Where do you put your barrel to clear?

[dublicious]

Lo Guys,

I have a really small mid-terraced house on an estate with central heating and no cool places to let my beer clear in the barrel. I don't have any buildings outside, apart from a hike to my offset garage which I would fear would disturb the beer going back and forth!

One place I can think of is chucking the barrel outside in the garden, but at nights it gets far too cold. The other is the conservatory but the temperature ranges from 13 to 25 degrees from night to day.

If I used bottles instead of barrels could I chuck the bottles outside OK?

Any suggestions apart from move, which I would love to do but hey.

Take care,

Jamie

[dublicious]

Cheers dude, it wont freeze will it? I think I might put it in a bin liner so no creepy crawlies can get into the spout.

I'd store it outside but allow a couple of weeks conditioning at room temperature to offset the slower maturation that will occur in the colder temperature.

[Aleman]

Is this the benefit of the secondary, Transfer beer to secondary, allow to clear transfer to keg, Carry keg back to house???

I wouldn't worry about too cold - Mine are in the shed at between 0 and 10.9C (ATM) (The Kegereezer is at 13C ), and for clearing purposes the cooler you can get it the better. (As long as it stays liquid ) You can speed up lagering for example by doing it at -2C where 1 week is approximately equivalent to 6 Weeks at 1-2C

[Petrovitch]

One idea is to get a cheap second hand unit or wardrobe-type affair and stick it in that, it'll help keep the temperature a little more stable and keep the weather and wildlife off your barrel, plus it'll be at serving height so you can nip out to pour yourself a pint

As DaaB says an old jumper/fleece/blanket is a good idea too, even if your beer doesn't freeze plastic barrels are delicate and exposing them to extremes of temperature can't help. Saying that I keep mine in the garage where it touches 0 on cold nights.

[dublicious]

cheers guys, will rig somik up ths week

[ColinKeb]

get a bit of formica , cut it into a circle put it on top of the barrel and hey presto a new coffe table for the front room

[Minus The Bear]

I could do with a new coffee table!

Glad i have seen this thread as i intend to move my first beer to the garage after its warm period, so i will now make sure it has 2 weeks warm in the house before i put it in the freezing garage.