You tell me...did I make a mistake?

I brewed Edwort's Octoberfest ale 3 weeks ago. It has been fermenting for 3 weeks at 63F. In his recipe he said that he fermented around 63F or so then crash cooled it to 35F. He is kegging his beer.

Here is the possible problem. Without thinking I lowered the temp of my fridge to 35F per his recipe. But I am bottle conditioning my beer, I do not keg.

My question is this. Did I just mess up my yeast for bottle conditioning by lowering the temp to 35F? I am not sure if the 35F temp killed the yeast or not. When I raise the temp back up to room temp will the yeast still be able to bottle condition my beer? I used White Labs German Ale/Kolsch WLP029 yeast.

I think they probably survived as long as they were above freezing. If I'm not mistaken, it's ice crystals forming that kills the yeast cells.

No. I crash cool all the time and then bottle condition. So long as you bottle condition at normal temperatures you will be fine.

weirdboy said:

No. I crash cool all the time and then bottle condition. So long as you bottle condition at normal temperatures you will be fine.

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+1

If you leave it at that temperature too long, the yeast will drop out and you may have a problem too. I don't know how long is too long, but I'd imagine that you'd be ok if it was only a few days.

I've gone up to 4 weeks at 34 degrees, and been ok.

However, what I would recommend doing is to add about 1/4-1/2 package of dry yeast when you bottle. The easiest way is to make up your priming solution and let it cool, add it to the bottling bucket, and sprinkle in the yeast. Stir that mixture well. Rack the beer into it, and you'll be all set.

Like I said, it did carb up eventually but I was worried about it- so after that, I just add some yeast as I described and there are no carbing issues.

YooperBrew said:

I've gone up to 4 weeks at 34 degrees, and been ok.

However, what I would recommend doing is to add about 1/4-1/2 package of dry yeast when you bottle. The easiest way is to make up your priming solution and let it cool, add it to the bottling bucket, and sprinkle in the yeast. Stir that mixture well. Rack the beer into it, and you'll be all set.

Like I said, it did carb up eventually but I was worried about it- so after that, I just add some yeast as I described and there are no carbing issues.

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If I were to do that what type of dry yeast would I use? I originally used WLP029.

The amount of flavor imparted from adding a little yeast at bottling time is undetectable so it really doesn't matter. If i do add yeast then, i usually use US-05.

Yeah, it doesn't matter. I've used Nottingham and S05, even in lagers, and it's been fine. You probably want something in the same attenuation range as the original yeast (so don't add wine yeast!) but otherwise, the flavor profile is already set and the yeast you add will have no flavor effects at all.