Beer Aging Temperature?

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Clint Yeastwood

Clint Yeastwood

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Dec 19, 2022
Messages
2,030
Reaction score
1,789
Location
FL
A month ago, I didn't have the means to brew beer. Now I have three beers brewed, my house looks like a brewery, and I have already bought two freezers.

You people are ALL enablers.

But since I'm running with it...

I want to be able to have 5 beers on tap at all times, and I want one to be a big beer. Big beers like aging, or at least some of them do. That means I need a THIRD freezer.

I blame all of you for this.

So this brings up a question. What temperature would I want? Is there a one-size-fits-all temperature? Will an imperial stout age at lagering temperatures?

I used to keep my kegs pretty cold, and I recall that a tripel-y beer I brewed improved a lot over several months.
 
I keep my kegerator at 35F, but I like my beers cold. If I want them warm, they can sit in the glass a bit.
As far as aging, chemistry in general proceeds slower at lower temps. But remember not all aging reactions are beneficial. Two months at 70F will age much faster than at 40, but you may not prefer the results.
 
With 5 beers on tap, I think you can leave a big beer on tap and forget the 3rd keezer. I have a big bourbon porter on tap every winter and it takes 6+ months for the crew/friends to get through it. Said another way, with that many choices of beer and some people won’t drink big beers, it’ll age as intended.
 
If you aren't putting it on the tap yet then I wouldn't think there any need to keep it cold or carbonated. Though you probably need a little pressure in the kegs so they seal properly.
 
Clint Yeastwood said:
So I can just stick it in a closet at 75 degrees?
Click to expand...
Yes. I'm certainly not an expert, but I'll believe that it will probably "age" faster and differently than the same beer kept at a significantly different temperature.

I bottle. And while letting them carbonate, I'll keep them where they'll be 73 - 75°F for about 3 weeks, then I put them where they'll be at 68 - 72°F till they go into the fridge or cooler. I'll also drink a bottle every so often and when the taste and everything matures to the point I think it's great, I'll try to drink them up before they might change for the worse.

Cold slows the aging process. So your beer will take longer, IMO, to achieve it's best taste.

And again, in a corny keg they aren't really made to seal well without pressure in them. Might be enough though. My son kegs and he will keep kegs of beer in the basement till he wants them on tap. He is more picky about beer tastes than I am.

And last but not least... It depends on the beer. Some types benefit from long aging periods at colder temps. But others will age well at high temps in shorter time.
 
Last edited:
What actually occurs during aging is a topic I would like to learn more about.

I know there are at least two things going on. One is a settling and clarification. This occurs faster at colder temperatures (like the improvements you see with lagering). The other is oxidative reactions. These are often positive for many beers. These reactions will occur faster at warmer temps. What else is going on? I don't know.

I played around a little once with an Imperial Stout. The bottles stored in a warm closet started to "mellow out" faster (harsh roast notes and alcoholic bite faded) and started to take on some of the dark fruit character I associate with oxidation. The bottles stored cold in a fridge took longer to mellow, but once they did they had less of the oxidation character. As I recall, early on the warm stored version was better, but as they aged the cold stored version was my preference. (This was a few years ago, and I think I opened a bottle at around 3 months, 6 months and 9 months).
 
I brewed a quad a couple years back. Kegged it, added some co2 pressure, then set it next to my desk (70 ish degrees) so it would drive me crazy the next few months having to look at it. At 8 months I chilled and tapped. It was fantabulous.

I brewed that beer again last month so here I am staring at that blasted keg again. I'm thirsty for some reason.
 
Clint Yeastwood said:
Sadly I still have to think about lagers. I have no way to deal with them without more refrigeration.
Click to expand...
Once it's finished, storage of lager is no different than other beers.

You had mentioned aging, which is not quite the same as storage. But aging will be faster at higher temps. Once the beer is aged to the point you like it then the colder the storage the longer it'll stay the way you like it. If you age it in real cold temps, you'll take longer to get it where it might be at it's best, but you might also have a different taste than if you aged it at warmer temps. Again, beer style might suggest a preference for the temp to age it.

But for storage, there is the 3 - 30 - 300 rule that suggests beer will at least keep for 3 days at 90°F, 30 days at room temps about 72°F and 300 days at 38°F.

https://www.craftbeer.com/attachments/0005/0196/beertemperature.pdf
How much science was put into this I don't know. And I wouldn't include aging or conditioning time in the storage times. The 3-30-300 rule is only talking about how long before the tastes change from the desired final taste. Not the time to get it to that taste.
 
Last edited:
Unless things have changed since I quit, lagers have to be lagered at fairly low temperatures. I mean, if you're using an old recipe and a plain old fermenter.
 
I can only base my experience storing lager with commercial lagers I use to buy by the big case. I just kept them at room temperature and put a few from the case in the refrigerator as space allowed.

Not sure what a old recipe and plain old fermenter have to do with anything. We started off talking about aging. Then possibly I changed the subject since some of the conversation seem to be about storage.

And now you are talking about ferment temperatures? Although I might be showing my ignorance at brewing lagers since I haven't done any. Lagering to me is just a special type of fermentation isn't it?

Aging temps, storage temps and ferment temps are not the same thing. They can be the same temp. But they aren't the same thing.

So what are we supposed to be talking about?
 
Oh.... You should have led with that. I try to stay out of strictly lager type conversations since I don't do them.
 
Clint Yeastwood said:
Maybe I hijacked my own thread.

I want to be able to keep kegs of finished brew ready so I can keep all my taps loaded, and I also want to be able to lager without tying up the fermenting fridge.
Click to expand...
If you have enough taps, then you put all your finished beers on tap right away. Your lagers can lager away in the keezer until they're ready to drink. (Plus, you can try them every week or so to see how they're doing.)
 
Clint Yeastwood said:
Unless things have changed since I quit, lagers have to be lagered at fairly low temperatures. I mean, if you're using an old recipe and a plain old fermenter.
Click to expand...
It is a topic full of debate, but I would say that opinions and techniques for creating "lagers" has changed a lot in recent years...and especially since the days of brewing only during the winter months and storing beers in caves over the summer. There are plenty of people the ferment lagers at traditional temps (50F) and then age them at near freezing for months. There are also plenty of people that have realized you can ferment some lager strains pretty warm, clear them with finings, and have a very solid lager on tap in about the same time as an ale.

If you have a little extra room in your kegerator, you can easily ferment a lager in 2-3 weeks, then store it in your kegerator to age/lager.

I have not had a Kveik lager that I really loved, but some also swear by Kveik strains like Lutra.

The cheapest route for extra cooling space will be to get a used fridge. You can often find them in the $50 price range.
 
I entered several bottles of a London Porter in a competition. The bottles had been stored in the dark but out in the garage where the temps ranged from just under freezing to the mid 90's over a period of 7 years. My beer scored 46/50. So much for being careful and managing temps!
 
I don't want to start a fight with hidebound people who patrol the forum, but I have kept beer a long time in bad conditions without any problems. People like to repeat myths, and they don't like having them challenged. Maybe I am too concerned about "proper" keg storage.

I left some Sierra Nevada Torpedo in a hot workshop for months, and I thought it was actually improved. Seemed like it had more caramel in the flavor.
 
MicroMickey said:
I entered several bottles of a London Porter in a competition. The bottles had been stored in the dark but out in the garage where the temps ranged from just under freezing to the mid 90's over a period of 7 years. My beer scored 46/50. So much for being careful and managing temps!
Click to expand...
Well yeah sure, but how are you going to do that again?
 
Clint Yeastwood said:
A month ago, I didn't have the means to brew beer. Now I have three beers brewed, my house looks like a brewery, and I have already bought two freezers.

You people are ALL enablers.

But since I'm running with it...

I want to be able to have 5 beers on tap at all times, and I want one to be a big beer. Big beers like aging, or at least some of them do. That means I need a THIRD freezer.

I blame all of you for this.

So this brings up a question. What temperature would I want? Is there a one-size-fits-all temperature? Will an imperial stout age at lagering temperatures?

I used to keep my kegs pretty cold, and I recall that a tripel-y beer I brewed improved a lot over several months.
Click to expand...
I've seen a lot of advice recommending between 50-60F for barrel aging. I do a 13-14% Imperial Stout every 8-9 months that I age for that long with bourbon sticks in a keg and I generally try to keep it out of the fridge when the temperature range is favorable (above freezing and below 55F).
Right now it's ranging from low 20s to 45F outside, so I have a plant seedling heat mat taped to the outside of the keg with an Inkbird controller turning it on if the temp drops below about 38F, because the last thing I want it for it to freeze. It's wrapped in a sleeping bag and every time I've checked on it the temp has been between 39-45F. As the temps warm up I'll just leave it out of the fridge until the daily high temp starts to get up to 55F, probably sometime around the end of March here in Oregon, then I'll move it into my regular beer fridge at about 34F. Bourbon aging in barrels benefits from having the temperatures fluctuate which causes the wood to shrink and expand, releasing all the good stuff from the toasted oak into the bourbon. I reason that the same happens with beer, so I like to have some natural temperature variation. In the fridge it's the same temp all the time, so not as good. It will still age eventually but not as quickly. I can definitely tell the difference at 3-6-9 months of aging with more bourbon and oak flavor and less alcohol harshness as it ages more. The batch I make in the fall gets a lot more time outside the fridge to age. The batch I make in Spring or early summer spends more time in the fridge at a single cold temperature. I don't know that I can say one was better than the other after 8-9 months aging...both were great.
I only have one beer fridge, so I don't have the luxury of aging at a higher temperature. I think my ideal setup would be to have a fridge setup with an internal heater where I could cycle the temperature between 40-55F daily.
 

Similar threads

K
Bottle Condition or Keg for Competition?
Replies
3
Views
390
kurds_2408
K
D
Storing beer in corny keg?
Replies
5
Views
1K
DrDance
D
D
Barrel-aging primer, introduction, or other resources?
Replies
0
Views
204
DavidWood2115
D
Gadjobrinus
5 lb down in the red after overnight?
Replies
5
Views
208
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
Gytaryst
Carbonating/Aging/Bottling question
Replies
1
Views
878
hottpeper13
H

Latest posts

Back
Top