I was just looking at the new Beer Connoisseur magazine and noticed this in the cellaring article. I'd never heard of the humidity in the bottle or the cork causing off tastes being the reason you shouldn't lay down corked beers . Do people agree with this? Or is this meaning for more short term aging? "Research actually indicates that corked beers usually do best when stored upright. The humidity in the airspace of the bottle generally works well in keeping the cork moist and tight for many years, and long-term contact of beer with the cork may sometimes lead to off-flavors. The majority of corked beers come with a layer of yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle, so keeping the bottle upright ensures that the sediment remains at the based – making pouring the beer without disturbing the yeast layer a bit easier. Perhaps storing a few bottles of a corked beer upright and comparing these to ones stored for an equal amount of time might constitute a worthy experiment. In any case, beers with bottle caps should always be stored in vertical position."
Thanks for the info! I'm really going to be aging some Cantillong Classic for as long as I can so you would do this even for really long term storing of something like that? This may be a stupid question but is this a similiar thought with Champagne? They're stored on their side though?
I had an email from Mr. Van Roy and he said long term horizontal storage will not impart any cork flavors into the lambic.
i store my lambics and sours on their sides, and everything else standing upright. i've read the arguments both ways, and am following the lead of the brewers. lambic brewers/blenders store their bottles on their side. most other brewers store their bottles upright.
I'd be curious what specific "cork" flavors are involved there. The presence of TCA is generally unaffected by bottle orientation (though I believe I heard that it will infuse faster if the cork's in contact). If contact with a clean cork produces off-flavors, there are about a billion bottles of wine in trouble. Likewise, I leave lambics on their side and everything else upright. Mostly this is because I've had some very old lambics that were stored on their side, and they were great, so I know it doesn't universally ruin it. The CIVC specifically recommends storing champagne upright, and asserts that for a compressed champagne-type cork that will actually result in slower maturation, but there's some confusion about this as well: http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...e-fridges-work-for-cellering.4839/#post-61131
Ahhh. The age-old argument. Horizontal vs. vertical. So we meet again. I say, store your beer the way you see fit. The horizontal argument makes sense to me. So I store my stuff upright. However, similar to your tastes in what should or shouldn't be aged, it's your beer, so store it the way you feel best.
I'd love to see any research to support either of these positions. There's so much "that's how it's always been done" in these threads, and never any hard evidence. Same with the storage temperature question.
I've heard of this, and am quite surprised at the flagrant bias of the writer of the article. Did they mention cases of where laying bottle down is advised, ala Cantillon? Personally, I lay corks on their side for storage unless the cork looks to be of poor quality (like the glue holding the particles will disintigrate and leave cork floaties) or synthetic. My preferred method of storage however- is in my stomach.
