Ale fermentation temperature ~57

My basement, which is by far the best place to brew my beer, will be around 57F. IS that too low of a temp to brew an ale at? My room mates and i are too cheap to turn the heat on very much and our house is old ,so it doesn't hold much heat anyways. Any ideas on how i could keep my fermenter at a target temperature? Is 57 too warm for lagering?

you should do a bastard lager-- like a steam beer or something. Its a little low for a traditional Ale, and a little high for most lagers, and definately too high for lagering.

I'm in a similar situation as you. My wife and I prefer our house on the cooler side (60-64) so certain regions of the house can range from 55-67. I would suggest fermenting your beer in one of the warmer parts of the house.

The problem will be that your ale yeast will eventually ferment the beer, but it will go really slow....ferments that typically take a 48-72hours will take 2-2.5 weeks and then you might never get the FG down to where you want it.

Some people have come up with ways of using lightbulbs or electric blankets to modulate temps....is that an option?

California Common (Steam) yeast and German Ale yeast will ferment beautifully at that temp. You can certainly make some wonderful beers like that. You can even make some pseudo lagers at that temp too. You probably couldn't pull off a pilsner, but I bet you could make a bock with a German Ale yeast at that temp.

+1 for the German ale yeast! It produces a clean, lager-like ale when fermented at the cool end of its temp range. Be sure to pitch plenty of yeast; it's a very slow starter, and the cooler temps will stress the yeast a little bit.

All this depends on your yeast strain. You can always select yeast for your anticipated fermentation temp. Check out White Labs Cry Havoc strain. Charlie's strain that has a real wide fermentation temp range. Burton Ale yeast can also do well at lower temps. Take a look at the White Labs site or the Wyeast site. They have temp ranges and breakdowns for all their stuff.

Gordie.

Any other techniques that might be available to me? Electric blanket is viable how ever, i like my electric blanket for use in my bed becuase because it is so damn cold.

They make carboy/bucket heating pads for situations like this. Never used one so I don't know how well they work or if they're worth it though.

nottingham, san francisco lager yeast, cream ale yeast, and more will make perfect beer at that temperature. hell, you could even make a great hefeweizen at that temp, although you may need to rouse the yeast and it may take longer.

nottingham seems like a good ale yeast at this temperature according to austin homebrew supply. would nottingham make for a good stout, brown ale, or esp?

Northern Brewer has those carboy heating pads - also as others have mentioned - look for a different yeast and brew different beers. My basement is at 61 right now but I have an Amber fermenting away at 66.

Remember that the beer will heat up a little once it gets going.

My strategy is to brew different styles . . . . . just like the old days of beer making LOL!

Use the SF Lager yeast.

Like others said use ale yeast that like cold temps, sf lager, east coast ale, etc; Or make lagers.. a swamp cooler should be able to drop the temps 10 degrees.

robklein said:

nottingham seems like a good ale yeast at this temperature according to austin homebrew supply. would nottingham make for a good stout, brown ale, or esp?

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hell yeah. it ferments dry and clean.

I fermented my scotch ale WLP028 at ~55 and it came out good.

There are plenty of strains of yeast that will ferment out at that temp


I have the opposite problem my basement is finished and the wood stove is there with heat vents in the ceiling going to the upper floor last night it was 84* and I was watching TV with a t-shirt and shorts.The rest of the house is in the 70's. I have to keep my beer either in a fridge or a swamp cooler . And in the summer the it's in the low 60's because of the central A/C ....

Do a swamp cooler type thing and add an aquarium heater to the water and you'll be able to control the temps.

Do a swamp cooler type thing and add an aquarium heater to the water and you'll be able to control the temps.

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Now that is ingenious right there!

Pacman ale yeast will do fine at 57

I have a batch of pale ale fermenting in an identical basement situation with Nottingham at 58 degress right now. Burbling away slowly but steadily. If you want a higher ferment I use a reptile pad available at any Petco/pet shop. About $40 bucks. I wrap it loosely around the fermentation bucket and can get temp ranges between 62-72 depending on how tightly I wrap it.

My basement is the same temp. I've had no problems with Wyeast 1056 and 1272 at all. WLP715 (champagne yeast) did have some problems getting going but that is suppose to be used around 72 F.

Cool fermentation temperature FTW!

Good resurrection, people

Whoa, didn't even notice the original post date. Ha ha.

Took the SG of my Alaskan Amber clone today, 1.012 down from 1.047 for an ABV of about 4.6 which afaik is to style. The temp where it's fermenting is definitely lower than when I took the OG, so accounting for the temp diff it might be in the 4.8 - 5 range.

It's currently fermenting at a temp of 52, maybe a little late after 9 days to ask this, but is that too cold? It got underway promptly after pitching -- < 24 hrs. Should I put it in a warmer spot for a few days? My LHBS substituted Wyeast 1007 for the Kolsch in the recipe, the Wyeast site says 1007 has a broad temp range (55-68) and is suitable for a Northern German altbier (of which Alaskan Amber is cited as an example).

It definitely tastes like beer, a touch drier than I could wish but I'd happily carbonate it and drink it as is! I'm going to give it lots of time in the primary, at least 2-3 weeks, maybe just put the bucket up off the concrete floor and that should get another few degrees into it. I'd be happy with 55 and maybe the yeast would too (though it's clearly doing its job). It's also not particularly clear, but that doesn't bother me at all.

Okay, I've put the primary on a piece of carpet off the cold concrete floor and am leaving the storage room door open in hopes of getting the temp to 55. I know I'll be able to determine if it's still fermenting by taking the SG every so often, so when it stops, I'll just bottle it, condition it patiently and drink whatever comes out the other end!