. Pasteurisation also stops any leftover yeast from growing and can help extend the shelf life of beer. Similarly, many craft beers aren't filtered, meaning that they don't go through a filtration process that clears up the beer removing any remaining sediment prior to bottling. Filtered beers usually come out crystal clear – definitely an aesthetic plus for many beer drinkers unused to the haze of a New England IPA, a German Weiss or a Belgian witbier. FILTRATION VS FLAVOUR Sounds like pasteurising and filtering are the way to go then, right? Well for mainstream breweries the answer to that is a definite yes, but for most craft breweries the answer is no. So why do big breweries that pump out major litreage of beer go with pasteurising and filtering, while microbreweries that do a far smaller amount of volume opt against it? Well, it largely comes down to flavour. Filtering and pasteurising your beer can take away a lot of the more complex nuances of the beer, particularly the aromas and flavours, dulling the qualities that could have made the beverage remarkable. By opting against those processes, you allow a lot more flavour to remain in the beer and also allow more aroma to fill the nostrils. Craft beer is all about variety and flavour. You need to attract consumers to your products and that usually means you need to brew a beer that will be remembered. The best way to do so is to ensure that you pack as much flavour into that beer as possible. Other than creating a unique beer style or just going crazy with hops, an easier option is to not filter or pasteurise the drink, locking in all that additional flavour. In the end it’s a question of what is more important to the brewer – the additional stability that comes with filtering and pasteurisation, or that flavourful punch that ensures a memorable drink that customers will tell their friends about. THE AGEING PROCESS I might seem to have heavily digressed from the subject of the article, but I assure you that all this preamble is necessary background information in order to understand the topic. So why should craft beer be kept cold? Well, beer is a natural product whose only preservatives are hops and alcohol, so if you want to keep your beer as fresh as possible – and I’m pretty sure you do – then keep it cold. If beer is kept out of a fridge then the ageing process is accelerated. When beer ages, a number of things happen. Hop aroma is the first to fade, followed by hop flavour and bitterness. Malt can take on flavours of honey, toffee and dark fruit and eventually the beer will begin to oxidise, which brings with it notes of sherry and wet cardboard. All beers will follow this path eventually and the only way to slow down the process is to keep your beer cold. Many people believe that beer goes sour if not kept cold but fortunately this is not true. The accelerated ageing can cause a beer to reach the end of its shelf life a lot quicker than stated on the bottle, but this in itself doesn’t cause a beer to go sour. What it will do is speed up any bacterial infection that already exists in the beer. But a beer from the shelf that tastes sour is not the fault of the retailer who failed to keep it in the fridge. It is the fault of the brewer whose process allowed contamination into the beer. FRIDGE FOR THE WIN A lot of retailers store their craft beers on the shelf instead of the fridge and this leads to a heightened temperature not intended for unpasteurised and unfiltered beer, which can accelerate the development of off flavours. I would highly suggest sourcing your beer (particularly craft beer) from retailers who cold store the drinks in a fridge. If that retailer has half of the beers stored in the fridge and the other half stored on the shelf, always buy from the fridge! The last thing you would want is to spend your hard-earned money on a beer that's more expensive than its mainstream counterparts, which still has a couple months left on its stated best before date, and get home to find it has already passed its best. And of course it’s not just liquor stores that need to keep their beer in the fridge. The same goes for your own storage at home or at that bar that you pop into for a pint. Many bars don’t have space to store kegs in a cold room, instead keeping them under the counter and using a cold plate to cool the beer before it hits your glass. It’s not ideal, especially if they don’t get through kegs quickly. I wouldn’t say to completely avoid such venues, but just be aware of potential off flavours arising from warm storage and be ready to send back your pint if it’s not up to scratch. Always ensure that you cold store your beer to get the best out of it, and search for venues that keep their beer chilled so that you can be sure to enjoy the beer as it was meant to be enjoyed. And if your local bar, restaurant or bottle store isn’t keeping their craft beer in the fridge, educate them as to why they should. Ask questions, throw out facts or if that all sounds a little awkward, just casually leave this article around for them to read. Beer is a natural, perishable product Always buy from the fridge! “CRAFT BEER IS LIKE MILK. IT HAS TO STAY COLD AT ALL TIMES.” ontapmag.co.za | Summer 2021 | 49