Using Liquid Yeast Outside its Temp Range

I had a place to brew lined up that just became unavailable at the last minute and I'm starting 2 pilsners using Wyeast 2201 Urquell and 2278 Czech Pils. Both have 2 stepped up starters at 2 litres each.

What should I do for temps living in a apartment that's always 22-23 degrees? 73 degrees F?

My balcony fluctuates between 8-15 degrees at the moment, so I was thinking of letting the fermentation stay in closet for 3-4 days, then rack into an air tight carboy sitting in a large bucket of water to absorb the daily temps swings.

Does this sound reasonable? Help?

I am planning on getting a chest freezer someday for outdoor lagering but can't at the moment...

Bump!

I'd really like to get anyone's opinion on this.

I've been fermenting in primary at 70 for almost 24 hours.
Should I just put this pilsner outside on the deck and let it cool down now?

70F is way too warm for those yeasts. Take it outside if that is your only choice.

samc said:

70F is way too warm for those yeasts. Take it outside if that is your only choice.

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Yeah, it's about 20 degrees (F) too warm. Hopefully it won't be too sulfury/estery. 70 degrees is even pushing it for most ale yeasts, and I wouldn't even ferment at ale in a 73 degree room. For a lager, it'd be even worse.

Thanks guys, and girls! I guess the yeast action will slowly come to a halt over the next 6 hours or so. Should I just rack it into a 5 gal carboy tonight? My bucket is open with a loose lid.

HighGravity said:

Thanks guys, and girls! I guess the yeast action will slowly come to a halt over the next 6 hours or so. Should I just rack it into a 5 gal carboy tonight? My bucket is open with a loose lid.

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Well, if it's done and you want to I guess it'd be ok. I'd still try really hard to get it to ferment at the correct temp (10C) first.

Lagers are a bit different than ales. You'll want to ferment at 10C, for about 10-14 days or until you're 75% of the way to FG. Then, the temp is raised for the diacetyl rest to 18C for 48 hours, THEN the beer is racked and then the chilling progress begins. I lager the beer in the carboy after the diacetyl rest for 8 weeks or so at 1C.

If you're simply going to turn it into an ale, I'd still try to chill it down a bit for best flavor. I'd put it in a water bath or something to try to keep it under 14C if possible before racking it.

It's not done, I was just worried about leaving it in an open fermentor for a few weeks. There's some moldy grain compost and whatnot on the balcony that I was worried might infect it over time.

I guess I'm going to turn it into an ale, fermenting for 2 weeks at whatever temp the balcony is (8-15), doing the rest indoors, then back onto the balcony again for lagering at whatever temp it happens to be. I'm in Vancouver, so I'm hoping we don't get a warm October, winter here is unpredictable.

Just to confirm, is it really ok to leave the beer in an open primary fermentor for 2 weeks? I've never done this before, I thought the beer would get oxidized.

bump?