Cold snap after bottling

I was just perusing the thread "After bottling, straight to cold temp or keep at room temp?" and had a question. I usually let my beer set at room temp in my basement for about a month after bottling prior to chilling. I just bottled a pale ale and we had a freakish early October cold snap hit the first night after bottling. I would dare say my basement in my 1933 bungalow got to the low 40's/upper 30's for three or four nights that week.

Would that have any effect on carbing or any fermentation that would continue after bottling? (Or anything else?)

Much thanks!

Just as long as it comes back up into the mid 60s to 70s in your basement it will carbonate just fine.

Well for normal beers anything less than the 70 degrees that we recommend, and which it usually takes 3 weeks for normal grav beer to carb up, means it will take longer. SO storing it cooler, or in a space where the environment does tend to dip (like my loft in winter which can't get too high into the 60's without costing me an arm and a leg with my 12 ft ceilings, or your basement) will cause the beer to take longer to carb up and condition.

It's simple, yeast has an optimal temp range, and below that they go dormant, so the closer you get to the low end of the scale the slower the yeast will be to work. The warmer, the faster, BUT the more apt they are to produce byproducts that can lead to off flavors.

Last winter carbonation for me took forever.

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to know. I was afraid that the initial cold snap might kill off yeast or somehow prohibit carbing once the temp warmed up again. Dormant yeast I can handle.

Sounds like I need to convince the boss lady to let me store a few cases in the bedroom...although I might end up in the basement with that suggestion.

Consider using milk crates, they take up less space than a traditional beer case yet hold the same amount (24 bottles) also they stack great. So you can even tuck like 6 cases (3 batches) in a small part of a bedroom closet. I know it can be done, I live in a loft with only two long closets in the whole place, and since I have high ceilings it gets chilly. So I stack the cases 3 up til they are just below the hanging clothes in the closet and I put a thermal blanket thing that is like a sleeping bag, over it to give them a little more warmth.

Revvy said:

. So I stack the cases 3 up til they are just below the hanging clothes in the closet and I put a thermal blanket thing that is like a sleeping bag, over it to give them a little more warmth.

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Awww... I've seen it all now.. Revvy tucks his beer into bed...

haha

MStudinski said:

Awww... I've seen it all now.. Revvy tucks his beer into bed...

haha

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That's nothing. It's when he reads them bedtime stories that it REALLY gets strange! hmmm... Goldilocks and the Three Beers...