Cellar too warm?

A basement is usually just fine for aging most things. Some people I know wax or wrap their beers in plastic wrap if they're destined for very long aging in a space where the temperature fluctuates, or put them in a styrofoam container.

If you have some prized bottles then I suggest that you A: stock up on more, if you can; B: get a small fridge that you can set to cellar temperature (50-60°F), if you can; and C: don't be afraid to pop them open now and then to see how they're doing. C, when I was aging a lot of stouts and sour reds, was the most important to figuring out how things behaved and also the most fun.

If you start to get more, I'd also suggest putting some of a beer right on the basement floor and others of the same beer in the fridge (again, set to just a smidgen higher than 40°F works well in my experience), checking one now and then but not moving them between the fridge and the floor.

Really though, I think the most important thing is to not worry about it. If you're enjoying it and it isn't hurting anything, then keep doing it. If you aren't enjoying it or it's hurting something, then stop doing it or try changing something.

 

Most of what was said above is spot on. To your specific temps, this is close to where my basement is over the course of a year too (around 50 - 70). We pulled out a 2009 Mirror Mirror recently & it was sublime, & have had plenty of others in the 5-10 year range that fared just fine. So don't sweat it - those temps have been good to us.

 

I have the exact same issue. I don't worry about it, but I do move up my cellaring timeline a bit to compensate. If you really do want to worry about it, get a fridge for storage.

 

I'd suggest you get "Vintage Beer" by Patrick Dawson. It's very cheap on Amazon and it's the Bible on aging beer - really interesting. He goes into more detail, but he advises that 65 or less is recommended to keep the beer below it's fermentation temperature. Having said that, before I got a freezer/controller set up, I used my basement which went from 52 in January to 72 in July for a few years and never had a problem.