How Does Summer Temps Hurt Maturing Ale?

I’m tired of drinking “green” beer. I want to buy more kegs and brew a decent backlog. I keep my ale in primary for 14 days, under temp control, and “finish” for 7 days at a higher temp – room temp. Right now it’s 73º and all is good in the hood. I keg, cold crash, force carb, and drink. I’d like to have a long row of kegs as a backlog, ..maturing. The question is do I really need to go find a chest freezer and temp control unit to hold those kegs at cellar temp for storage vs. just leaving them out in the brew room?

All I know is that higher temperatures allow ale to “mature faster” - got that - but how long is too long? How hot is too hot? (Maybe we should take barley wine and IIPAs off the table for a moment – although IPA/SA are about all I care to brew.)

The ideologues have shifted on primary fermentation from 7 days max to now maybe 30 days max. Where are we at on maturation (“secondary”) at higher finishing temps? I’m thinking anything shy of 3-7 days may result in green beer, but what happens on the other side of 30 days? What happens at 80ºF? What happens at 90ºF+?

Thanks,


I wonder how long these guys store(mature) their beer min/max, and at what temp:

- Celebration Ale
- Racer 5
- Alesmith IPA
- Hop Ottin
- Arrogant Bastard
- Ruination

You can store filled kegs at room temp for pretty long periods of time, as long as your sanitation techniques are good. I'd recommend putting about 10psi on the filled kegs and put them in storage no warmer than 75. Preferably below 65 if you can. I've stored kegs like that for close to a year with no problems.