Changing Yeast, Cheap fix?

I am about to brew a Brewer's Best HopNog 2009 kit http://www.homebrewit.com/aisle/3000. I am in a new house and have been monitoring my basement temps. It seems to be holding around or a couple of degrees above 50F. This seems too cold for the Safale 05 yeast that came with the kit.

Will the yeast produce enough of their own heat to prevent stalling?

I know an easy fix is to move it upstairs where it is warmer but I don't live alone and I don't need any grief down the road. Also I could get some sort of carboy heating device but I'm cheap. I just dropped $200 on my set-up and want to avoid spending more.

So I had an idea, what if I follow the same recipe but switch yeasts? I was thinking of Saflagerw34/70.

Would this work? How will this affect the beer? How would it change my primary and secondary fermentation times? Would I have to lager it at near freezing temps to bottle condition and get rid of off flavors?

Hope you all can help.

Stick with the S-05. Some people have had good luck using S-05 at low temps (50's).

If you've never done a lager before, I wouldn't use the saflager yeast.

I dunno, i've done my first lager with saflager yeast and it turned out great, even though I had fluctuating temps using the landing halfway down to my basement.

So I think I am going to go with S-05 and brew in my spare bathroom this go around, but I am still really curious as to how the IPA would turn out if brewed with the Saflager yeast at 50F.

What do you guys think? Would this be along the lines of a CA steam lager? I may just have to buy another kit and experiment.

Be sure to let me know if you think it would be junk, I hate to waste my time and money.

Pitch it at 70F and cover the fermenter with a couple blankets.

Good question on an IPL. A balanced IPA is more than just hops and a lager yeast won't give you any esters. I've had a couple big hoppy lagers. They were rather one-dimensional.

david_42 said:

Pitch it at 70F and cover the fermenter with a couple blankets.

Click to expand...

So you think if I pitch it at 70F and insulate it, I can get away with keeping it in the basement? Will this low temp increase my secondary time and my bottle conditioning time?

Thank for the advice.

I think the S-05 would be fine in the basement. Perhaps put it near the furnace. I would pitch at 60 and cover w/ blankets. Pitching at 70 and insulating just might get the wort near 80 ouch.

So I chickened out and brewed it in my spare bathtub upstairs. My first batch in a couple of years with the new equipment I was hesitant to take chances. I brewed on Sunday and it is looking great, churning away at 68F, and has a great color and smell.