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Pro Tips for How to Store Beer and Keep Your Cellar Organized

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beer cellar
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The new year isn’t just the time to give your house a thorough deep cleaning and weed unloved items from your closet — it’s also a great opportunity to organize your beer cellar. Depending on your set up, it may not be a proper “cellar” like those wine vaults you see in the movies, but those bottles, can,  and growlers that are getting dusty in the back of the cabinet or crowding your mini-fridge need your attention.

There are many reasons to age your beer (we’ve got a handy intro guide here), but cellaring does you no good if you never drink the beer. Having an annual auditing schedule for your beer collection ensures your stash doesn’t morph into a hoarding-type situation, and you get to enjoy special beers at the opportune tasting time.

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We spoke with Keith Dion, cellarman for Service Brewing Co. in Savannah, Georgia about his personal cellar maintenance and tips for keeping your beer collection stocked, organized, and well-rotated.

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How do you manage your personal beer cellar inventory? 

Although I do utilize the website CellarHQ.com, for the most part, it is by eye. About every four to six months I perform an inventory and pull beers that I want to open. Too often I find beers that either have sat too long, or have become “too special” to not share.

beer cellar
Bernt Rostad/Flickr Image used with permission by copyright holder

Do you have any standardized rules for when to drink general styles of beer you cellar, in particular beers that you haven’t aged before?

I’m often inclined to age barleywines without trying them previously for about a year, but nothing hard and fast. I might age a particular beer if someone I trust tells me it could use some time.

What are three of your favorite beers to cellar, when are your preferred enjoy by dates, and why do you cellar them?

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, I drink between one and two years of age. This was the first beer I really experimented aging. I found that this was my sweet spot to mellow the hop intensity without losing any complexity.

bigfoot ale
Bigfoot Barelywine Style Ale/Sierra Nevada Image used with permission by copyright holder

Cigar City Marshal Zhukov’s, I have to wait at least one year before opening. This is an absolutely delicious stout, but it is really intense when fresh.

Oskar Blues Gubna, I age one-and-a-half to three years. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t like this 10-percent [Double IPA] much at all fresh. Way too much onion-y hops. At some point, I decided to try it again, but mis-read the canning date. It turned out that a year and a half old Gubna is fantastic! The dank hops fade and it becomes a bit barleywine like.

About how many beers do you keep in the cellar at a time?

At my max, I probably had about 250 beers total; maybe 175 of those were unique. I currently have just over 100. I’ve been trying to drink the cellar down considerably over the past few years. It’s actually harder than you’d think!

How has your attitude about cellaring changed since you began?

I got pretty heavy into the hobby of beer collecting/cellaring, but compared to some beer nerds out there, I’m an amateur. I’m happy to have created a nice little cellar to pull from when it is time to share with friends or celebrate a special occasion. There are a few beers I will still age, but for the most part though I have come back around to just enjoying beer fresh.

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Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel is the managing editor of Brew/Drink/Run, a website and podcast that promotes brewing your own beer, consuming the…
This Road in Washington is Where All Your Favorite Beers Get Their Start
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The valley is quickly approaching 150 hop varieties, which emerge, cone-like, from hop bines (yes, bines, not vines) that can surpass the height of a three-story building. It’s home to many family-run operations which have been hauling in hops for generations. Places like Perrault Farms, in Toppenish a bit south along Lateral A. The Perrault Family arrived here in 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House. In addition to growing eleven hop varieties, the family raises bison and grows blueberries.
The hops end up in everything from specialty one-off seasonal beers by Bale Breaker Brewing Company (just north and on the other side of the Yakima River) to Budweiser. Business is booming and the area has its requisite commissions, grower-owned coops, and the like. It’s not uncommon to see reps from the big boys like AB InBev-owned labels sniffing around for a good deal on some choice hops.

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Hops are as important to beer as grapes are to wine. New hybrids are entering the picture every year, changing what a beer is able to do in terms of flavor and fragrance. From a beer-making standpoint, one major consideration is whether to go the wet hop or dry hop route. But the names can cause a little confusion.
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Here are some worth trying to see what side of the hop fence your taste resides.

Wet: Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale

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