38 degree Ale Fermentation? Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey

[J0N]

Hello All,

I currently have a Belgian Dubbel fermenting in a glass carboy that is sitting in my brew kettle that is filled with very, very cold water. The sticky thermometer on the side of my carboy says its like 38 degrees.

I posted the pics to my dropbox.... I hope this works. Here is the link.
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/jsaixqasqbp13gs/AAD06gWDd-J8xpHVAgl2E_x9a

I'm wondering if anyone has done this before? I created a 2 liter starter that I kept out for 2 days because the Wyeast 1214 smack pack wouldn't inflate after 3 hours and it took forever for the yeast to come back to life. I then put it in the fridge on the night of the second day and took it back out on the third (brew) day to come back to room temperature before pitching it.

After I chilled my wort I put it in my carboy at 80 degrees, then cleaned my kettle, put my carboy in my kettle in my basement, threw in a bunch of cold water, ice packs and let it cool down further knowing this yeast gets a lot of banana flavor at high temps. After a bit, I pitched the yeast, took an OG reading of 1.060 at 76 degrees. I knew that was still a bit warm, so I put some more ice in it.

The next day I looked at my beer to see how it was doing and it's fermenting really nice. I can see all the little yeast floating around and doing their thing. But I noticed the temperature on the strip was crazy low. I know it's sitting in a cold water bath, so it's picking up that water temp mostly (right), but I'm not totally sure what temperature the beer is at. I'm wondering what's going to happen to this beer with this yeast fermenting so low. Any ideas?

 

[peterj]

Are you sure that's the actual temperature? Is this in a fridge or are you adding ice to it? Those stick on thermometers aren't meant to be submerged and I don't think they work properly when they are wet. I don't think you would have a good fermentation going at 38F. That temperature would most likely cause the yeast to go dormant. Put a real thermometer in the water to test.

 

[J0N]

It's the temperature that is on the sticky thermometer, which is attached to the carboy and is under water. I knew that temperature couldn't be the internal temp because, as you said, the yeast would go dormant, but didn't know how much of a fluctuation there would be between the surrounding water temp and the internal beer temp. I'll check the water temp when I get home though.

 

[peterj]

I used to submerge my fermenters like that too and the temperature should be pretty much the same between the water and the beer. I had a sticky thermometer on one of my fermenters, and it always looked kind of white like that and was never accurate when it was under water.

 

[J0N]

I assume the that the internal temperature of the beer is maybe a degree or two higher than the outside temperature of the surrounding water because of the fermentation taking place. That usually bumps up the temperature a few degrees, right?

 

[peterj]

Yeah that's right. It should be a few degrees higher during the vigorous part of fermentation (but not as big of a difference as just being out in the air). But once that subsides the water temp should match the beer temp pretty well. Did you take a water temperature?

 

[J0N]

I took the water temperature this morning before work and it was 68 degrees. I haven't added any ice or ice packs in a few days, so it seems like this is a perfect time to leave it alone.

I didn't know those temperature strips don't work under water. Good to know for the future. Thanks!