Skip to main content

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

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.

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.

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.

Editors' Recommendations

Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel is the managing editor of Brew/Drink/Run, a website and podcast that promotes brewing your own beer, consuming the…
Understanding the Difference Between Dry Hop and Wet Hop Beers
dry hop wet beer explained hops closeup getty

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.
For the record, most hops are dried. They get picked in the field, treated to some warm air, and are often shaped into pellet-like cones for use later on. Since most are grown in the northwest but beer is made all over, this is a great way to preserve a good hop and ship it all over the globe. It’s said that they can last for several years in this format (although we all know how great a fresh-hop beer is).
But a dry-hopped beer usually refers to the actual beer-making approach. Hops are added later in the process so that they hang on to their aromatic intensity. Part of that intensity is owed to the fact that dried hops tend to be denser in terms of the flavor and fragrance punch that they pack. The overall IBU dial will be adjusted, too, as hops inject varying amounts of bitterness. There are even double dry-hopped beers, which means if triple and quadruple dry-hopped beers don’t exist yet, they’re coming soon.
You’d think wet hop would be just the opposite — throwing the flavorful cones in during the boil, giving them a good soak. Nope. A wet-hopped beer is a lot like a fresh-hop beer. It’s made with hops that are not air or kiln-dried. They tend to be moist and full of flavorful oils, having just recently been harvested. The flavors tend to be more nuanced and green in nature. And if it weren’t for new hop oils and extracts, you’d really only find wet-hop beers once a year, right around the hop harvest in early autumn.
Some breweries will do a wet and dry take on the same beer, but I’ve yet to see both versions canned or bottled and available side-by-side. Often times, the wet or fresh hop version is a limited run and simply poured on draft at the brewery’s headquarters. Either way, it’s worth looking out for when sipping beer in the fall.
Here are some worth trying to see what side of the hop fence your taste resides.

Wet: Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale

Read more
Flip Your Flavor Profiles and Enjoy Some of the Best Infused Beers Out Now
Public Coast Brewery - Peach Kettle Sour

The seasonality of beer stretches well beyond the hop and barley harvest. Today, crafty brewers are throwing everything from chamomile to CBD into their batches. With spring fully in gear and the summer produce season just around the bend, it’s a great time to enjoy beers made with a bevy of attractive adjuncts. Here are a few well worth your time.

Wolves and People - More Aplomb

Read more
A Brief Introduction to Brewing Malts, the Backbone of Beer
brewing malts malted barley

Malts provide the backbone of a beer. They are, in the form of malted barley, one of the three ingredients named in the German Beer Purity Law (the Reinheitsgebot) and they lay the foundation for a beer’s color, flavor, and mouthfeel. These grains are like unsung heroes, creating a platform for the hops, yeast, and additives to interact.
Whether you’re a home brewer looking to expand your style or a brew fan thirsty for more beer knowledge, take time to know your malts. Here’s a rundown of the most popular malts used in brewing, and how each malt impacts the finished beer.

Malted barley, the most common type of malt used in beer. Sergi Escribano/Getty Images
“Malt,” for the purposes of this introduction, is simply a grain that has been prepped for the brewing process (we'll get to the grains involved soon). The grain’s starches are transformed by soaking, germination, and heating, converting those starches into sugars that are primed and ready for fermentation.
Most beer recipes start with a combination of fairly generic malts, like two-row or six-row malt (named for the way kernels grow on the stalk). Then recipes may call for additional malt combinations, enhancing the beer’s complexity by adding caramelized, roasted, or specialized malts.

Read more