Is this a bad plan?

I would like to brew a batch of what I would call a black lager-style ale. I'm planning to use a Munich dunkel recipe and ferment with Nottingham at the lowest temperatures I can reach in my swamp cooler, ~60-62°. Ideally I would brew this weekend.

However, I will be leaving town for Thanksgiving for a full week, starting three days after my theoretical brew day. This means I won't be around to make adjustments to the fermenter temperature in the water bath.

I live in NC, and our 10 day forecast for the days I'm out of town are for daily highs from 56° to 61°. It is simple for me to turn our heating all the way down, say to to 50°, and hope the fermenter remains at 60° or under.

Does this sound crazy, with the possibility of it warming up too much with no one there? Or the possibility of it dropping to the low 50s, knocking out the yeast? I have not worked with Nottingham before. Thanks all!

Should be fine, that being said, anything can happen. In my opinion, the yeast will not drop out at 50F.

Turn down the stat and don't worry. Nottingham is okay up to 70F and if you start it cold (55F) it isn't likely to over-heat.

Agreed. Your batch should be fine with those temperatures.
Why would you have the heat on at all with temperatures in those ranges?

and it doesnt mind it chilly. during active ferment, i have held temps in the high 50s. it does not seem to mind. might be better to stay cool for what you want

JohnnyO said:

Agreed. Your batch should be fine with those temperatures.
Why would you have the heat on at all with temperatures in those ranges?

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We generally heat to about 68° - it's an apartment with electric, so it's quite cheap.

Thanks for the information! I am encouraged and will go ahead with a Saturday brew day. What is the coldest you would pitch Nottingham? I really want to keep the fermentation temp at the bottom of the range, but with a swamp cooler and a few ice packs I don't have a lot of cooling power, so it's a lot easier to start low.

Keep in mind the the lower you keep the fermentation temperature, the longer fermentation will take. Before I began using a temp controlled chest freezer to ferment, I was keeping the fermenters in a 55 degree basement. It was all well/good for the first stage of vigorous fermentation where the yeast were keeping themselves warm, but things really slowed down and I had to warm it up a bit to get the last few points of gravity drop to hit my attentuation. Super clean beer though.

I'd recommend a kolch yeast. It's extremely flexible. It can make a lager beer at cold temps and also works great at ale temps.

Thanks. Do you think a Kölsch yeast would work better here than Notty? I've been debating between the two, and it sounds like Kölsch might add some more flavors.

Broadbill, how warm did you bring it up to get the last few points?

I basically brought it upstairs...so from 55 to maybe 64-67 degrees.

At this point, their really isn't enough yeast food left so whatever increase in yeast activity you will get is more "clean-up" of fermentation by-products. Which were minimized anyway but the low initial ferment temp.

That's good to know. I'll probably let it sit at cooler temps (under 60) for a week and then when we get back, simply allow it to warm up to ambient slowly (68) and the yeast can finish up, and hopefully that will produce a crisp beer.

Another thing to think about is that your low temperature will also affect the fermentation. The forecast daily high may be within your target range, but the daily lows may knock the Notty for a loop. Even Kolsch yeast will sputter if it gets too low (the range on Wyeast 2565 is 56F-70F). So you might want to set your thermostat for 56F, so that the ambient doesn't get too low. Otherwise, you may come home to a half-fermented beer that proves impossible to get re-started.

Thanks, that's a good point.