what is optimal temp for brandy?

Question

I just started some apple brandy (first time). i love the yeast smell but the wife and kids dont. can i put this stuff in the garage our temps here in south texas are ranging from mid 60's at night to mid 80's in the day. thank YA'LL in advance.

Answer 1

room temp.

Answer 2

My answer is pulled directly from the website linked below. I don't know much about brandy, but every site I have gone to calls it a wine. Take special note of the last paragraph.

The ideal temperature to store wines is between 55ºF and 58ºF (13ºC–15ºC). However, any temperature between 40º–65ºF (5º–18ºC) will suffice as long as it remains constant. The degree and the speed of the temperature change are critical. A gradual change of a few degrees between summer and winter won't matter. The same change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

The most important rule when storing wine is to avoid large temperature changes or fluctuations. You'll notice damage of this nature straight away from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the 'integrity' of the cork. It's like having the cork pulled in and out again every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Once the air is in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation begins and your wine is ruined. At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age properly, enabling it to fully develop. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. Irreversible damage will be done if your wine is kept at a temperature above 82ºF for even a month. At 55°F wines will age slowly and develop great complexity and you will never have to worry about them.

Every wine you buy should be placed in your cellar. Even if you are planning on opening the wine shortly after purchase it will benefit from resting to recover from the shock of traveling. Before any bottle makes it into your cellar you need to consider the treatment it received before you acquired it. Every wine lover knows that heat damages wine but how many of us take care to protect our wine at every stage? For example, you buy wine at a shop or winery, but leave it in your hot car all afternoon. You get it home to your temperature- controlled cellar, but by then you may have already cooked it. Remember that high temperatures can result in undesirable chemical reactions that would not normally take place.

Answer 3

Well, if you are fermenting it, I would say room temp -- 72 F or so. Perhaps a little cooler, since fermentation generates its own heat, and you don't want it to get too hot.

For laying it down, you want a cooler environment, 55 F, certainly not in the 80s.

For drinking it, you pour it into a snifter and use your hands to cup the glass and warm brandy. Do not use one of those weird little devices they sell that use a tea light to warm a snifter; it will burn off all the alchol and kill the wine.