Need help - Did I ruin my batch?

[NWDuck]

I brewed on sunday, everything went great.. In its primary fermenter it seemed very active and was doing good.. on tuesday it had really slowed, like one bubble every 45 seconds.. on wednesday we had a snow storm and the temp dropped to below 59 degrees in the fermenter.. it was boubling once every 2 or 3 minutes.. My local store told me to move it into the secondary fermenter and i did on wednesday.. I siphoned it in and have moved it to a warmer spot in my house.. I am wondering did this ruin my beer? It only being n the primary fermenter for 3 days? Keep in mind this is the first time i've brewed... But dang did i love it! I just hope i didnt ruin my beer and it is non drinkable..

 

[Revvy]

No, but I wouldn't have moved it to a secondary. That really wouldn't have served any purpose for anything having to do with the beer getting too cold. I

If you had come to us, we would have told you to throw a blanket or two on it and find the warmest place in your place and to have relaxed.

I just posted this in another thread.

FYI, as long as the world or your house doesn't freeze solid, all that would happen if at the low temp end of the yeast (usually the low 50's for an ale) is that the yeast would go dormant. They would hibernate like a bear. Yes fermentation would stop then....But as soon as the ambient temps rose above the dormancy temp, they would wake up and get back to work, they'd find the un eaten sugars and eat them. Worst thing you might have to do is swirl the fermenter to kick them out of bed and back into the factory.

Cool temps are never the end of the world.

Freezing solid? That's a different story most of the yeast cells would burst. But I think you'd be doing something in the house for your comfort long before you'd worry about the fermenter freezing.

Bubbling, or lack of bubbling or rate of bubbling means nothing, it's not a fermentation gauge, it's a vent for offgassing. It slowed down, more than likely because fermentation was (NORMALLY) winding down anyway.

I suggest now you take a gravity reading to see where the beer is at. Now. But your beer is more than likely fine.

In most cases "fixing" something is worse than letting things alone....Yes, it's pretty hard to screw this up. Yeast wants to make beer, it's in their dna...Their sole purpose in life is to ****, then eat sugar, and fart co2, and pee alcohol. It takes a lot to dissuade them. They're like horny frat boys during rush week.

Beer has been brewed with yeast that sat in Amber for 45 million years, in every conceivable temp swing and environmental situation imaginable. Once you realize how hardy it is, you relax more.

 

[karljrberno]

O-It will be drinkable , The primary/majority fermentation happens in the the first 72hrs then it will gradually slow , As long as the temp change was not very sudden (That would kill the yeast) then you should be ok , but I would get it to the warm spot and leave it there . Did you pitch more yeast when you transferred

 

[NWDuck]

O-It will be drinkable , The primary/majority fermentation happens in the the first 72hrs then it will gradually slow , As long as the temp change was not very sudden (That would kill the yeast) then you should be ok , but I would get it to the warm spot and leave it there . Did you pitch more yeast when you transferred

I didnt pitch more yeast, but there is a fair amount of yeast flakes sitting on top of the beer.. ive moved it to a warmer spot and wrapped it in blankets.. i did take gravity reading, and i believe it was 1.020 before i moved it to the secondary.. is there a possiblity that it was moved to early and no alcohol will be present in the beer?

 

[JonK331]

If there is a difference between the OG and 1.020 then there's already alcohol in the beer. Just sit back and let it do it's thing for a while longer. The FG will most likely drop a few more points and you'll have a fine beer.

 

[NWDuck]

Great! Thanks for all the help.. I'll let you know how it turns out!