Fermenting Temperature

[jimmy_chitwood]

I created my 4th ever batch and it's a basic Amber ale. The OG called for 1.053(mine was 1.040, low) and the FG called for 1.010(mine has been at 1.014). Primary called for 1 week, then secondary for 4 days. My entire house, basement included, is about 56 degrees. The first 5 days the fermenting was good, and slowed the last 2 days of primary. i then transfered over to a secondary and there has been no active since. I understand the temperature of 56 degrees is low, my question is, is my beer ruined??

 

[GrogNerd]

first response to a first post! woohoo!

no, your beer is NOT ruined. you really have to TRY to ruin beer to actually ruin it

so, relax! (where have you heard that before?)

56 is very low, but your yeast won't ferment as fast as they would at slightly higher temps.

is this an extract batch? sometimes stratification happens, where your wort isn't mixed well and it's more water than wort at the top. unless you were off on your volumes, you can be almost certain that your OG was what the recipe said it would be.

wait a few more days, take another gravity reading. if it still is 1.014, maybe try to get it to a warmer place for a few days. upstairs would be better, heat rises, right? just a few degrees may make a difference. wait a few more days, take another reading. if it's the same, it may be done fermenting. let it clean up for a few days & go ahead bottle.

good luck & welcome to the obsession!

 

[BigFloyd]

I created my 4th ever batch and it's a basic Amber ale. The OG called for 1.053(mine was 1.040, low) and the FG called for 1.010(mine has been at 1.014). Primary called for 1 week, then secondary for 4 days. My entire house, basement included, is about 56 degrees. The first 5 days the fermenting was good, and slowed the last 2 days of primary. i then transfered over to a secondary and there has been no active since. I understand the temperature of 56 degrees is low, my question is, is my beer ruined??

Let not your heart be troubled. Your beer is in no way ruined. Too cool is much easier to remedy than too warm.

Just let it ride in the secondary for another 10 days or so. If you can get the temps up into the mid 60's, that would help it finish up.

A few questions -

What yeast did you use? If it happened to be Nottingham, it does fine on down to as low as 55*F. Some other ale yeasts want to go a bit dormant below 60*F.

Were you following instructions when you took it out of the primary after only a week? For a basic amber ale, 2-1/2 to 3 weeks in the primary (no secondary needed) would have served you better and would be less work.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

It's not gonna be super good since you started with such a low OG and finished with a relatively high FG. I assume this was an all-grain batch as you couldn't have missed your gravities so badly with extract. It won't taste like the recipe said it was supposed to, but it may still be quite drinkable.


What kind of yeast does amber call for? 56 is quite low for an ale yeast but some yeasts can manage that cold. Hopefully your fermenter really got going and heated itself up.

 

[jimmy_chitwood]

first response to a first post! woohoo!

no, your beer is NOT ruined. you really have to TRY to ruin beer to actually ruin it

so, relax! (where have you heard that before?)

56 is very low, but your yeast won't ferment as fast as they would at slightly higher temps.

is this an extract batch? sometimes stratification happens, where your wort isn't mixed well and it's more water than wort at the top. unless you were off on your volumes, you can be almost certain that your OG was what the recipe said it would be.

wait a few more days, take another gravity reading. if it still is 1.014, maybe try to get it to a warmer place for a few days. upstairs would be better, heat rises, right? just a few degrees may make a difference. wait a few more days, take another reading. if it's the same, it may be done fermenting. let it clean up for a few days & go ahead bottle.

good luck & welcome to the obsession!

thanks...

I may have added more water than I should have to the primary after the boil. Not sure if that would cause the low reading...I also crushed the grains for the first time and not sure I crushed them as well as I should have...
I'm sure it's done fermenting, there is no sludge, bubbles, on top in the secondary. i don't even think it fermented at all at transfer to secondary. One thing is for certain, there is definitely some vodka in the batch..had a leak with the airlock. this has been a tough 4th batch!

 

[jimmy_chitwood]

Let not your heart be troubled. Your beer is in no way ruined. Too cool is much easier to remedy than too warm.

Just let it ride in the secondary for another 10 days or so. If you can get the temps up into the mid 60's, that would help it finish up.

A few questions -

What yeast did you use? If it happened to be Nottingham, it does fine on down to as low as 55*F. Some other ale yeasts want to go a bit dormant below 60*F.

Were you following instructions when you took it out of the primary after only a week? For a basic amber ale, 2-1/2 to 3 weeks in the primary (no secondary needed) would have served you better and would be less work.

As a matter of fact, it was two packs of Nottingham...
Yep, the recipe did say 2 weeks primary, then bottle, but my buddy who's been making beer for awhile said to transfer to secondary after 7-10 and once i noticed it was slowing in primary, i decided to transfer to secondary...thanks for the info.

 

[jimmy_chitwood]

It's not gonna be super good since you started with such a low OG and finished with a relatively high FG. I assume this was an all-grain batch as you couldn't have missed your gravities so badly with extract. It won't taste like the recipe said it was supposed to, but it may still be quite drinkable.


What kind of yeast does amber call for? 56 is quite low for an ale yeast but some yeasts can manage that cold. Hopefully your fermenter really got going and heated itself up.

I am kicking myself for the mistakes i've made for this batch..it called for DME but i had gotten LME by mistake.

 

[Gaylord]

Also two packs of nottingham is double what you need for a beer with an OG that low.

 

[BigFloyd]

As a matter of fact, it was two packs of Nottingham...
Yep, the recipe did say 2 weeks primary, then bottle, but my buddy who's been making beer for awhile said to transfer to secondary after 7-10 and once i noticed it was slowing in primary, i decided to transfer to secondary...thanks for the info.

I am kicking myself for the mistakes i've made for this batch..it called for DME but i had gotten LME by mistake.

In this case, I'd suggest kicking your buddy for telling you that. You didn't do yourself any favors transferring to a secondary that soon. It would have had a better chance achieving full attenuation had you left it in the primary longer. Nottingham would've been fine at that temp. I've intentionally run it as low as 55*F (in a controlled fermenter chamber) for the first week and then slowly raised it to 64* for another week (no secondary) and got a really nice faux-lager result.

Gaylord is correct about not needing to pitch two packs of Notty into a 1.053 wort. One pack, properly rehydrated, is plenty of cells to handle 5.25g of wort up to 1.060. Did your buddy that's been making beer for a while tell you to rehydrate your dry yeast or just sprinkle it dry into the wort? If he said to sprinkle dry, kick him again.

 

[DirtyOldDuck]

What BigFloyd said.

 

[jimmy_chitwood]

In this case, I'd suggest kicking your buddy for telling you that. You didn't do yourself any favors transferring to a secondary that soon. It would have had a better chance achieving full attenuation had you left it in the primary longer. Nottingham would've been fine at that temp. I've intentionally run it as low as 55*F (in a controlled fermenter chamber) for the first week and then slowly raised it to 64* for another week (no secondary) and got a really nice faux-lager result.

Gaylord is correct about not needing to pitch two packs of Notty into a 1.053 wort. One pack, properly rehydrated, is plenty of cells to handle 5.25g of wort up to 1.060. Did your buddy that's been making beer for a while tell you to rehydrate your dry yeast or just sprinkle it dry into the wort? If he said to sprinkle dry, kick him again.

i'll kick him!

 

[jimmy_chitwood]

Well, I bottled it yesterday. We'll see how it turns out...total fermentation time was roughly two weeks.

 

[nelven34]

If the recipe called for DME and you used the same number of pounds of LME, you will have a lower gravity. Can't remember the conversion factor, so I'm gonna guesstimate 80% of sugars in LME compared to DME, which would work out to about your numbers.

 

[jimmy_chitwood]

If the recipe called for DME and you used the same number of pounds of LME, you will have a lower gravity. Can't remember the conversion factor, so I'm gonna guesstimate 80% of sugars in LME compared to DME, which would work out to about your numbers.

Ok, I didn't know that and that pretty much explains the low OG, thanks.

 

[BigFloyd]

Yeah. DME is basically LME without the water. That's why it's more potent per pound.