Temperature drop between fermentaion and bottling

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frozinak

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I am hoping I did not kill my beer. Everything was going fine and the fermentation cycle was finished according to my hydrometer readings. The power went out while I was away and the temperature in my house dropped to around 40ish Fahrenheit. I was going to bottle it today anyways, but I was wondering if the drop in temperature would have an adverse effect on the beer?

Thank you and Merry Christmas
 
depends how long has it fermented. i would take a heating pad on it low, for a half hour wrapped in fleece and set it in a 70 degree location to get it jumpstarted to finish their dutys.you dont kill it it just becomes "dormant" Depending how long its been. wait at least 3 weeks for botteling unless its a stout porter or high alchohol beer.
I believe its called cold crashing what happend by accident with you. but i also have read here alot to bring it up to 70 for a week before botteling it to get it to clean up and the yeast to finish a bit. Probably nothing to worry about.
 
If your hydrometer readings tell you you are done fermenting, then bottle away. You probably did crash out your yeast and it would be a problem if you were trying to ferment a whole batch of beer with that yeast. But the quality and quantity of yeast necessary to ferment your bottling sugar is pretty low. It would take a lot to mess up your yeast enough to screw up your bottling.

Now, if you weren't sure that your beer is finished fermenting and it dropped to 40, then you would want to rouse the yeast up a bit and bring it back to fermentation temps for a few days to make sure it fermented out completely.

Just make sure to store your bottles at the yeast's recommended temperature while they are conditioning so it can ferment the sugar.

To be honest, you probably helped your beer out by that. Dropping the temp like that once it's done fermenting can have some positive effects on your clarity and flavor profile. I wouldn't be worried one bit.
 
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