Ale Yeast at Cold Temperature

Hey guys: before the holiday week I brewed up a rye beer and put it in primary. Then I left town, and turned the heat down. The house stayed at 50 degrees or so for the last 7 days. I haven't checked the FG yet, but I'm wondering if the temp will have been too cold for the ale yeast I used (Wyeast 3944). I'll check the FG tomorrow (got home 3am local, need some rest), if it matches recipe, am I good to bottle?

Probably too cold, but if the fermentation was well started before you left, it might have kept itself warm enough to complete. If the FG is right, I'd bring it up to room temperature for two days, then bottle.

Thanks for the advice. What's the advantage of bringing it to room temp (other than allowing the yeast to consume sugars at their optimal temp)? Will there be any adverse effects on the flavor?

pkiller001 said:

Thanks for the advice. What's the advantage of bringing it to room temp (other than allowing the yeast to consume sugars at their optimal temp)? Will there be any adverse effects on the flavor?

Click to expand...

Generally speaking, you want to start a fermentation on the cool side and then slowly ramp up the temperature throughout the fermentation to finish in the mid-to high range of the optimal fermentation temperature. This minimizes off-flavors and the odds of a stalled fermentation.

To answer your question specifically, increasing temps late allows the yeast to ferment some of the tougher, long-chain sugars more effectively as well as re-process some of the early fermentation by-products that in many styles of beer are considered undesirable.

Thanks for the response: it was exactly what I was looking for.
I hauled the primary up from the basement to get a reading/bottle (if I was able) and saw that I still had krausen floating on top! I didn't even bother to take a reading; I'm raising the temp to around 60F (upstairs, with our heater going) to finish the fermentation.