Accidental cold crash after pitching

I brewed a blonde ale two days ago and everything went perfectly until I fumbled on the one yard line!

I have a fermentation fridge with a two-stage digital controller. Heat comes from a hairdrier that hangs inside. When I put the carboy into the fridge I forgot to turn the hairdrier on and with the cold temps we've had it's a necessity to maintain the desired 67 degrees.

I didn't notice until the next day that it was off and my thermometer recorded that it hit a low of 37 degrees. The day time high was mid-fifties -- basically I cold crashed my beer a couple hours after pitching!

It was bubbling away just fine but I have to wonder if I've tortured my yeast and will end up with off-flavors, poor attenuation, etc.

Any ideas about what might happen?

Probably not too much. The cool start will slow things down a little initially, but should not have a tremendous impact on the resulting beer. I would make sure the hair dryer is on now, and let it go like normal. I would be willing to bet that you will have no ill-effects whatsoever. I would be WAY more worried if the brew was too hot for a day than too cool.

Good question.

I don't know the yeast you used and not sure I'm smart enough for that to help me answer but yeast vials are stored in cold conditions prior to being ready to use.
I would expect that it would be fine.

Cold slows them down and can make them go dormant, when it's too warm they are still active, but not happy or living large so they give off flavors.
The yeast going dormant again, then being brought back again seems like it should be no big deal to the yeast.

It's US-05 so it should be forgiving.

pete20 said:

It's US-05 so it should be forgiving.

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Agreed. I think merely warming it up to a good temp, say 64 degrees, should solve the issue.

Rick