Room temperature too cold for proper fermentation?

[user 336313]

So, at the brewery we can cool our fermentation tanks, but we cannot heat them. Also the brewery itself can't be heated. Now in wintertime the temp will drop to 15C/ 59F. I notice some tanks dropping down to that temperature too, once the rigorous stage of primary fermentation is over. This leads me to suspect that the beers aren't fermented out all the way. I mean, preferably you would want secondary fermentation to be a little warmer, not way cooler. Any thoughts? (I'm using ale yeasts, not lager yeasts, obviously.)

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Any thoughts?

There appear to be a couple of strains of ale yeast (Nottingham, US-05) that work in this temperature range. Not everyone gets peach flavors from US-05 ; or maybe they use complementary hops in their recipes.

I have read / heard that some lager yeast strains work well in this temperature range.

Another option would be to ferment warmer with some type of temperature control. There was a recent discussion (link) where brewers offered ideas for fermentation control using common (USA) house-hold equipment. By checking the fermentation twice a day (and making adjustments) one could ferment in the 65F range (and 'step up' the temperature at the end of the fermentation). Batch sizes were in the 3 gal range.

 

[IslandLizard]

How big are your fermentation tanks?
Are they jacketed?

But sure, after the exothermic part of the fermentation process comes to an end, your beer will take on ambient temps, if you don't add any heat.

 

[user 336313]

There appear to be a couple of strains of ale yeast (Nottingham, US-05) that work in this temperature range. Not everyone gets peach flavors from US-05 ; or maybe they use complementary hops in their recipes.

I have read / heard that some lager yeast strains work well in this temperature range.

Another option would be to ferment warmer with some type of temperature control. There was a recent discussion (link) where brewers offered ideas for fermentation control using common (USA) house-hold equipment. By checking the fermentation twice a day (and making adjustments) one could ferment in the 65F range (and 'step up' the temperature at the end of the fermentation). Batch sizes were in the 3 gal range.

This is certainly true. I've fermented Nottingham and Kölsh yeast cold.

 

[user 336313]

How big are your fermentation tanks?
Are they jacketed?

But sure, after the exothermic part of the fermentation process comes to an end, your beer will take on ambient temps, if you don't add any heat.

1000 liters/ 264 gallons each.

 

[IslandLizard]

1000 liters/ 264 gallons each.

After the big fermentation event has completed, it will take some time, possibly several days, for that volume/mass to drop down to ambient temps, giving the beer the needed time to complete fermentation. Perhaps you can reduce or even shut off actively chilling those fermenters when they reach the end of fermentation, in order to retain the intrinsic heat for a couple more days?

Or when ferm temps would be dropping too low to finish out, maybe reroute the warmer coolant from active fermenters toward those that are finishing up?

Needless to say, topics like these would be better handled on Pro Brewing forums. There are quite a few around.

 

[SanPancho]

1000 liters/ 264 gallons each.

Your main problems are going to be esters and potentially díacetyl. A temperature program that starts warm and finishes cool will tend to retain esters. So your recipes wil turn out differently in summer vs winter, yes? You can fight this with a larger pitch of yeast and some extra oxygen In winter, vs summer.

the diacetyl issue comes from ”hop creep”. (In our experience) You can either dry hop sooner, during active fermentation. Or you can do a “soft crash” down to 40-50F, and then dry hop.

Our brewery in Mexico had same problem with no heat. We learned a few things-
never chill all the way to pitch temp. We would chill to 68-70 if we wanted pitch temp to be 65. The wort will release heat to warm the tank a bit.
OR
do hot cleaning cycle on fermenter while wort is boiling. By the time we got the wort into tank it retained warmth and held proper temp to pitch.

Worst case-
if your yeast stalls from cold, point one of the these at bottom of cone to get temp back up. just basic infrared heat dish Optimus 14 in. Oscillating Dish Heater in Black 985117722M - The Home Depot

a more effective solution was to make a small heater for the glycol. We shut off the glycol supply/return connections. Added shutoff valves to the the glycol tubes (so the glycol didn’t spill out). And added a small triclamp pump and a RIMS tube with a heating element. then set the temp controller to turn the heating element off and on as needed. And it made a closed loop of “warm” glycol to not affect other tanks Or glycol reservoir.
someting like this pump
Tri-Clamp Mark II Beer Pump
and a rims tube
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832829584890.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt&_randl_shipto=US

 

[user 336313]

After the big fermentation event has completed, it will take some time, possibly several days, for that volume/mass to drop down to ambient temps, giving the beer the needed time to complete fermentation. Perhaps you can reduce or even shut off actively chilling those fermenters when they reach the end of fermentation, in order to retain the intrinsic heat for a couple more days?

Or when ferm temps would be dropping too low to finish out, maybe reroute the warmer coolant from active fermenters toward those that are finishing up?

Needless to say, topics like these would be better handled on Pro Brewing forums. There are quite a few around.

Cool, thanks. Do you happen to know a good forum like that?

 

[user 336313]

Your main problems are going to be esters and potentially díacetyl. A temperature program that starts warm and finishes cool will tend to retain esters. So your recipes wil turn out differently in summer vs winter, yes? You can fight this with a larger pitch of yeast and some extra oxygen In winter, vs summer.

the diacetyl issue comes from ”hop creep”. (In our experience) You can either dry hop sooner, during active fermentation. Or you can do a “soft crash” down to 40-50F, and then dry hop.

Our brewery in Mexico had same problem with no heat. We learned a few things-
never chill all the way to pitch temp. We would chill to 68-70 if we wanted pitch temp to be 65. The wort will release heat to warm the tank a bit.
OR
do hot cleaning cycle on fermenter while wort is boiling. By the time we got the wort into tank it retained warmth and held proper temp to pitch.

Worst case-
if your yeast stalls from cold, point one of the these at bottom of cone to get temp back up. just basic infrared heat dish Optimus 14 in. Oscillating Dish Heater in Black 985117722M - The Home Depot

a more effective solution was to make a small heater for the glycol. We shut off the glycol supply/return connections. Added shutoff valves to the the glycol tubes (so the glycol didn’t spill out). And added a small triclamp pump and a RIMS tube with a heating element. then set the temp controller to turn the heating element off and on as needed. And it made a closed loop of “warm” glycol to not affect other tanks Or glycol reservoir.
someting like this pump
Tri-Clamp Mark II Beer Pump
and a rims tube
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832829584890.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt&_randl_shipto=US

Thank you so much. It is indeed the diacetyl that worries me, since the temp will drop after primary fermentation. I like the idea of shooting heat at the bottom of the cone.

 

[SanPancho]

Thank you so much. It is indeed the diacetyl that worries me, since the temp will drop after primary fermentation. I like the idea of shooting heat at the bottom of the cone.

Make sure some of the infrared heat hits the bottom drain tube. That tube is welded to the inner jacket of the tank so it seems to carry heat to the beer better than just pointing the heater directly at the side wall where are two layers of steel with insulation.

you guys should sign up for probrewer.com forum. It’s mostly US brewers but there are quite a few euros as well as other international brewers there. probably won’t find info on this problem of needing heat (except maybe our posts from few years ago) but useful for pretty much everything else.
good luck