Post-fermentation temperature control...

[theo1069]

I am asking this more out of curiosity as I haven't been able to find an answer with the search (although I'm not really sure what to search for!)

I learned the hard way when I started brewing the importance of temperature control during fermentation. So I built myself a small fermentation chamber, but it only holds one carboy.... I am working on getting a chest freezer to make a bigger chamber....

Anyway now that this has grown past a hobby and into a legit obsession I obviously have more than 5 gallons fermenting at a time. I have been having success using the chamber that I have during the actual fermentation, then once my target gravity is reached (or a week or two or three...or until I brew again) I put the carboy in the basement which has been maintaining about 60-65 degrees. They sit there for about a month. My problem now is that with this crazy weather, the carboys and buckets in the basement have been flocculating more than normal. They were down to about 50 degrees yesterday.

I know I can do the water bath and such to maintain temps but I am curious as to how important temperature control is during the aging process? What might I notice in the end product?

 

[DrawTap88]

So long as fermentation is complete you're ok. The only thing that may affect the flavor of your beers is that the yeast may not clean up after themselves as quickly at 50 degrees instead of 60-65. Also, getting down that low makes the yeast flocculate, which isn't a bad thing and leads to increased flocculation as you've already seen. Long story short, if you're leaving them for a month, I believe you're still ok.

Are you moving the yeast off the yeast cake and into secondary after fermentation is complete?

 

[Hoosier]

+1 for everything DrawTap88 said. If you are within a point or 2 of your expected terminal gravity, temp becomes less critical and has little impact on overall flavor. It will need to sit on the yeast a little longer to finish up and round out.

 

[theo1069]

Are you moving the yeast off the yeast cake and into secondary after fermentation is complete?

I generally do not do a secondary... I have been getting great results with the month-long primary then cold crashing with gelatin for a few days prior to kegging.

 

[Homercidal]

I don't think that messing around with temps at that point is going to affect much. Once the initial fermentation is done, the amount of impact that temps have on the beer drops off considerably. Any affect temps have will be mostly long term. And cooler is better. If your temps are a bit cooler you may find that your beers take a little longer to mature, but for most styles this is ok.

Almost all of the problems related to fermentation temps are related to the vigorous initial fermenation. After the easy sugars have been consumed, there is not much left to cause a problem.

 

[DrawTap88]

I generally do not do a secondary... I have been getting great results with the month-long primary then cold crashing with gelatin for a few days prior to kegging.

Good to know. I wanted to make sure you weren't taking the yeast away from the food source before they were done.