If you are on the quest to experience beer, more so than just drinking it, then aging beer is an important part of that journey. To see how a beer changes over the year or years can be a lot of fun and well worth the wait. Now, you will hear me talk about my beer cellar, or this or that, but I want you to know that I don’t have a special walk in freezer, or walk in room with temperature and humidity control. As nice as that would be, it is not within my budget. However, there are things you can do on the cheap to store beer for long periods of time. Please keep in mind that my recommendations are not suited for beers with a generally short shelf life, such as average IPA’s, wheat beers, average strength beers, and so on. This is primarily for your barleywines, strong ales, high alcohol Belgian styles, or any other heavy hitter. So without further delay, here is what I use for a beer cellar………

A Styrofoam cooler is cheap, large, a good insulator, stackable, and easily replaceable.

…a Styrofoam cooler. I store them under my bar, and they do the trick. Now there are a few things to consider when using this method. You need to have a cool basement. On average, my basement is 62-65 degrees three feet up from the floor. It is cooler at the floor level (upper 50′s to 60 depending on what time of year), and by placing it on the cement floor itself it is in the about the best way to get the coolest I can. The main thing to worry about is keeping the beer out of light, keeping a constant cool temperature, and avoid drastic temperature fluctuations. All of this is achieved with a Styrofoam cooler.

Here is a shot inside of a cooler. This one has some New Glarus Unplugged from 2007 (Belgian Quad, Bourbon Barrel Bock), Third Coast Old Ale, Bigfoot, Imperial Saison and Iced Barleywine from last year, Lagunitas Imperial Stout, and Thomas Hardy Ale from 2005 to name a few.

For long term storage, like if you plan to age something for more than 10 years, I have an idea to help reduce the oxidation that may occur over time, even through a cap. Even if this does nothing, it also does not hurt anything. I vacuum seal beers I don’t plan on trying for many years. Here I have two beers I don’t want to open until 2015 or beyond.  A barleywine from New Glarus and 2005 Thomas Hardy Ale.

vacuum Packing, does it help? I don't know, but it can't hurt.

OK, so to start to wrap this post up, you don’t have to have an expensive walk in cellar or build a fancy multiple shelf system if you don’t have the space or budget for it, just some good insulated coolers will do the trick. They HAVE to be kept in a cooler than a normal place though. You want to age big beers in the range of no warmer than mid 50′s to mid 60′s. Beers of average strength and below are recommended to be stored at temperatures even cooler than 55. For these, I simply keep them in a fridge (Please note that many beers today come corked, and a refrigerator has a drying unit in it to keep humidity out. So this can dry out a cork. Store corked beers in a humid environment or they will dry out and ruin the beer, trust me, I had it happen to a nice Gueuze I had kept in the fridge).If you don’t have access to a separate beer fridge, I don’t recommend buying more beer than you can easily drink in a short period of time.

Keep average strength beers in the fridge if you don't have access to a temperature controled cellar.

Keep those beers cool and out of light my friends, no beer likes being kept 70 degrees or warmer for extended periods. Also, keep beers stored upright, not on their sides, unless its corked. But even then it probably is not necessary, most corks today are part synthetic and will not dry out under normal conditions (Only if very dry climates or the fridge, so if you live in the desert, maybe keep your corked beers on their sides).