how cold is to cold when conditioning?

I bottled my first batch yesterday and put them in the garage in a box with a blanket around it. I took a temp and it got down to 35 degrees in there. I was worried but thought it would be cool. today I cracked one and no fizz at all, is it because it takes a while to carbonate? Am I doomed to have a batch of flat beer? I brought them inside just in case, my house is like 60-70 all the time. I dont have an extra fridge yet. any ideas?

RGH said:

I bottled my first batch yesterday and put them in the garage in a box with a blanket around it. I took a temp and it got down to 35 degrees in there. I was worried but thought it would be cool. today I cracked one and no fizz at all, is it because it takes a while to carbonate? Am I doomed to have a batch of flat beer? I brought them inside just in case, my house is like 60-70 all the time. I dont have an extra fridge yet. any ideas?

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Are you carbing your bottles? 3 weeks @ 70. (Think I got that pounded into my head from this forum).

You don't need to chill them for the bottle conditioning/carbing phase, unless it's alot over 70.

Ted

+1; If you're natural carbing bottles (what it sounds like) you want them about 3 weeks around 70 to carb up properly. pop one in the fridge for awhile and see how they're doing, then when they're right, just fridge'em and the yeast/sediment will settle to the bottom (pour slowly and enjoy!).

i hope i didnt kill them!!! I left them outside over night below 40! man I thought you had to condition at around 40! crap... lesson learned well I got two more batches going and I tasted one i mean two from the said batch (two because you never know, faulty caps and all) and it was delicious with out the carbonation, caught a slight buzz too. It will be ten times better IF it carbonates. I brought them in and hopefully all goes well. if not I will chock it up to the brew gods. Started a kolsch today that I am pretty excited about!

Cold conditioning is sometimes used at the end of fermentation to help the beer clear out.

Once it's bottled it needs to be able to carbonate, and this usually takes about 3 weeks at room temp. After it is done carbing up, you can store them cool of you prefer, but this also isn't necessary, although it can prolong shelf life and stability.

You should be fine, you didn't kill anything.

When you bottle it, give your stout a little longer to carb, my stouts always seemed to take longer (but most of my stouts were strong).