How cool is too cool to ferment?

I have 50 or so batches of beer under my belt and I'm going to make the leap into mead making.

The problem is it's closing in on winter in Wisconsin and I keep the house pretty cool - 60ish when I'm not home and up to 65 or so when I am home. I see that Lalvin D-47 has a recommended temp range that goes down to 59F.

I'm okay if a ferment is slow and takes a long time to finish. I'm just concerned that a ferment might get stuck and not finish at all. Anyone have experience with fermenting meads at low temps? Thanks!

I think the low 60's is perfect.

Low should be fine. What I recomend if you are worried about too low then wrap the carboy in a blanket and put a electric blanket in there too. Not for too much but just a little each day to raise the temp for a bit. It should be fine. I haven't heard of a mead fermentation getting stuck like this. Usually it would start and stop. But what you can do is stir it a bit to resuspend the yeast and heat it up a bit after that. But you should be fine.

Matrix

Great! Thanks, everyone!

I fermented 8 batches in my attic about this time last year and the temperatures were in low 60's/upper 50's. I used 8 different yeasts and took readings everyday. They all made it, although some batches slowed more than others when the temperature dipped into the 50's. It took a few more days than my usual room temperature batches, but the fermentations were very clean. I would prefer those temps in the future.

You could always wrap the fermenter in a blanket, fermentation will produce a little heat and insulating it will up the temp a few degrees, but even then low 60's is where I usually do my fermentation at using a fridge and temperature control unit unless it's a yeast that needs higher temps.

you don't really want to go much above 65 anyway. 60 is fine, just slow.
one thing to watch is what the night time temp drops to. if it drops to low the ferment will stop. tho a lot of yeast will fire back up as the day warms up but if its only getting enough temp for a few hours each day then the ferment will take an extremely long time.