Storing beer at 100 F

Seattle is going through a heat wave, and my top-floor, sunny apartment is hitting 100 F during the day and 94 F at night. I expect it to stay at 100 F for about 6 days. I have about 2 1/2 batches of beer in my closet (12.5 gallons). One batch I just started bottled conditioning 2 days ago, and the other 1.5 batches are done conditioning.

I did a search on "beer storage temperature" and found one relevant thread, but there wasn't total consensus and everyone who said it's bad to store beer at high temps didn't actually say *why*, or what scientific basis they have for thinking it is bad.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ambient-temperature-range-bottle-conditioning-ales-120757/

I'm not too worried, but am wondering - for the people who think storing beer at high temps is bad - what effect do you believe it has and why does it occur? In the thread I linked above, people just said it would "spoil" faster and shelf life would be shorter. What exactly does beer "spoiling" mean? The Palmer book does not list "spoilage" as a possible off-flavor. How would high temps cause it to occur faster?
Also most people on that thread assumed ambient room temperature is 70-80. Well what if it's 90 to 105?

FWIW, I don't have any lagers.

Welcome to the forums.

I think the biggest problem is that higher heat will cause off flavors to come through faster. Any yeast activity at those high temps will be filled with esters, which can be an off flavor depending on the style. The basic premise is that most chemical reaction are slowed by lower temps, and with temps that high they would occur faster. Personally I would get the beer into the fridge if possible.

Ed

Hot storage speeds the chemical reactions that age beer. No mix of chemicals is stable and generally, the more complex a chemical the less stable it is. Complex malts break down, hop oils fall apart. Also, any bacteria will grow much faster at 100F than 70F. A week at 100F won't destroy your beer, but it isn't good.

Ok, I guess I'll just have to deal with it.
I moved my batch that is conditioning now down into the building's garage this morning. That's 82 F. Also, it's a watermelon wheat so even if it made some fruity esthers in the first 2 days at 100 F, that's not terribly wrong for the style.

I thought I had my whole brewing temperature control situation figured out, because I use an ice water bath to keep primary fermentation at 70 F, but I didn't consider that ambient temps would ever get high enough to harm bottle conditioning.
My apt isn't big enough to get a beer fridge or anything.

One of the relevations I got from the BN interview with a scientist on HSA was that warmer temps accelerate the aging of beer. I believe it was this interview where he mentions HSA is almost a non-issue for homebrewers that are just generally careful, but that other factors, including sanitation and temp control were much more important.

So while I don't think it will ruin the beer right away, I would worry about how long I could keep that beer at that temp before it starts degrading.

You dont have AC??

Homercidal said:

One of the relevations I got from the BN interview with a scientist on HSA was that warmer temps accelerate the aging of beer. I believe it was this interview where he mentions HSA is almost a non-issue for homebrewers that are just generally careful, but that other factors, including sanitation and temp control were much more important.

So while I don't think it will ruin the beer right away, I would worry about how long I could keep that beer at that temp before it starts degrading.

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I wonder if it accelerates the good portions of aging as well as the bad... Could you age a beer for 2 week at 100* and have the results of, say, 2 months of cooler aging?

Just an interesting idea...

Hey, New Orleans (kanielb1) - lots of folks up north don't have AC -
Grew up in Seattle - no AC, no neighbors with AC - 85F is an extreme heat wave to them.
what they're having now is off the charts.
I've been in the "deep south" now for 37 years and it's hard to remember that there are places that don't need it...


agusus - if fridge space is scarce, how about some high quality, large coleman 5-day icechests from the wally world and some ice ?

Hegh said:

I wonder if it accelerates the good portions of aging as well as the bad... Could you age a beer for 2 week at 100* and have the results of, say, 2 months of cooler aging?

Just an interesting idea...

Click to expand...

One person described it as the difference in baking something for 60 minutes at 300F and baking something for 30 minutes at 500F. It's a complex process and different temperatures will yield different results.

kanielb1 said:

You dont have AC??

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In Seattle?

Waste of money for the week or so we pass 80F...this is rather unusual weather we've got going on right now.

get some coolers and just put enough to cover the bottom water add a little ice to maintain 70° even if it gets too cold when the temps got to a reasonable level they will condition . Shouldn't be all that hard my 200 qt Coleman hold ice for days.

carbon111 said:

In Seattle?

Waste of money for the week or so we pass 80F...this is rather unusual weather we've got going on right now.

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WOW!! We would be dead without AC in the steamy South.