How to store your homebrew so it still tastes right

You've brewed the thing. Good. Now comes the part nobody talks about, which is where it lives for the next few months, because storage is the step that quietly undoes a good batch.

None of it is complicated. It's mostly about keeping the brew away from heat and light and putting it in the right container, and once you've set that up you don't have to think about it again.

One thing worth saying up front, since spirits come into this. Making beer, cider, wine and mead at home is fine. Distilling spirits is the one that needs an excise manufacturer licence from the Australian Taxation Office, while flavouring a bought base spirit with an essence doesn't need anything at all. Different activities, different rules, and both end up in a bottle you need to store.

Why it matters

You mixed the ingredients, watched the stages, made a mess of the kitchen and probably recovered from at least one thing going sideways. Storage is the last step in all of that and it's worth the same care as picking the hops.

Done properly it keeps off flavours out and holds the carbonation where you put it, so the batch is still worth opening months later.

Temperature, cool but not freezing

Beer is happiest cold, so a fridge is the easy answer if you've got the room for it. Spirits are far more forgiving and a dark cupboard at normal room temperature suits them fine.

What actually causes trouble is swings. Somewhere that's cold overnight and hot by lunchtime will knock a batch about far more than somewhere that's just consistently a bit warm. So pick the steadiest spot in the house rather than the coldest one.

And never leave a carton in a car boot over summer. It sounds obvious written down and it still happens most years.

Keep it dark

Sunlight is the other one. Beer is particularly sensitive to it and you get that skunky character that nobody wants and everybody recognises.

Brown glass helps, and beyond that it's just a matter of keeping the bottles out of the light. A cupboard works. So does a box in the laundry. It's a small change and it makes a real difference.

What you put it in

• Glass bottles. The standard answer for most homebrewers. Clean and sanitise them properly beforehand, because a bottle that looks clean and isn't will ruin one bottle out of a batch and you won't know which one until you open it.
• Swing tops. Handy because there's no capper involved, and the seals are replaceable when they go hard.
• Plastic bottles. Cheaper and lighter, and fine as long as you replace any that get scratched, since scratches hold bacteria that sanitiser can't reach.
• Kegs. Good if you're serving a lot at once. Check the seals and keep it cool.

If you're reusing old beer bottles, run your thumb around the rim first and throw out anything chipped. A chipped rim won't seal and you'll find out when it stops being carbonated.

Carbonation

Store carbonated bottles standing up rather than lying on their side. It's easier on the seal, and it keeps the sediment sitting flat on the bottom instead of spread down the length of the bottle, which means a cleaner pour later.

How long it lasts

Homebrew doesn't last forever, and the honest answer depends a lot on what you made.

• Lighter styles like a pale ale. At their best early, and they fade first.
• Darker and stronger beers. Hold up a lot longer and some of them genuinely improve for a while.
• Spirits. Effectively indefinite once they're sealed and out of the light.

Taste is the real test. If something's gone off you'll know on the first mouthful, and there's no prize for finishing it.

Label them

Take the minute. Write the date it was bottled and what's in it, because three months later every brown bottle in the cupboard looks exactly like every other brown bottle in the cupboard.

It also means you can work out what you changed between one batch and the next, which is the whole way anybody gets better at this.

Shop related products

• Beer Essentials No Rinse Sanitizer 25g. For bottles on the day you're filling them.
• Beer Essentials Brew Sanitize 250ml. The bigger bottle, for a whole crate's worth.
• Coopers Dextrose 1kg. Priming sugar, which is what actually carbonates the bottle.
• Morgan's Sodium Metabisulphite 500g. Sanitising gear and keeping a batch stable.

Did you know we also stock the bottling side of this in the shop, including crown seals in 100 and 250 packs, hammer and bench cappers, cartons of PET bottles, swing top and amber flip top glass bottles, heavy glass stubbies, bottle brushes and carbonation drops. Most of that isn't on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

The online part of the range is in the homebrew beer supplies collection, and Brewhilder will help if you're not sure what fits your setup.

Read next

• Top 5 common homebrewing mistakes and how to fix them
• Why every homebrewer needs a decent fermenter
• How to make honey mead at home

Label the bottles. Future you is not as clever as you reckon and has probably had a couple already.

Cheers

Candeece