WLP001 @ 54*F. Uh oh?

Hello everyone,

Long Version:
Yesterday I brewed my first "on my own" recipe, where I literally wrote everything out from scratch, didn't follow any other recipes, and kinda just went for it.

While everything came out well (missed my gravity by .002), with the wort tasting fantastically, I think I made a boo-boo.

I put the fermentation bucket (6.5 gal, but only 5.5 full) into my old dorm fridge (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000260JRG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) at about 3 PM, having pitched a 2-day stirplate starter of WLP001 at 73*F.

I have no aftermarket temperature regulator (yet), other than what comes stock on the fridge, and was just winging it to see how it would come out.

Well, at 10:30PM the beer read 66*F. I thought to myself, "Sweet! This is going to work out perfectly."

But, at 8:00AM today, I checked again. 54*F.

No bubbles coming out of the airlock! Do you think it'll be OK? What should I do?


Short Version:

-Pitched ~250 billion cells of WLP001 at 73*F into a 1.065 OG wort at 3PM.

-Placed beer into Sanyo dorm fridge immediately, checked temp 7.5 hours later. Temp read 66*F on the fermentomter. Went to bed.

-Checked temp at 8 AM, fermentometer read 54*F.

-Freaked out, unplugged fridge and opened door, logged on to HBT, asked for help.




~Mike

Mike - RDWHAHB! You are fine - just let it warm back up to fermentation temp, and maybe gently stir the fermentor to get the yeast in suspension (likely not necessary), and you'll be fine. Most refrigerators won't warm up enough for an ale so you will need a temp controller if you want to go that route.

I am fermenting WLP001 at 57F without any problems whatsoever.
3 days and it is still chugging along. I have temp control, my thermometer is in the bucket of water that doubles as my blowoff airlock, and it is set for 52F. The yeast creates heat so the carboys tend to be 5F higher than the standing water/sanitation mix.

I am sure you are fine.

UPDATE: It's been 24 hours, and still no fermentation starting. Beer is currently at 62 degrees F.

Still pretty cool for WLP001, it probably doing something...just slow do to the cold start...get it up to 68 and it should take off pretty good.

Just maybe give it a little swirl... It'll start though. I just fermented a pale at 63 with wlp001, it took a second to get started to.

Gave it a swirl just now. Temp now reading 70F, no airlock bubbling on top of the bucket. Sometimes I wish it had a carboy!

Airlock bubbling is not a reliable indication of fermentation. Wait another day at ~70F and maybe look for krausen also not always present when fermenting. Gravity readings are the only true way to know. I would suspect that the yeast will go just fine when they are ready.

kh54s10 said:

Airlock bubbling is not a reliable indication of fermentation. Wait another day at ~70F and maybe look for krausen also not always present when fermenting. Gravity readings are the only true way to know. I would suspect that the yeast will go just fine when they are ready.

Click to expand...

Like he said.

FYI
I cranked mind down to from 57 to 54 yesterday to see what effect it will have, my yeasties are still as happy as they were before (no change in activity). I will let it set here another day then let it rise up to 60F for a week before bottling.

001 is fine very low. I commonly ferment low 60s with it.

Thanks for all the help everyone! After the swirl, I went back yesterday and checked up on it a few hours later--YEAST EVERYWHERE!

It had blown through the airlock, and erupted all up in my fridge. Good news? It's fermenting like a champ at 68F. I cleaned up the mess, and secured a ghetto-rigged blow-off tube system in its place.

Thanks again.