Accidently cold crashed the wrong beer before fermenting completly....

[Panderson1]

IPA using 'Cali Ale' was 4 days into fermentation. Pitched yeast Friday. 8 hour lag before signs of ferment/krausen forming -- everything looked great.

4 days later I used the wrong controller to cold crash another beer. The IPA in question got down to 51 degrees F.

Has anyone experienced this? I am thinking I should warm it back up to around 72 and gradually higher up to 76? Hopefully it turns out OK and the yeast wake back up?

What a bone head move. Ugghhhhh.

 

[magno]

Yeah... warm it back up gradually, and I'd say give the fermenter a swirl if it looks like the yeast are not waking up in a couple days.

Any idea where your SG is?

 

[IslandLizard]

If she was fermenting at 72F she may well be done fermenting. But she may need a little time for conditioning.

I'd warm it back up to 68F or maybe a few degrees higher (72-74F) if that's where she was before or if you think she was mostly done. It should resume.
If the beer has become quite clear already, with a cake on the bottom, it may need a little rousing to get the yeast re-suspended faster.

RDWHAHB!

 

[IslandLizard]

What kind of fermenter are you using?

 

[Panderson1]

What kind of fermenter are you using?

Firmzilla. I could blow some CO2 from the bottom once it's back to 70ish? To push the yeast up into suspension?

 

[IslandLizard]

Firmzilla. I could blow some CO2 from the bottom once it's back to 70ish? To push the yeast up into suspension?

Yup, bubbling CO2 to rouse the yeast is a good solution, and oxygen free.

 

[Terpene]

Check your SG. If I understand your post, it fermented about 4 days at around 72 after forming krausen 8 hours after pitching, then you accidentally crashed it to 51. It might already be at terminal gravity.

 

[Bobby_M]

Whether it was at terminal gravity or not isn't really the concern I would have. If it did get down there, there's no way the yeast had time to deal with diacetyl and acetaldehyde. I'd warm it back up about 5F per day to 70F and leave it there for a week. Rouse the yeast back up to.

 

[Terpene]

Keep in mind, OP stated he's using Cal Ale yeast, which we can assume means Chico strain or similar, a very clean fermenting ale strain. With a vigorous fermentation, at 72 degrees, assuming it isn't a huge beer, this fermentation would have reached terminal gravity by the end of day 2, easily, and had 2 full days at 72 to clean up after itself. And this is not a strain that produces a lot of diacetyl in the first place.

Re-heating and resting a week certainly couldn't hurt, but I don't think it would help much either. If we were talking about an English strain then yeah, probably a good idea. If the OP has the ability to *taste* the beer without exposing to O2, that would be the best guide.