Bulk aging mead - temperature concerns

[Rotgut]

I've searched around here and another mead site and can't seem to find a definitive answer. I don't normally need to worry about this so it's never been much of a concern, but my fermentation chamber only holds 2 carboys/buckets, and the bottom of my closet is already full of cases of aging mead. So I'm now considering bulk aging in a dark corner of my garage. The problem is that my garage gets pretty hot in the summer (90-100F) and pretty cold in the winter (40-50F). Those are extremes though. Most normal days it's 60-80F.

Ideally I would bulk age mead at around 60-65F. How sensitive is an aging mead to temperature fluctuations? If I have 5 gallons of mead (no added tannins), sitting for a year in my garage with an average temp of 70F, but potentially weeks at a time of 80-90F+, how will that effect the mead? Not in bottles, mind you - so no danger of moving a cork around. In a glass carboy or in a bucket. This is after fermentation is already finished, and it's been racked to secondary or tertiary.. just sitting pretty while aging.

I suppose I could just drink my mead faster so as to make room. But then I end up with a few months out of the year with no mead. I'd like to keep a continual supply.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

It should be fairly minimal in terms of impact, the real damage in terms of temp is done during fermentation.

 

[RegarRenill]

Anyway of building a(nother) insulated box? This would limit quick temp changes, and you could always throw some ice packs/frozen water bottles in to cool it down in the hottest part of the summer...just a thought, though.

 

[Rotgut]

It should be fairly minimal in terms of impact, the real damage in terms of temp is done during fermentation.

This is what I was thinking. During the actual fermentation it would be in my temperature controlled fermentation chamber. And I normally bulk age in a cool closet... but my closet is full and well, I must keep the mead flowing.

Anyway of building a(nother) insulated box? This would limit quick temp changes, and you could always throw some ice packs/frozen water bottles in to cool it down in the hottest part of the summer...just a thought, though.

Hm.. possibly. And this was another consideration I'd had. But this requires a significant amount of work in re-arranging my already pretty full garage and workshop.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Another thing to keep in mind if the nights are cold and the days are warm, your mead won't change at the same rate as the air temp. It may end up only changing a few degrees over the coarse of a day.

 

[Descender]

Another thing to keep in mind if the nights are cold and the days are warm, your mead won't change at the same rate as the air temp. It may end up only changing a few degrees over the coarse of a day.

And if it's airlocked, temp changes will cause air to go both ways