BeerBrian
New Member
I've been perusing and browsing this awesome website for the last few weeks, it's an amazing tool! It's been about ten years since I home brewed and the Brewmasters series on TDC has rekindled my love and desire. The last time I brewed I was in an temperature controlled apartment and never had anything but a 70 degree environment.
I haven't seen much talk about this topic here, please feel free to link me to any threads on it, but I'm curious how you folks account for the variety of temperatures needed to ferment, bottle condition, and cellar.
I have lots of space now and like making big beers so cellaring for at least two months would be expected on most of my beers. My basement doesn't have a constant temperature. I'm most concerned about the ups and downs. Let's say I were to cellar a beer for a year. In that year the beer doesn't see wide swings in temperatures over a several hour period but wide swings would occur over a several month period. What sort of impact can I expect on the beer?
In the summer my home thermostat runs from 72-84 and in the winter it runs from 50-66. I can expect my basement to be somewhat consistent in the winter 53-60 and in the summer somewhat consistent at 66-76. I turn the heat/ac off when I go to work, the house sees up to a 10 degree swing during that time, the cellar has a 5 degree swing on a typical day.
So let's say I put a bottle of saison, dubbel, and an IPA in my basement in January. I plan to drink the beers one year later. And in the months to come this is the range I can expect the temperature in my basement to go through:
January: 53-62
Feb: 54-62
March: 55-64
April: 58-65
May: 63-72
June: 67-74
July: 67-75
August: 68-76
September: 67-75
October: 58-66
November: 57-65
December: 55-63
What negative effects can I expect on my beer? Any concerns? Should I store them in a 38 degree fridge from May-September (I don't have the fridge space). Should I avoid storing beer at all in those summer months?
If you value stable temps over cool temps I could move the beer from time to time to get a tighter range of 64-76 year round.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I haven't seen much talk about this topic here, please feel free to link me to any threads on it, but I'm curious how you folks account for the variety of temperatures needed to ferment, bottle condition, and cellar.
I have lots of space now and like making big beers so cellaring for at least two months would be expected on most of my beers. My basement doesn't have a constant temperature. I'm most concerned about the ups and downs. Let's say I were to cellar a beer for a year. In that year the beer doesn't see wide swings in temperatures over a several hour period but wide swings would occur over a several month period. What sort of impact can I expect on the beer?
In the summer my home thermostat runs from 72-84 and in the winter it runs from 50-66. I can expect my basement to be somewhat consistent in the winter 53-60 and in the summer somewhat consistent at 66-76. I turn the heat/ac off when I go to work, the house sees up to a 10 degree swing during that time, the cellar has a 5 degree swing on a typical day.
So let's say I put a bottle of saison, dubbel, and an IPA in my basement in January. I plan to drink the beers one year later. And in the months to come this is the range I can expect the temperature in my basement to go through:
January: 53-62
Feb: 54-62
March: 55-64
April: 58-65
May: 63-72
June: 67-74
July: 67-75
August: 68-76
September: 67-75
October: 58-66
November: 57-65
December: 55-63
What negative effects can I expect on my beer? Any concerns? Should I store them in a 38 degree fridge from May-September (I don't have the fridge space). Should I avoid storing beer at all in those summer months?
If you value stable temps over cool temps I could move the beer from time to time to get a tighter range of 64-76 year round.
Thanks in advance for any help.