Patent attributes
An insulated beer fridge stores and ages corked craft beer in a vertical orientation for a period of several months to years without degrading the cork stopper used to seal the bottle. Cork shrinkage is prevented by controlling the humidity within the beer fridge container within a range of 50% to 70% relative humidity. An optimal beer aging temperature in the range of 10° C. (50° F.) to 15.6° C. (60° F.) is maintained by a refrigeration system. Relative humidity within the beer fridge containment is actively maintained by a humidity replenishment mechanism. A controller calculates the amount of water needed to bring the relative humidity to 50% to 70% at the beer fridge temperature. Beers are stored in the beer fridge on trays, which can be pulled for removal of aged beer and addition of new corked craft beer.
