cold pitch temps??

[slippery]

First of all, wanna say "hell yeah" to all you guys on these forum's! Am just getting back into brewing after a 10 yr. Brain fart and this place answers alot of my questions. Thanks to all!!
Anyhow, here's one that i cant find much info on.
I brewed a PG amber last night and after running the wort threw my chiller and adding the additional water to bring it up to 5 gallons my temp was down to 58° ...
I had my rehydrated yeast ready and because it was 1 a.m. ....even against my best judgement i decided to pitch. I figured it would sit ideal until the temp raised to the high 60's. .....
I have heated concrete floors in my basement so it was already at 62 when i left for work but ofcourse no sign of ferm.
Question is will my yeast be to shocked to do they're job? How about off flavors?
should i pitch some more dry yeast if no action in next 24 hrs.?
Am sure someone out there has experienced this.
Thanks

 

[catdaddy66]

I don't want to upset more knowledgeable members because I also am coming back from a brewing hiatus as well. But ale yeast will tend to be lethargic below 65 degrees. Some yeast can be lower than that, like a lager yeast, but in general gradually warming to 68-72 degrees should make the yeast much more active. Just my 2 cents... FWIW.

 

[unionrdr]

I have used spring water I chill in the garage overnight from a local spring.
One time it got too cold,& the temp went down to 12C,or 53.6F @ 8:45pm. Oopsie...By 1:38pm the next day,it rose back up to 18C,or 64.4F. lowest base temp where Cooper's ale yeast will function slow,but steady. Found that out on an earlier but similar batch that went down to the same temp. I'd switched this time to WL029 German ale/kolsh yeast liquid. Best range is 65-69F. Good thing my aging neurons still function,as I had to add to my notes that one lil detail about the start temp on the Pork Soda.
But yeasts like US-05 can go down to like 57F,& be fairly steady but slow @ 60F. It's a clean fermenting yeast,even at 72F in my experiences! You might have to swirl the fermenter to get the yeast back into suspension as the wort warms up. No need to re-pitch.No off flavors generally at low side of temp range. But it can take more than 24 hours to get past the reproduction phase to start visibly fermenting. So don't have a panic attack,it'll be fine.
I've been through this,as have many. No worries.m8.

 

[slippery]

Thanks for the info....good to know that about US-05 , that's the yeast I pitched in this batch.
Took your advice and swirled the carboy. We will see what happens . Temp Is up,to reasonable
Degree now. Am sure it will bubbling away in the morning.
Thanks again for the piece of mind!

 

[BigFloyd]

Thanks for the info....good to know that about US-05 , that's the yeast I pitched in this batch.
Took your advice and swirled the carboy. We will see what happens . Temp Is up,to reasonable
Degree now. Am sure it will bubbling away in the morning.
Thanks again for the piece of mind!

I'll suggest that you stop trying to warm it up to 70*F. That's a bit on the high side and once it kicks off, the thermal energy of the fermentation can drive it up another 7-10*F. Off-flavors come from temps being too high, not too cool.

You were fine pitching at 58*F so long as you slowly adjusted the temp of the rehydrated yeast slurry to within 10*F of the wort before you pitched. Letting it slowly come up to 64-65*F (bucket temp) is a viable plan.

I'm running a batch of amber right now with US-05. It has been quite active and sustained at a controlled bucket temp of 64.5* (pitched at 66*).

But ale yeast will tend to be lethargic below 65 degrees.

That's not really correct. Lots of folks run ale yeast (like US-05) fermentations in the high 50's just fine. I've fermented with rehydrated Nottingham with the bucket temp held right at 55*F for the first week before raising it to the low-mid 60's to finish. I thought I might need a blow-off tube for a couple of those 55* days. The result was very clean and lager-like with good attenuation.

 

[bleme]

I use US-05 more than anything else and usually prefer it at 59F-62F. I let one get into the 70's last summer and it definitely had a jet fuel quality to it. I moved it to the back until Christmas and it is much better now. Still not as good as the rest though.

 

[C-Rider]

Let it warm up to the low 60s and the yeast will get active. Don't worry have a cold beer and relax. LOL

 

[unionrdr]

I'll suggest that you stop trying to warm it up to 70*F. That's a bit on the high side and once it kicks off, the thermal energy of the fermentation can drive it up another 7-10*F. Off-flavors come from temps being too high, not too cool.

You were fine pitching at 58*F so long as you slowly adjusted the temp of the rehydrated yeast slurry to within 10*F of the wort before you pitched. Letting it slowly come up to 64-65*F (bucket temp) is a viable plan.

I'm running a batch of amber right now with US-05. It has been quite active and sustained at a controlled bucket temp of 64.5* (pitched at 66*).
I've had US-05 get up to 72-74 with no off flavors. But it did so slowly. I think that's the key here. But 64-66F is a good temp for this yeast ime.


That's not really correct. Lots of folks run ale yeast (like US-05) fermentations in the high 50's just fine. I've fermented with rehydrated Nottingham with the bucket temp held right at 55*F for the first week before raising it to the low-mid 60's to finish. I thought I might need a blow-off tube for a couple of those 55* days. The result was very clean and lager-like with good attenuation.

I use US-05 more than anything else and usually prefer it at 59F-62F. I let one get into the 70's last summer and it definitely had a jet fuel quality to it. I moved it to the back until Christmas and it is much better now. Still not as good as the rest though.

Not all ale yeasts can go down that low. Only a few. Many get slow or dormant at 60-63F in my experiences. I've never gotten any chemical,etc off flavors from it,even at 72-74F. Slow changes,whether by purpose or designe,will help combat those strange flavors.

 

[bleme]

Not all ale yeasts can go down that low. Only a few.

But since he pitched US-05, that's what we are talking about.

 

[unionrdr]

Yes,but another member made a generalized statement as to temps that wasn't completely correct. that's what my correction was aimed at. Don't want any readers to get mixed signals here.

 

[bleme]

True. Before I pitch any yeast I'm not familiar with, I visit the manufacturer's website and HBT to see what the appropriate temp is and what flavor profile I can get in the different ranges.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,it's always a good thing to use a given yeast at it's best. Those PDF's from the manufacturers that sites like midwest post can be quite informative.

 

[slippery]

Someone commented that i would be alright as long as my slurry temp was within my wort temp by a few degrees. ....
Am pretty sure that wasnt the case since i was expected to be closer to 70.
Did i mess the yeast up then. Am pretty sure my slurry was mid to high 70's.
Didnt think about that...
what should i do now?

 

[bleme]

Yeast can be shocked like that, which will increase lag time, but won't kill them or anything.

 

[slippery]

Right on.. Thanks for the info. Not to be impatient but 36 hrs in and no sign of
Fermentation at all. Wort temp is 67 .....nothing to worry about yet? Would pitching another
Package of us-05 on top be advised.? If so would I need to re aerate? am fine with waiting just
Curious what all the experts think.

 

[BigFloyd]

Right on.. Thanks for the info. Not to be impatient but 36 hrs in and no sign of
Fermentation at all. Wort temp is 67 .....nothing to worry about yet? Would pitching another
Package of us-05 on top be advised.? If so would I need to re aerate? am fine with waiting just
Curious what all the experts think.

I'm no expert, but I'd give it another 36 hours. If you get nothing (and I mean nothing) by way of fermentation activity by then, I'd go ahead and rehydrate a pack of US-05, adjust it to within 10*F of the wort temp and pitch it.

So long as you properly rehydrate the new US-05, I would not try to aerate the wort.

 

[unionrdr]

Since the wort was too cold to start with,the yeast will go dormant & settle out till the wort temp comes back up into range. Even then you have to swirl the fermenter to get some more yeast back into suspension. And it'll take on average another day past where it should've started to get past a 2nd reproductive phase to visibly start fermenting again.

 

[slippery]

Well I took your suggestions and swirled the wort to suspend the yeast again , this a.m. It was
Bubbling away!........ You guys are like little angels, ......beer angels!
Thanks for the help
Keep it real

 

[unionrdr]

Always try to keep it real. glad our suggestions helped.