50 degrees ambient too cold for primary?

Hey everyone,

I will be bottling my first brew this weekend and am starting to look forward to me next! I'd like to do an APA, and since I'm going out of town for 10 days I figured it'd be a great time to let stuff ferment and also make it impossible for me to stress about it.

SWMBO will surely bring the heat down to 50 while we're gone, and I wasn't sure if fermentation heat would be enough to bring the temp up. If necessary I can brew earlier and let the first few days occur at around 63 ambient, but eventually that thermostat will get turned down quite a bit.

Is this worth trying or should I just wait until I get back to do batch two and enjoy my first brew for now?

Thanks!

50's a bit cool for most any ale yeast. active fermentation may bring the temps up into the right range, but it's hard to say. do you have a way to keep part of the house a bit warmer? say a small heater that's safe to leave running? or a swamp cooler with a small aquarium heater?
or do you have the ability to lager? those temps are great for a lager in primary, you'd just need to be able to lager the beer after fermentation.

I've found that 50-55 allows to bulk of fermentation to proceed as the process generates enought heat to keep the fermenter in the sweet low (low-mid 60s). What happens next is that fermenation slows down, the fermenter cools and it take forever for it to drop the last 10 points.

broadbill said:

I've found that 50-55 allows to bulk of fermentation to proceed as the process generates enought heat to keep the fermenter in the sweet low (low-mid 60s). What happens next is that fermenation slows down, the fermenter cools and it take forever for it to drop the last 10 points.

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My experience as well. If I had that brew to do over again (and isn't this hobby wonderful that we actually can) I'd brew sooner, and let it ferment in the low 60's. Wrap it up in a blanket or old sleeping bag before I left bringing the bucket off the floor as well.

If it were me, I'd just pitch a couple packets of S-23 instead. You won't get the same ester profile as you would with US-05 or whatever, but it should come out pretty tasty IMO. Letting it go for 10 days at 50, and then bringing it up to 68F for 3 days for a diacetyl rest should be just about right.

I would call it an American Pale Lager.

Thanks for the quick response. Weirdboy: if I did that would I also have to bottle condition at lager temps?

You can, but it's not necessary at all.

Ok thanks!

Nordeast: I don't have a way to keep a part of the house warm right now, but as I start slowly investing into this hobby I'll start looking into the fish tank heater. Thanks for the tip! My garage gets pretty cold so in theory I could lager there as long as the weather cooperates. I might try this "pale lager" idea and see what happens unless anyone has a reason why it wouldn't work.

rifraf said:

Ok thanks!

Nordeast: I don't have a way to keep a part of the house warm right now, but as I start slowly investing into this hobby I'll start looking into the fish tank heater. Thanks for the tip! My garage gets pretty cold so in theory I could lager there as long as the weather cooperates. I might try this "pale lager" idea and see what happens unless anyone has a reason why it wouldn't work.

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yeah, just get a rubbermaid tote or bucket. you can put the fermenter in there in a bath of water. control the temps from there, ice bottles to cool, aquarium heater to warm. works pretty well and costs around $20 for the whole deal.