Do you maintain temp while aging?

My background: After years of reading and re-reading Palmer's book (followed by Papazian's, Abrams', and lots of forum lurking), I finally brewed my first batch a week ago. An Irish Red, and I can't wait!

Anyway, I attended my first local homebrew club meeting last night (great discussion on barrel aging brews) and have since had a pair of random questions pop into my head, and thought here would be a good place to ask them:

1. When long term aging an ale in a carboy, do you continue to maintain temperature controls? Or are things pretty stable by that point, and it won't matter if the beer temp goes from 80+ in the day to 50 at night?

2. Do you continue to use the airlock on the aging vessel? If so, how often (if ever) do you replace the solution inside?

Thanks!

pfgonzo said:

2. Do you continue to use the airlock on the aging vessel? If so, how often (if ever) do you replace the solution inside?

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I use cheap vodka in my airlocks, so there is no need to (ever) change it. If you are absolutely sure your fermentation won't kick up again (say, if the temp goes way up and rouses up some yeast to eat some left over sugars), you could cap the carboy without an airlock. But since the airlock is already there, might as well keep it.

Optimum aging temp is 70F. Most people keep their house at a pretty steady 74-78F this time of year, and those temps are close enough that they do not cause any issues. I put my aging beers in an interior closet, and measure the temp at about 2-4 degrees F cooler than the rest of the house, and always very steady.

Wild swings in temperature is bad. Warmer or cooler than 70F is fine, but you don't want huge variations in a day. Some seasonal changes are obviously fine, but the beer should be stored somewhere it won't be subject to daily temperature fluctuations. Insulation helps, as does keeping it somewhere out of the way in the house.

You should try to keep it aconstant temp more so during fermentation, i sometimes get it higher after fermentation to ensure complete fermentation since i dont do a 3 day hydometer reading although i do 3 weeks primary which is plently of time for theyeast to do its thing assuming a good temp.I wouldnt recommend swings like that and you generally dont want more than a 10 deg temp swing for the yeast but moreso during ferment.

Right, I'm not talking about fermentation, I'm talking about 2 months later when the beer is aging in a secondary. Is keeping a constant temp just as important at that time?

Thanks!

pfgonzo said:

Right, I'm not talking about fermentation, I'm talking about 2 months later when the beer is aging in a secondary. Is keeping a constant temp just as important at that time?

Thanks!

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It's not as critical but you should still avoid huge temperature swings

I store at cellar temps for my aging beer, stays pretty constant down there. 62 or so degrees. 55 is considered the standard cellar temp as per the industry I do believe. As for the airlock I also use vodka in mine and I age with it in place, better piece of mind knowing that Its not going to carb up and blow the bung out of place in the cellar when Im not constantly watching it. I dont have any threaded carboys so I suppose that wouldnt be an issue with an acid style carboy.