Question about aging my first beer

Since this is your first time letting a beer age, I assume you mean something like a year and not several years. At 70 degrees, the beer will age more quickly than it would at 55. I wouldn't put a $30 beer at 70 degrees to age for 5 years and hope it turns out well. I would happily put a $5-10 beer at 70 degrees for 12 months...and often do.

 

There's gotta be a dark, cool place in your house.

When I was renting, this spot for me was a hutch in which I kept bottles stored upright in the back behind other things. Was it cooler? I don't know exactly. It was dark all the time in there, light or heat didn't enter and leave. Try a closet or hutch or bureau.

 

You could get a small wine fridge to experiment with. It would keep beer at the right temp for aging, and wouldn't be a huge investment. Less so if you find a used one somewhere. Might even save you money in the end by preventing expensive beers from going bad due to temp.

 

In my opinion it's mainly strong beers, and malty beers, that can improve with aging. Hoppy beers will change, but is that good? I also never had a lambic beer that I felt was "improved". Any beer will change with aging, but is it better? That's the question, and it's kind of an experiment - but an expensive one.

Additionally, over the years aging beers such as Thomas Hardy's, Chimay Grande Reserve, 3 Monts, North Coast Old Rasputin & Old Stock Ale, Brooklyn Monster Barleywine, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Samuel Adams Triple Bock, Fuller's 1845, Gales Prize Old Ale, and Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout amongst others, I've found that it can vary greatly from year to year. Of course the beers that have yeast in them show greater changes (otherwise it's basically oxidation increasing the caramel character of the malt; and the reduction of hop character, and smoothing of alcohol).

If I were you, and especially if I didn't have a lot of money to play the game, I wouldn't bother. If you don't have a cellar and the ability to put away at least a 6-pack or more of each it'll be kind of silly, as doing vertical tastings is really the only way to get a sense of what's going on.

 

Don't quote me on this one, but based on what I've read, I think you could keep it around 70F, but if you were looking for it to taste similar to the same beer cellared at 50-55F, you'd have to drink it around 7-9 months at 70F. There's a book Vintage Beer that has a section on cellaring and has a table in there somewhere that talks about the difference in temperature and how increased temps. speed the "cellaring" process.

But that's where the fun part about cellaring comes in - you can experiment with beers kept in the fridge vs. at room temp vs cellar temp. and see how they change (or don't change).

 

120 is an excellent beer to age. If you have central air and can keep your house around 70* then I would say you are fine keeping it in a closet that isn't used. Being further up north my garage doesn't get above 65 year round, so I keep them out there.

The main thing to be aware of for aging is that the warmer the temp, the more active the yeast in the bottle are (even filtered beer has some residual and wild yeasts), and also the chemical reactions with the beer proteins and sugars will be sped up- yeast and chemical reactions are what matures the beer, so the more warmth/heat, the more accelerated the maturation process. Basically if you want to hold onto the beer for 1-5 years, don't worry too much, if you want to hold onto it/them for 10/20/30/40 years, then invest in some sort of temperature regulation to keep your beer around 40-50*