Dark beers do age longer because dark malts have an anti-oxidant effect. I do not think tripels lend themselves well to long aging periods, though certainly they can be good 6 months and beyond they are usually better when fresh. In fact, a lot of traditional trappist type beers seem to lose their nice "belgian yeast spice" after they pick up some age. OTOH beers with brett and other funky sour beers age wonderfully as the bugs continue to work in the beer. Even low gravity belgian ales with some wildness improve and become more complex as they age. Especially when aged in oak. You may want to be prepared to blend them, however.
Ginger flavor may fade, I'm not sure, but the heat sure doesn't. I made a ginger beer years and years ago that turned out really spicy like gingered ale. It was very hot and it retained that ginger spiciness almost a year later. I can;t recall for sure but it seemed like it retained most of the ginger flavor as well. I just remember how "hot" the beer was.
I love learning new things! that makes sense on the anti-oxidant effects of darker malts. I am glad to hear about the brett/bugs. I was thinking that was the case but I just wasn't sure. I also have a 20L rum barrel that this will go into and it will be the third batch through the barrel so perhaps, rather than wait for the barrel to get infected I will pitch brett (and maybe bugs) in with this batch.
so what about something like (and this is totally off the top of my head)
6.5 gallons
15 lbs wheat malt
2 lbs raw wheat
a cup or so of whole wheat flour in the boil
2 lbs honey
a small charge of low AA hops (I will get some closeout 2010 or maybe even 2009 hops) @ 60 minutes
thinly sliced meyer lemon (maybe 2 or 3 lemons) @ 0 minutes
ferment with ECY bug farm (if I can get it) or a blend of some other companies bugs or some bugs from a guy in my club or even from the wild starter I have sitting in my fridge (although that seems awfully risky as I havn't actually tried that at all)
Can I ferment in the barrel? or would it be better to do a primary in a bucket and transfer to the barrel for ageing/finishing?