60 degrees too low to ferment?

I have finished replacing the condenser coil and capillary tube and temp control in my old Bev-Aire BM-23-C kegerator. Runs good, gets nice and cold. Planned on using this unit for fermenting and possible serving on the back patio when we have parties Made a deal with the wife that I'd get rid of the old refrigerator I was using for fermenting when I got this one working. I didn't keep the old temp control I'd installed on the fridge, it was inacurrate anyway....had to put a thermometer in it and adjust it until it ran at 65-70.

Anyway, I adjusted the temp control on the Bev air all the way up. It runs 55-60 degrees. Is this too cold to ferment ales? I could always buy another temp control with a wider range, but would like to avoid spending the $$ if I don't have to.

Whatcha think?

Allan

60 is just about perfect!

Cool. I've always tried for 65-70 before.
Thanks,
Allan

It depends on the yeast. Some won't go down to 60F. Look at the White Labs and Wyeast web sites and they will tell you the range for their yeast. Keep in mind that the fermentation will generate heat and you can get away with a few degrees cooler than their web sites tell you. One for sure that will work is Scottish Ale yeast which ferments down to 55F.

i think the numbers that you get on a web site are optimal ranges. i have a belgian fermenting its A$$ off right now, and i started it at 50F, held it there for 48 hours, and now i'm letting rise slowly, its up to about 55. i have to guess that 60 is just fine for any ale yeast, but you're going to get a different beer. less estery, less phenolic, etc.

Wyeast 1056 fermented at 60F comes out extremely clean, almost no fruity esters at all.

Great for brewing beer for non-craft-beer drinkers.

I've yet to meet a yeast that won't fermrnt at 60 degrees. I f you're worried use lager yeasts like cali lager, it'll ferment a nice beer regardless of temp

I've fermented a lot of batches in my basement ~58'-62'. I put a cardboard box over the carboy. If I put the thermometer in the box, it will be ~62-64' during active fermentation.
I usually just dump a plain old packet of misc. brewers yeast right on the cooled wort. Takes a little while to get moving sometimes

60 is just on the low end of the "ideal" range for Ales. Some like it a bit warmer but you might be able to just crack the door open and get the temperature right in those rare cases.

I guess I should correct myself to say that some yeast strains will not ferment well below 60F ambient if they are pitched into wort at 60F - you would get a sluggish start. If you pitch around 70 to 75 and place the carboy into 60F ambient, the yeast will start their activity and produce heat which will keep the wort above the ambient temperature, possibly by as much as 8F. In turn, this heat keeps the yeast closer to its optimal range so it continues to ferment and not drop out early.

You'll be happy with the results when fermenting at 60. Also, remember that even though ambient temp is 60, the actual fermentation temp of the wort is around 5-7 degrees higher. Also, a guy on the HBD board did and experiment where he fermented wyeast 1056 around 45 degrees. Said he got about 30% attenuation at 14 days and I think 70% after 30 days. So it is doable.