Should I RDWHAHB?

Ground water was cold and I wasn't paying attention so i chilled my english bitter wort down to 61 by mistake. I pitched a 1 liter starter of 1028 into 1.038 wort anyway and sat it in my basement which is 62 right now. I'm thinking I will be fine as wyeast states 60-72 for fermentation. What do you think should I lug the carboy up the stairs or let it ferment at the low end? I'm leaning on just leaving the guy.

I've chilled to ~10F below the temperature range of the yeast before (1318) and not had any issues. It stayed within a few degrees of it's low end (listed) temperature for the entire ferment, but gave me a great batch of beer. With your basement being 62F, the wort will probably warm up to close to that (if not that) by the time the yeast takes off. I would monitor the temps to make sure it doesn't get too high though.

BTW, most of the time my chill target is below the listed range for the yeast. Since it will warm up as it gets to fermenting, there's little (if any) negatives from this. You can always wrap the fermenting vessel in something to help retain the heat the yeast produces. Just monitor it if you do that since it could just as easily get to be too warm.

Yes! ... sorry - I just saw the thread title and replied impulsively. Let me know read what you had to say

Okay ... now that I've read your post ... yeah, you should be fine. Starting at the low end should be no issue since it will warm up as fermentation gets underway. Fill that carboy and pitch!

mcbaumannerb said:

Okay ... now that I've read your post ... yeah, you should be fine. Starting at the low end should be no issue since it will warm up as fermentation gets underway. Fill that carboy and pitch!

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Ummm, he had already pitched the yeast in.

IME, if you go below the range of the yeast by 5F you're fine. I even fermented a recent batch at about 4-5F below the posted range. Just took longer to finish. Of course, I did contact the yeast manufacturer before doing this, to make sure I wasn't going to have any issues. Only 'negative' items they could come up with was a longer ferment time. Since I was already prepared for that, it was no issue at all.

When in doubt, reach out to the yeast manufacturer/lab and ask.

Looks like I'm just letting it go in the low 60's. I usually wrap my carbons in a towel and leave em on the basement floor. I at least put this carboy on top of a folded towel to get it off the floor. That alone is probably worth a degree.

Wow I need to have more faith in my self. It's been 5 hours since I pitched, the temp still reads 61 and the blow off tube is bubbling steadily. Thanks guys! I'm going to have a beer now.

BogusOwnz said:

Wow I need to have more faith in my self. It's been 5 hours since I pitched, the temp still reads 61 and the blow off tube is bubbling steadily. Thanks guys! I'm going to have a beer now.

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Ain't yeast grand??