Better choice for non ideal aging condidtions

If all you have are those four bottles, find a friend you trust with adequate cellaring means to store them for you.

 

I'd say the lesser of two evils is the fridge. That will slow down the aging process. Leaving them in you closet will speed it up when it's that warm. If you have any corked beers, the fridge will dry the corks out. The best option here is to drink your beers and enjoy them fresh when you know they're good. Save the cellaring until you have a proper set up.

 

It shouldn't hurt. Just like I said, if you have corked beers, a regular fridge's job is to keep things dry and cold, so it will dry the corks out over time. If you are able to get a wine cooler, those will help with humidity. But not an issue for non-corked beers.

 

You could get a temp controller. Drill a small hole in the fridge, put the probe in something that buffers the temp. You don't want it cycling no/off every five minutes.

But you also have to do the math with respect to how many bottles it will hold, how long you want to keep them and how many you can drink in a year. Basically the longer that you want to keep them the less you'll be able to drink in a year. It can get to a point of diminishing returns where it sucks up resources with little reward.

hope this helps.

 

You might want to consider turning the light off in your fridge. I don't really know if it can get light struck by being exposed to light a few minutes at a time but I turned the light off in mine just in case.

Man, the Science Fair projects I could have done in High School if I knew then what I know now.

 

Thanks for mentioning the cold drying out the corks, that explains a disaster I experienced years ago, KP.

 

I've been ageing beers in similar conditions to yours for close to four years now. In the summer I leave the a/c running while I'm at work during the day but I can't afford the kind of bills I'd get if I set the thermostat to 70° so I turn it up a little. I don't keep anything for more than two years, and then only the hardiest of brews such Russian Imperial Stouts, barley wines, old ales, geuze. Everything else is consumed within 12 - 18 months. I haven't had any regrettable disasters yet, and you'll also find that cellaring them at room temperature will give a slightly drier result as the residual yeasts in the bottle, which wouldn't be so active at 55°, gobble up a bit more sugar.

My goal is a cellaring fridge with temp controller, but the postage stamp of an apartment I live in is making that difficult for the time being.

Edit: Most of my cellared beers are in a pantry on a north-facing wall, but there's been considerable overspill in the past six months or so and there are several bottles on the kitchen floor these days, in a dark corner.