slow ferment in 62 degree basement is this bad?

i started my first brew(german weiss extract kit)yeast was active i pitched. slow bubbling in the airlock. lot of head space in the fermentor. my basement is staying at about 62 degrees. i hold my nose over the airlock when it bubbles and i get a great wheat beer smell. i plan on bottling sunday. problem is i was too anxious and didnt use a hydrometer to get a gravity reading. any help?

If your basement is around 62F then the yeast will probably have raised the actual temperature of the beer to around 64-67 degrees, higher temps occur with higher gravity beers (I think). More than likely you'll just end up with a cleaner beer (meaning less off-flavors, but also maybe a slight loss of character), which is good for some beers, but maybe not for a wheat beer. Nevertheless, you'll probably end up with a very good beer. Since you didn't take an initial gravity though, I'd allow at least a week to ten days to ferment. Even though this is a wheat beer, it won't hurt it to let it sit in primary for a few extra days either.

In the end, enjoy your wonderful beer. I'm sure it'll be good no matter what happens.

RDWHAHB. Everything's gonna be fine!

As WillPall said, the internal temp of your beer will be a bit higher than room temp, which puts it at ~65F. My guess is that your particular strain of yeast is a bit slower-fermenting, and probably just needs some time to work it out.

I'd do primary for 14 days from the date you brewed it, and then take a FG reading. (I've even started doing 21 day primaries, and everything still works great!) It should be ready to bottle at that point, since wheats don't need secondary since they're naturally cloudy.

Good luck!

That was about the same temp I just fermented my brown ale at. It took a few extra days but that was it. You should be fine.

from what ive read to get the better tastes aand clean beer staying at the low end of the spectrum during fermentation sounds desireable.....by the way thanks for all the help, you all are probably the most valuable resource there is!