My Ale is fermenting at 54??

I didnt want to thread jack eventhough there is several posts a day regarding ferment temps. I guess I was being overly cautious. I brewed a gallon batch of EdWorts Haus Pale Ale yesterday, pitched at 70 with SAF-04 yeast. Put in my tub with some water (coming up 1/4 of the bottle) and wrapped in wet towels and had 2 Iced bottles in the tub. My ambient temps were 68. Today in the mail I received the sticky thermos to put on my carboy. Low and behold the temp was 54!! The turqoise color, middle display temp reading. But I have very active ferementation. I have now removed the wet towels and all water to help bump the temps up. So am I screwed? Been doing this for my last 4 batches and I have had very active fermentation. Thanks.

Mark

Nope your fine. Yeast active means all is ok. Both my ales i kept at 56-58 degrees. Actual temp varied in carboy though. You will be just fine. Worst that could happen is they goto sleep. If you hit your recommended gravity your all set.

The temperature you were reading is probably that of the outside of the glass. In the core of the liquid mass it will be several degrees higher in temperature due to yeast activity.


Also, I thought I had a ridiculously big signature

Ok thanks for the help. So these thermos aren't that accurate apparently.

They are reasonably accurate.. problem is you have two thermal masses working on it. The ambient air as well as the temperature of the glass/plastic it's stuck to. Glass and plastic aren't great thermal conductors.. but, eventually they get to the temp of the wort inside. But, you still have two temps it's balancing out.. air/wort.

One thing you might want to try is to cover the stick on thermometer with a piece of foam rubber. Tape it to the fermenter or use a bungee cord to hold it in place. That'll insulate it from the room temp and give you a better indication of the internal temp. Better read it fast before the room temp changes it..

Yep - screwed. Mail me your beer for proper disposal. Kidding.

Bottoms up, no sense worrying about it. It will be beer, nothing wrong with that.

I also use a water bath/ice bottle solution during fermentation. I use the stick on thermometers but also use a floating fish tank thermometer in the water bath. The temp of the water bath should be within a degree or two of the fermenting wort. Probably a bit more accurate than the stick on ones.

Ok thanks for the suggestions. This morning the stick on temps were 58 deg and the ambient temp was 66. And its fermenting like mad! So can I assume the wort temp is maybe around 64ish??

I keep mine at 55F. I like to stay at the low end of the yeast.

I brewed a Belgian pale ale during the 9 day power outage here in October. Temp went from the 50s down to 45 in the first few days of fermentation. It's turned out as one of the bet beers I've ever made. That was white labs schelde ale yeast