How important is temperature control during aging?

I’ve just bottled up a couple of brews after bulk aging for 6-9 months (kept that part short so I can use those vessels on new brews). The bottles are currently sitting on my air conditioned house, so pretty constant temperature (60 - 75 °F) year round.

For space saving, I think I want to move them to my crawlspace though. It is far less consistent on temperature (probably 45 - 90 °F for yearly range) with daily temperature swings regularly hitting 20-30 °F throughout the day.

I don’t intend to crack the bottles open until the holidays though, so if I moved them, they’d be setting through the worst of summer and a pinch of the lighter part of winter at least.

But its my understanding brews are really only sensitive to temperature during brewing. For instance, I wouldn’t question if a pallet of wine bottles I buy at the liquor store were left in a hot ware house for a month during peak summer, so long as they’re out of the sun.

Is my logic valid? Would/could this be damaging to the brews?

Hi all,

Looking to try my hand at a Capsicumel (spicy mead flavored with peppers). I’d heard about these years and years ago, but never put much thought to it till recently.

I’m hesitant to go all in on my first test batch, but saw that crushed red peppers are a decent way to begin to add spice. I think I want to shoot for a semisweet brew with mild spice - primary flavor should be comparable to a traditional mead, but with a bit of a spicy kick.

I’ve read that jalapeños are the go to for a mild Capsicumel, but I’m worried even that might be too much (I have experience infusing tequila with jalapeños, and that goes off the rails fast).

I was thinking of using crushed red peppers as the spice source.

Does anyone have experience with this they’d like to share?