I have had my Pumpkinator clone in the closet for 4 days at roughly 72-75 F. It completely slipped my mind that i have a deep freezer which i can control the temperature. Will it be ok to place the 2 cases of beer in there and carbonate at 68F without any potential issues?
It would be okay to move them to a 68F fridge, though I'd make sure it doesn't have large temperature swings. Otherwise, I'd probably leave it them in the closet. 72-75 would be a fairly high ambient temp for fermentation, but with bottle conditioning, there's not a lot of heat being generated, and not a lot of the processes that would make esters/fusels happening.
what is the suggested method you prefer then? i can control the temperature in the fridge plus or minus 1 degree.
I would just leave them in your closet. Room temp is fine for bottle conditioning. I've also learned that they tend to carb up a bit quicker this way as well.
a lot of brewers that specialize in bottle re-fermentation, that is to say Trappists, Ommegang and a few select other Belgian and American producers, maintain a warm room specifically to speed up the carbonation process. not all Trappists by the way. Ommegang maintains 77F for reference. your 72-75 room is really not much different than a steady 68 when it comes to carbonating. don't sweat it. if it will help you sleep than sure go ahead and use your fridge, but trust me the yeast don't really care either way. now, after they have fully carbonated, then you might want to let them sit at 38 to 40 for a week or two. a little lagering usually works very well for most all beers. Cheers.
