Aging beer

I live in a one bedroom apt in Dallas- so I don't have room for an extra fridge, and I don't have a cellar. Basically, my choices for aging brews are as follows-

My closet- roughly 70 degrees. Humid (this is Texas after all)

My fridge- in the 40's

I've heard that fridges are too cold, and too dry, but I'm curious as to which of these would be better for aging brews.

Obviously, 50-55f and humid would be ideal, but I'm choosing the lesser of two evils here

Your thoughts?

Hm, I'm fairly new to this, but I would think it would depend on the style of beer. I would think lighter and hoppier beers I would store in the fridge, and stouts and high ABV beers I would store at room temp.

Light hoppy beers generally aren't good for aging at all- hops fade over time, and lower ABV means lower shelf life

unionrdr said:

That's what the hops are for,they act as a preservative. Dry hopping is said to begin fading after 5 weeks in the bottle. I have yet to substantiate this. Higher ABV helps,but is not the end-all of beer shelf life. I store all my beers at or around 70F. Doesn't matter much what style they are at that point. Just keep'em in the dark,so sunlight won't skunk them. I keep my bottled beer in boxes with the lid flaps closed over them.

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I second this. All mine age at about 70 degrees in the dark.

Thats what I've been doing. I was just wondering if the fridge might be better.

And with regards to hoppy beers and shelf life, I was more referring to the beer still tasting hoppy- not so much it going bad.

And when I mean aging, I'm talking 1-5 years kinda aging, not just bottle conditioning an IPA or something. While 5 weeks might be too conservative an estimate for hop freshness, I'm sure that 2 years will bring you a beer without it's initial hoppiness intact.

I'm mostly thinking imperial stouts and barleywines