Aging Temperature for My Brown Ale

[jescholler]

I will be bottling my 1st brew in a little over a week. I'm not sure where I should store the bottles for aging. Here's my dilemma:

My wife is fed up with me keeping my house at 66 degrees all day, so I would need to keep the house at 66 when we're home and 60 when we're sleeping or away. Not good.

My basement is about 60-63 degrees this time of year, and is pretty constant throughout the day (I assume). The yeast I used prefers 64-74. I know cooler temperatures take longer to age and they're generally better for the beer, but will being below the recommended fermentation temperature during aging hurt my beer? I'm guessing the answer is no, but I need some reassurance from the vets.

 

[ifishsum]

Aging is one thing, carbonating is another. At 60 degrees I think they will take a long time to carbonate (months maybe?) if at all. If at all possible they need 3 weeks @70 to properly carbonate, after that cooler storage is fine.

I'm lucky in that I have a spare room with a space heater that I can keep at 70 just for that reason.

 

[histo320]

I keep mine in the pantry in the kitchen, they are out of site of SWMBO and her precious guests, and the temp of the area is right about 70F. But I guess I am lucky, she lets me keep the fermenter right in the middle of the kitchen.

 

[RCCOLA]

I leave the light on in a small hall closet and carb my beers there @ about 74F.They're usually carbed in 10-14 days at that temp.

 

[jescholler]

I think I know what I'll do. I feel that unless I keep the thermostat at 70 all day, the temperatures anywhere in my house will dip close to 60 degrees for a majority of the day.

I think I'll implement a water bath and use an aquarium heater to keep the temperature at 70. I was planning on getting the water bath equipment for my next batch anyway.

 

[lowlife]

Mine are always carbed in my basement which is 60-63. I notice no problems. It really doesnt take that much longer. After 2-3 weeks I can drink them. A couple weeks longer for good carbonation. Since this is your first brew I understand you want to drink one as soon as possible. You can drink it when it isnt fully carbed and it is still good. Make a couple batches and you wont be so eager to have them ready if you already have beer, and you dont have to hear the significant other complain. Hide a six pack in your sock drawer if you really cant wait. Once you get a pipeline you wont care that it takes longer.

 

[jescholler]

Thanks for the response lowlife. I wasn't so much concerned about the time as much as the ability to carb at all. I'm glad to hear you carb in your basement.

 

[ChshreCat]

They'll be warmer if you put them were they'll get direct sunlight all day long.

KIDDING! don't do that.

 

[lowlife]

I lied I guess. I just took a temp in my basement and its 65. Although over the winter things carbed fine

 

[jescholler]

To give everyone an update on this topic, I decided to implement a water bath.

I purchased a large (~35 gallon) tote to store the water and an aquarium heater to keep the temperature where I need it.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EUE77C/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I'm currently using it to carbonate my bottles at 69F and it is rocking out.

I'm very pleased. I thought that I might need some sort of a pump to circulate the water to keep the temperature constant throughout the tote. After testing it out, I found that a pump is not necessary and the temperature is within 1 degree F across the tote.

 

[togodoug]

I have a different problem. I am aging in bottles at between 77 and 88 degrees. Is this causing a sweet pungent taste?

 

[jescholler]

Wow, this makes me jump in the way back machine. This must have been one of my 1st posts almost 2 years ago. I don't have experience aging beers that warm (I usually do 75 with good results), but I do know that the latest BYO covers the topic in an article called "The Effects of Storage Conditions on Homebrew Quality". There's also a Basic Brewing podcast that covers the same experiment that the article is based on:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr12-02-10aging.mp3

I hope this helps.