My last post I put in the title a great problem to have. I never touched on that, so I thought I would do so now. The problem I was going to mention isn’t really a problem, more like a storage issue. I had too much beer. Now wait a minute you say. To much beer? There’s no such thing. Well, as inclined I am to agree with you, there is only so much square feet of space in my house.
Before I go any farther, let me talk about proper beer storage. Good beer and homebrew in particular is very sensitive to temperature. Ideally (and depending on style) beer should be stored between 38 to 55 degrees. I try to keep all my beers stored in my beer fridges. If I don’t have room, I store them in coolers placed on top of air conditioner vents. This typically keeps them cool, but as I rotate through them, I move them to the fridges as soon as I can.
My main beer fridge is a chest freezer that I placed a thermostat control to keep it around 40 degrees. I had boxed of bottles stacked on one another. When I recently kegged some beer, I had to remove them to make room. Kegs have to be kept cold for the CO2 to absorb into the beer for carbonation. My other fridge is just my standard kitchen fridge with food in it. It has always had and will continue to have more beer then food in it. So until a week or 2 ago, I ran out of cold storage space for beer. I did what any self respecting homebrewer should do in my position. I called a few friends over for a party. After a night 0f hanging out with buddies, my cold storage issue was a little less of an issue. I am working on clearing out a few more kegs that I anticipate needing soon. I brought 2 of them to a camping party last night. We didn’t finish them, but we made a pretty good dent. I should have no problem finishing them off by the time I need them.
Imperial Stout and Citra Pale Ale
Which brings me to my main point. If you find yourself running out of room for beer storage because you brew every chance you get, well it’s a good thing. It’s a problem people are more then happy helping you out with. Just be careful who you share with. I had to cut a few people off last night because they were drinking a 8.5% Imperial Stout like it was chocolate milk and getting more then a little swilly. There were a few younger looking people (it’s so funny how 20 somethings look so young to me now) that I felt like carding just to make sure they were legal. Friends assured me that they were, and seriously, I wasn’t trying to be “that guy” at the party.
Ok, Reminder to myself. This weeks beer chores: Bottle ESB on Thursday. Clean sanitize, etc all week to get ready. Saturday is the Judging for the Tennessee Valley Fair’s Homebrew competition. I’ll be at Downtown Grill & Brewery all day, helping stewart the event. I have 5 beers I entered. I have zero expectations of winning, I am really looking forward to honest feedback that will help me become a better brewer. Some of the judges are guys who make excellent beer. Beer I find to be far superior to what I brew.
Sunday I am going to brew 10 gallons of Butternut Squash Ale for Brewer’s Jam. So all week I need to clean/ sanitize equipment, and process the squash. Anyone out there reading this that I can bribe with beer to come help me with this?
Ratchet Brews 