Brew now or later?

[helloscholars]

IAMA college student in NY, hailing from Seattle. First post, so good to meet y'all!

So, I just got a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone kit from my girlfriend for my birthday. Just after the semester ends in mid-May, I'm spending a month in Sicily before driving back home to Seattle from NY.

I don't think I'll be able to drink it all before I have to go abroad (factoring in fermentation, bottle conditioning, and the other 10 gallons of beer I have to finish before then). I'm most likely going to have to leave something in storage for a month followed by a cross-country road trip. I doubt storage will be temperature controlled, and I drive an '88 honda civic hatchback (air conditioning is rolling down the windows...),

So here's my question: is it better to subject the ingredients (extract, hops, dry yeast), or the finished beer to this kind of treatment?

Many, many thanks for your help.

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the group, from CO. If you have a current pipeline, I would wait.

 

[Spintab]

Welcome! The biggest concern would be the extract staling. As long as the hops are sealed air tight with as much air removed as possible they should be ok for a bit. Dry yeast should be fine. If you brewed it now, you'd be bottling just about the time you leave. That gives you three weeks of decent bottle conditioning temps in storage leaving a week and a cross country road trip too warm. Having grown up in CT, I know summer temps won't stay much higher than 80 for more than a few hours each day. You could honestly go either way. I think any freshness you lose would be equal. So the question is do you want beer ready for you when you get home with the chance to brew something new or do you want to have to wait a couple months after your first chance to brew when you get home?