Unpasteurized beers must be refrigerated?

On the labels of Back Road Brewery beers it says:

"No preservatives or chemicals are used. Since it is not pasteurized, it must be refrigerated."

How important is it to refrigerate unpasteurized beers?

Thanks in advance for any info!

SHawn

The aging process work faster in warmer temperatures. But a constant temperature is the most important. I keep my homebrews at cellar temperature, maybe 15-18C over the seasons. A 5.5% Belgian Blonde held up fine after one year.

Originally posted by ChristianScheffel
The aging process work faster in warmer temperatures. But a constant temperature is the most important. I keep my homebrews at cellar temperature, maybe 15-18C over the seasons. A 5.5% Belgian Blonde held up fine after one year.

Aren’t unpasteurized beers reasonably equivalent to bottle conditioned beers? Live yeast in both?

Originally posted by bhensonb
Aren’t unpasteurized beers reasonably equivalent to bottle conditioned beers? Live yeast in both?

Pasteurization kills bacteria and yeast. Most packaging breweries are sterile filtering, therefore removing all yeast and bacteria.

Quite frankly, for any brewery that knows what they are doing (and there are plenty that don’t) the main spoiler is O2. Oxidation is accelerated at higher temperatures. Breweries that are good at keeping bacteria and yeast out of their beer are often not that great at keeping O2 out of the packaged product.

Pasteurization has really nothing to do with it. It’s much more their ability to rid their tanks lines and packaging operations of O2. I personally know brewers that are packaging fined, not filtered beer, and their O2 levels are so low that they can give their beer 6 months on the shelves.

I know Firestone Walker Double Barrel and Pale 31 need to be refrigerated due to being unpasteurized, or so they tell me.

Refrigerating a beer will help preserve freshness whether a beer is pasteurized or not, and that is all. There is certainly no rule that says unpasteurized beers must be refrigerated. Almost all vintage beer you will try is unpasteurized, and the chances are extremely low that the beer was kept in a fridge the entire time.