1st hand experience with 60* F basement?

I've been aging stuff all kinds of different ways (many on their side in wine racks instead of upright) for over a decade:

1. in multiple refrigerators,
2. in a room at 60~
3. at room temperature

Nobody can tell the difference how the same beers were stored when we do tastings (i.e. can't identify what was stored where).

For my palate, some have gotten worse, some have gotten better, some have just seemed the same. Your results may vary.

Even the biggest wine experts fail at identifying cheap wine/expensive wine and its storage conditions when done blind.

 

One thing I want to add, that is rarely ever discussed when aging beer, seems to be humidity (especially when we're talking about corked & caged beers).

The average humidity where I live is about 10%. In general, it seems the more humidity, the more the aging process accelerates? I dunno what applicability that has to beer, but I would think it would come up more often in these discussions.

 

My basement runs from 52* to 62* (now) and I haven't had any problems with beers up to 2 years. I doubt I'll keep many beers beyond that mark anyway.

 

My basement runs from 55 in the winter to 65 in the summer. The longest I've aged anything personally down there is an '07 Abyss for 4 1/2 years & it was fantastic. I wouldn't be concerned about 60 or a little warmer at all unless you're planning on a decade or more of aging.

 

Mine is pretty much right at 60. Hasn't let me down yet.

 

I to am at 58-63 degrees. I keep the lights off and things have worked so far.

 

I've had some of my beers at room temperature in California (~70 averge) for 2+ years or refrigerated when I can, and they haven't had any issues thus far, although they are technically aging faster than they would otherwise. My Collection has grown quite a bit over the last year, so I finally moved them to the ~60 degree basement a few months ago when I got the chance.

 

I'm hoping I'm good to go. My basement goes from around 60-66, but I don't plan on aging brews extremely long. No more than 2 years, except a 2012 Bigfoot.

 

My basement stays around 57-63 degrees yearound, and I've had success so far at the two year mark. Only thing I've had to pour was a Brewdog Riptide, and I think it was a bad batch or had an infection because it wasn't just 'old', it was nasty as hell. Most of the stuff I try over time periods is doing very well, and the rest just level out.

 

I don't see how humidity would affect anything other than the dryness of the corks. The only things that affect the beer are temp and light.

 

You seem to be making contradictory statements here:

1) I taste no difference in beers aged at 45, 55, 60, 68 degrees.

2) Refrigerate your IPAs to preserve the hop flavor.

So if refrigeration preserves the hop flavor of an IPA, in other words the hop flavor fades faster at room temp, then why wouldn't the hop flavors of other beers, like Bigfoot for example, also fade faster at room temp?

 

Yeah bro, you were in better form before you got the riot act read to you.

I dont exactly age my ipas 5-10 years. Reading skills are all about context. Remember the exceptions i specifically talked about? Yeah you do, youre bringing them up as if i didnt explicitly discuss them.

 

Why such hostility? I understand that you're saying there are exceptions, the question I'm raising is why are there exceptions? You're stating that Bigfoot tastes the same no matter what temp you store it at, but IPAs don't, so why is that?

 

Good point. Bigfoot is 90 BU so why wouldn't the statement be true for both.

 

I think oxygen affects beer. Dry corks = greater chance of oxidation (i.e. smaller cork = less airtight)?

Plus, I recall something from some science class about humidity accelerating the degredation process.

 

There are exceptions because there are few universal rules in life.

 

That's all you can come up with, Bigfoot tastes the same no matter what temp you store it at but IPAs dont because that's the way the universe works?