Wide conditioning temp fluctuations

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greenbirds

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I currently bottle all my beer as I do not have the means for kegging. I usually go 1-2 week primary, 1-2 week secondary, bottle --> 3 weeks at RT (76 F) to carb, but I often like to age much of the beer for several months, and I know it is usually best to do this under cold temperatures.

I have a refrigerator with a custom thermostat that I use primarily for keeping my ale fermentations in the 65 F range. My problem is: Since I have so many older beers, it's not practical to keep them all in my food fridge. If I kept them long-term in my fermentation fridge, which I raise from 38 F to 65 F for fermentation, is this is bad idea? To clarify, they would be going 38 to 65 to 38, etc...

I've been aging them at room temp, but the shelf life obviously is decreased at these higher temperatures, thus I'm looking into this. Any feedback?
 
I'd guess that at that temperature plus its kept out of light, and has minimal temp fluctuation would be ok. I'd also venture to say a bit colder is better, but given your options, your idea might be the best bet.
Toss whatever you plan on drinking into your colder food fridge as early as possible..like a good week or so.
Others more informed/experienced than I may have more to contribute here though...

Best of luck!
:mug:
 
temp fluctuation in bottle is really not much of an issue unless we're talking about wine meant for aging (of which only a very small percentage actually is!) When it comes to beer, if you're planning on aging bottles for several years (like barleywine or imperial stout), it's probably best for the average temp to not be 85F...but again, it's not as volatile as wine, and you're probably not going to be aging it as long as you'd age Romanee Conti.
 
Thanks for your insight. I have a hunch that once carbonated, temperature fluctuation matters little, given that you can purchase lagers at room temp, for example. But there's always that faction of people who believe that refrigerating and warming a beer will "skunk" it, which made me wonder.

Anyone else with experience or thoughts on the matter, please be heard!
 
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