Tag Archives: The Cellar

A new beer cellar

I recently noticed that it was getting rather warm in my garage, which concerned me because my beer cellar is also in my garage.  While most beer is best served fresh, stronger beers (think 8% ABV and higher) can get better with age.  Both Erik and I have a few beers ageing, which you can read about on The Cellar page.  Erik also wrote a great post on how and why you should cellar certain beers.  Back to the problem at hand, beer ages best between seven and ten degrees (Canadian degrees, the ones that make sense).  Thanks to the arrival of Spring, my South facing garage has been heating up to as high as twenty, not good for my beer.

Not all those empties are mine. I'm not an alcoholic, I swear.

My new beer fridge/cellar. Not all those empties are mine. I'm not an alcoholic, I swear.

Luckily for me, I’ve recently come into some hockey pool winnings.  With said winnings, I decided to purchase a beer fridge to use as my new beer cellar.  I was a bit worried that my beer fridge would be too warm, but the warmest setting has given me a nice eight degrees.  I purchased most of my cellar beers last winter, so it’ll be at least another half year before I crack any of them.  I’ll definitely post about the differences I notice in the aged version versus their younger counterparts.  If any of the beers end up spoiled because of my previously poor temperature control, I will be pissed.  Mustering the patience to store beer was hard enough in the first place!

Still only eight beers in the cellar, should probably go shopping...

Still only eight beers in the cellar, should probably go shopping...

Cheers,

Chris

A trip to the beer stores

Firefly Fine Wines & AlesI’m lucky to work near enough to Brewery Creek and Firefly that I can pop in at lunch, which I usually do every other week.  This week I set out with a purpose, to see if I could find myself some more of Mill Street’s brews.  I recently wrote about my experience with a couple of Mill Street products and the honourable Rich Green was kind enough to let me know that Firefly had Mill Street Coffee Porter in stock.

I am always curious to hear what Erik, and other beer enthusiasts, purchase from these fine purveyors of beer, so I thought it might be of interest to post my recent purchases.  I came back from Firefly with:

My return trip via Brewery Creek was also fruitful:

I always come back with more than I “need”, but never have a hard time finding people to share beer with.  There is usually some rhyme or reason behind my purchases.  I purchased the GI Porter and the Philips Stout because they are new BC seasonal releases, the Rogues on the recommendation of a co-worker I was with at the time, the Mill Street to continue my investigation, and the Pumpkin Ale because there was a big ‘new’ sign under it.  I am that fickle.

A side note, I bought an extra Philips the Hammer for The Cellar. Patience not being a gift of mine, it pains me whenever I stash a beer in my ultra high tech cardboard box garage cellar.  See you in a year beer.

Cheers,

Chris