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REFRIGERATION

Food storage

How to store beer

Beer is not a food-safety risk in the usual sense, but its flavour is fragile. Heat speeds up stale, cardboard-like flavours, and light, especially through clear or green bottles, causes a 'skunky' off-flavour. Unpasteurised craft beers are more sensitive still and are often best kept cold all the time. For bars and licensed retailers, the general rule is to store beer cool, dark and upright, and to chill it to serving temperature, typically around +3 to +7 °C, in a glass-door cooler or back-bar fridge. Draught beer kegs need their own cooling system.

  • Chilled+3 to +7 °C (serving)

Do

  • Store back stock in a cool, dark storeroom, out of sunlight.
  • Keep craft and unpasteurised beers refrigerated throughout, as the brewery recommends.
  • Store bottles upright to reduce contact between beer and the cap.
  • Rotate stock by date; beer does not improve with age in most styles.
  • Keep glass-door coolers out of direct sunlight; use LED lighting rather than hot lamps.
  • Allow enough time for warm stock to chill before service.
  • Follow the storage conditions in your state excise licence.

Avoid

  • Do not leave beer cases in direct sun or in hot delivery vans.
  • Do not repeatedly warm and chill beer; flavour deteriorates faster.
  • Do not freeze beer; bottles and cans can burst.
  • Do not store beer next to strong-smelling foods in a shared fridge.
  • Do not stack cases so high in the storeroom that bottom cartons crush or bottles chip.

In Indian conditions

In Indian summers, beer often sits in hot storerooms or delivery vans before reaching the cooler, which shortens its flavour life. Licensed shops and bars should keep back stock as cool as possible. Craft breweries in Indian cities often recommend cold storage throughout. Glass-door coolers in bars and shops face high ambient temperatures; choose models rated for that and keep condensers clean. Voltage fluctuations are common; protect compressors with stabilisers. State excise rules vary, so check the storage and display conditions attached to your licence.

General good practice for commercial kitchens and shops. Where your FSSAI licence conditions or food-safety plan set stricter limits, follow those.