Aging bottled Russian Imperial Stout, room temp or fridge?

[Fremont Brewer]

Hello Everyone,

I am bottling up a batch of Russian Imperial Stout today. I will let it sit at room temp for a couple weeks to carbonate. But I have questions after that. I want to let this beer age for 6 months to a year. Is this ok to leave out at room temperature for that long? Will it stale or go bad? Should I age in fridge? That is 2 cases that will fill up most of my beer/keg fridge.

I live in Bay area, so weather outside is still pretty warm. No cellar here.

What do you guys do? How do you think I should age it?


Thanks in advance,

John

[snowcapt]

You will get perfect results by putting them in your closet. Go for the NW side of the house if you can. Once upon a time, there was only room temp. Just find the coolest spot in the house and forget about em.
Those are pretty bullet proof as far as the flavor profile goes.
Have fun waiting to find out how it is!

[brewinhard]

I would store a 12 pack in your fridge and the remainder in the coolest part of your house as stated above. Compare them at different times and see which you prefer more. You will definitely notice the beer in the warmer enviroment aging a bit quicker than the ones kept in the fridge. but for a beer that roasty and huge with lots of flavor that could be a good thing.

[Mylo]

Hello Everyone,

I am bottling up a batch of Russian Imperial Stout today. I will let it sit at room temp for a couple weeks to carbonate. But I have questions after that. I want to let this beer age for 6 months to a year. Is this ok to leave out at room temperature for that long? Will it stale or go bad? Should I age in fridge? That is 2 cases that will fill up most of my beer/keg fridge.

I live in Bay area, so weather outside is still pretty warm. No cellar here.

What do you guys do? How do you think I should age it?


Thanks in advance,

John

Colder is better. As cold as you can get it without freezing. For every 10 degrees warmer, your effective shelf life gets cut in half.

The exception to this is any brett or sours. They need some warm time to develop.


Mylo

[Afterlab]

It all depends on what you are looking to get out of your aging process. Lagering will mostly help you get a clearer looking beer and a less harsh flavor as the yeast, polyphenols and proteins drop out of solution. By doing this you are knocking the yeast out of commission and you aren't allowing them the opportunity to clean up any unwanted esters, diacetyl, fusel alcohols or acetaldehyde. Some styles of beer you will want a lot of esters so it's a trade off.

At room temp you are essentially giving the yeast more time to clean up any unwanted esters and by-products that they put out in the early stages of active fermentation. The yeast are going to put out more esters because of the higher alcohol levels and the fact that they are stressing themselves out by the amount of sugars they need to ferment.

I would go 3 routes. Lager some, leave some at room temp and leave some at room temp and then lager them after a few months. From there you can decide which flavor profile you prefer. If you do end up just lagering, let it the beer sit out at room temp for a few days so the yeast can clean up those by-products because if you lager right away you drop out that yeast a little too early.

[Fremont Brewer]

Thanks, guys for your replies. This will be the first beer I've "aged" for more than a month. I just need to decide how long I should let it sit. I think I should let it age for at least 6 months, but I'm impatient.

[brewinhard]

The last RIS I brewed really started coming into its own after about 12 mos. Although I did use some molasses which probably took some time to meld with the beer.

[CRBrewHound]

Thanks, guys for your replies. This will be the first beer I've "aged" for more than a month. I just need to decide how long I should let it sit. I think I should let it age for at least 6 months, but I'm impatient.

There is some good advice here however, some of it I think people are forgetting the style in reference. I have had 5 year old RIS that is a smooth as a really good scotch. From everything I have seen RIS is one of those styles do to its flavor profile that really has no experation on shelf life (within reason of course). Barleywines also follow list pattern, they tend to only get better, meads as well.

So stick put it somewhere out of light and try to keep it a little cooler (cellar temp is great), and let it go as long as you can without drinking, it really does only get better unless there is an infection of some kind.