Temperature drop affecting fermentation?

I am fermenting 5 gallons of an extract Irish Stout at about 68-69 degrees...4 days in, my thermostat died here at the house overnight...so I woke up to find it sitting at 58 degrees at 7am...could not have been at that temp longer than 6 hours...I immediately reheated using a blanket and an electric space heater and brought the temp back up to 68 in about 40 minutes and it has been at that temp ever since.

Question: will this have any effect on the finished product? I looked in the bucket and the think filmy **** has already dropped to the bottom.

Don't worry about it. Won't affect anything perceptible. For maybe a short time the yeast were slightly less active, but certainly would not give any off flavors.

EDIT: Besides, just because your house dropped 10 degrees overnight, I have a lot of trouble believing that 5 gallons of fermenting wort dropped just as fast. Liquids transfer heat considerably slower than air.

BigB said:

Don't worry about it. Won't affect anything perceptible. For maybe a short time the yeast were slightly less active, but certainly would not give any off flavors.

EDIT: Besides, just because your house dropped 10 degrees overnight, I have a lot of trouble believing that 5 gallons of fermenting wort dropped just as fast. Liquids transfer heat considerably slower than air.

Click to expand...

The house temp was...I do not know...very cold...the temp of the brew was at 58 degrees...