If you are anything like us your craft beer fridge tends to get pretty full during the summer months. The “singles” shelves tend to grow quickly as you find new variations to sample including Pilsners, Summer Ales, Saisons, Golden Ales and Pale Ales. These are great beers for the warmer months and make a good Beer O Clock beers. The slightly stronger IPA’s and even the Double IPA’s are also suitable for summer with their citrusy hops and biterness, as are the American Pale Ales if you like a more balanced beer. Of course, it wouldn’t be a summer of beer without the aptly named Lawn Mower Beers which are based on the Solo slogan where you can “Slam it down fast”. Then their is the Australian institution, the Sessional beer which you can take a 6 pack of to your mates BBQ or party.
But of course, all good things must come to an end and with summer behind us now, and as we move towards the colder months, Autumn is the perfect time to start preparing your beer fridge for winter. Here are out top 10 tips for getting your fridge into shape.
- Prune back your Pilsners.
- Lop off your Lagers
- Saw off any extra Saisons and Summer Ales
- Starting building your collection of Brown Ales
- Experience a couple of ESB’s
- Get Ready for some Red Ales
- Bulk up your Belgians (although they may not require refrigeration)
- Prepare for some Porters
- Stock up on Stouts
- When things get really cold, curl up with a Russian Imperial Stout
Of course there is the fridge itself to consider too. Once you have done all your pruning you should be able to swap over from your summer fridge to your winter bar fridge (see pictures below) and most importantly remember to adjust the temperature. Whilst your summer fridge needs to be running at around around 3-4 degrees (depending on how often you open it), the temperature of your winter fridge is probably better to be sitting around 6-8 degrees (depending on it’s content) to ensure you get the most flavour out of your winter brews.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there now and start preparing your beer fridge for winter.
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