I was organizing some of the beers in my house today and found myself wondering if, in fact, storing beer at room temperature after being cold, vice versa, or even outdoors would ruin the beer.  In short, the answer is ‘maybe.’

I’ll go into detail a bit further down but the basics are as follows:

• Beer can’t make you sick if it is ‘bad’
• Light ruins the taste of beer
• Temperature shift doesn’t harm the flavor

The details:

I’m stealing most of my information from realbeer.com and this article.

“If you want to know about beer science and chemistry in America, you go to the Siebel Institute, in Chicago. The Siebel family has been educating brewers and chemically analyzing beer for generations. The Vice-President of Educational Services is Dave Radzanowski.”

Temperature Alternations

“Allowing beer to warm to room temperature after it has been chilled does not harm its flavor. This is an old wive’s tale that has some consumers treating beer as if it were some form of milk. In February, most beer is delivered colder off the trucks than it is kept in the store. It is then added to a room temperate display.”

Bacteria / Will Bad Beer Make Me Sick?

“Let’s start with Bacteria. It is everywhere. You can’t get rid of it. There are good bacteria, ones that won’t make you sick, and there are bad bacteria, the kind that will make you sick. Beer does not support bad bacteria. It does support good bacteria. Over time, these bacteria will grow and impart a flavor in the beer. For the most part, these flavors are undesirable. The unique aspect of beer is that it has a natural bacteria inhibitor – Alcohol.”

Light = Bad for Beer and Vampires

“Certain wavelengths of light (those around 5,000 angstroms) can turn a wonderfully aromatic beer into a skunkfest. “Hop oils have a sulf-hydryl grouping in their molecular structure,” Radzanowski explained. “When these wavelengths of light hit that, there’s a photosynthetic reaction which changes that grouping to that of the common ’skunk’ aroma. Those wavelengths are abundantly present in sunlight and fluorescent light; incandescent light is not so bad.”Certain wavelengths of light (those around 5,000 angstroms) can turn a wonderfully aromatic beer into a skunkfest. “Hop oils have a sulf-hydryl grouping in their molecular structure,” Radzanowski explained. “When these wavelengths of light hit that, there’s a photosynthetic reaction which changes that grouping to that of the common ’skunk’ aroma. Those wavelengths are abundantly present in sunlight and fluorescent light; incandescent light is not so bad.”

Is there any way to protect bottled beer from this photonic invasion? “Clear glass is the worst, green offers only marginally better protection,” Radzanowski ticked them off, “and brown gives partial protection. Ruby-red glass would protect the beer completely, only it’s a lot more expensive than brown glass. But fluorescent lights in a cooler could be covered with ruby-red cellophane filters quite cheaply. Most retail displays are disaster areas for beer.”"