58-60 Degree Fermentation

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

So, I'm new to the forum. Been brewing since January and had a couple of questions.

1. My Oatmeal Stout has been in secondary for about 15 days. The temperature has been steady with the Fermometer showing about 58-60. I know that lower temps are better for less esters. So, when it comes to bottling is it okay to bottle at that temperature??

2. I'm thinking about using 3/4 cup priming sugar to 1 cup water. Is that enough to give a good stout head on it or should I add a bit more to the mix??

This is a 5 Gallon batch. Used Irish Ale Yeast.

Thanks for the help!


Bottled: Cascadian Dark Ale, Hefewizen
Secondary: Oatmeal Stout
Planned: Vanilla Porter, Warrior IPA, APA

 

[pdxal]

Not sure about the temperature range on that yeast, you'll have to look up how it performs at that low a temperature.
The beer is ready to bottle when gravity is not changing over successive measurements and the beer is no longer "green" tasting.
If you are sure about your volume of beer to be bottled (don't forget trub is taking up volume in the fermentor) 3/4 cup corn sugar would be OK, but it is better to use an online carbonation calculator like this: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html and then go by weight of the sugar. You can also use table sugar and save money instead of using corn sugar.

 

[BigFloyd]

Why would you put an oatmeal stout in a secondary?

Weigh your priming sugar and use one of the online calcs. I'd prime it for 2.5 volumes of CO2 if you want a typical carb level for drinking. A "good stout head" comes from more than just carbonation, although that is one of the factors.

Have you taken a gravity reading?

 

[Calder]

What yeast? What OG and FG? Reason I ask is you say secondaried at 58-60 F. This is too cool for most ale yeasts, and if it wasn't finished during primary, it may still have fermentables in it.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I would just add: let the bottles warm up after bottling to 70-75 for faster carbonation.

 

[BigFloyd]

What yeast? What OG and FG? Reason I ask is you say secondaried at 58-60 F. This is too cool for most ale yeasts, and if it wasn't finished during primary, it may still have fermentables in it.

I believe he mentioned Irish ale yeast. The White Labs strain is one that I'd want to start around 63-64*F and end closer to 70. At 58*F, it may have slowed down or gone dormant. That, combined with taking it out of the primary too soon, may have left the ferment incomplete.

If you take that beer now, without being certain that it's done fermenting, toss 3/4 cup of sugar in and bottle, you're looking at potential problems. The kind that make loud noises and big messes (usually in the middle of the night).

I'd take a hydro reading, put it somewhere that's 68-70*F and let it sit a few more days, then take another hydro. If they are the same and not abnormally high, only then would I feel comfy going to bottle.

 

[kh54s10]

You will want to bottle condition a little warmer. At approximately 70 degrees you should count on 3 weeks. If it is in the low sixties add another couple of weeks and lower than that expect bottle conditioning to take several months. Aim for 70 degrees and 3 weeks.

 

[RM-MN]

Each yeast you use has it own preferred temperature range so you should read the literature about the yeast you want to use. The time when the yeast creates esters is during the fast ferment, say the first 3 to 5 days. When that ferment slows down, you can let the beer warm up so the yeast can clean up any off flavors they produced and complete the ferment. Your yeast are shivering in that 58-60 degree range and they don't do much work then. Warm the beer up for a week, something like 72 to 75 degrees and then start taking hydrometer samples, 2 to 3 days apart to verify that it is done. You may have to swirl the fermenter to get more yeast in suspension so they will finish.

Here's a nice article about the life cycle of the yeast. http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

I put the the beer in secondary after 12 days in primary to get it off of the trub. My OG was 1.065 and when I placed it into second it read 1.024. The second reason for putting it into secondary was to give it more time to completely finish fermentation. Which, obviously, was a whole lot slower than I anticipated due to the colder temperatures. But, it was basically finished after primary.

I bottled the Stout on Friday night and got a FG reading of 1.019 which was a little bit higher than I expected. I was hoping for 1.014 but it's still close. The taste is exceptional and I fully expect the head retention to be outstanding. Overall it was a better experience than I would have originally thought.

FYI I think the temperature in the center of the carboy was at 62-64 degrees. The sides were slightly cooler.

My original worry was bottling the beer at such a low temperature. I'm reasonably sure after my first two bottles went crazy foam on me (about 30% of the bottle) that it'll be fine. Hopefully, I won't have any casualties before getting to try it.

 

[RM-MN]

I put the the beer in secondary after 12 days in primary to get it off of the trub. My OG was 1.065 and when I placed it into second it read 1.024. The second reason for putting it into secondary was to give it more time to completely finish fermentation. Which, obviously, was a whole lot slower than I anticipated due to the colder temperatures. But, it was basically finished after primary.

I bottled the Stout on Friday night and got a FG reading of 1.019 which was a little bit higher than I expected. I was hoping for 1.014 but it's still close. The taste is exceptional and I fully expect the head retention to be outstanding. Overall it was a better experience than I would have originally thought.

FYI I think the temperature in the center of the carboy was at 62-64 degrees. The sides were slightly cooler.

My original worry was bottling the beer at such a low temperature. I'm reasonably sure after my first two bottles went crazy foam on me (about 30% of the bottle) that it'll be fine. Hopefully, I won't have any casualties before getting to try it.

Do you have solid reasoning for removing your beer from that trub or are you making that decision based on information that is 30 to 40 year old. I've left beer on the trub for 9 weeks with no ill effects and I have heard of others that think I bottled it plenty soon. That trub contains lots of yeast and while some think it is dead, it seems to still be active and helping with completing the ferment. ]

One of the people on another forum used a thermowell to measure the center of the wort and another thermometer on the outside of the fermenter to compare this expected difference and found a half degree difference was all.

If you open a bottle too soon so it hasn't had time for the yeast to settle out, it will get really foamy since the suspended yeast create a place for the CO2 to accumulate, much like particles of sugar would. Try it sometime, pour beer into a glass and dump in a little sugar. Be prepared for a volcano.

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

I suppose it's just a rookie move. I'm still learning on how each beer needs to be taken care of. This Stout had a ton of fermentable sugars in it. Therefore, a ton of trub (probably close to 1-2 pounds).

I kept the beer in primary for what I deemed quite a while and thought it best to rack it to a clean environment. My intention was to get a clean, crisp and creamy Stout without all the extra crud in it. I hope I was going in the right direction to do this.

My next beer I am making is going to be a Honey IPA. A recipe that I made myself.

7 LBS DME Extra Light
2 LBS Clover Honey (Last 5 of boil)

1.5 LBS Caramel 10L
1 LBS of Carapils

1oz Centennial (60 min)
1oz Amarillo (30 min)
2oz Cascade (15 min)
1oz each Centennial and Amarillo (10 min)

Wyeast 1056 pitched at 77 degrees

Color 6L
OG - 1.074
FG - 1.019
ABV 7.3%
IBU 86

Not sure if the Honey flavor will be much. Mostly interested in the boost of ABV with a slight honey flavor in the background.

 

[Wynne-R]

WLP004 is listed as optimum 65-68F. I think that’s the minimum. In my experience it won’t start below 65F. I have used it as hot as 80F without serious flaws.

I used that yeast many times and I never could get it to clear in primary. You can leave it in primary as long as you want and it begins to clear as soon you put it in secondary.

I cold crashed a primary one time and it cleared nicely until it warmed back up. Stupid yeast un-flocculated.

 

[RM-MN]

You'll likely get more honey flavor if you steep half a pound or so of honey malt. I think it could just be added to your recipe without other changes. Try to pitch your yeast much cooler and keep it cooler for the first 4 or 5 days. Too hot of a ferment will get you an hot alcohol burn that isn't terribly pleasant. I'd try to have that wort in the low 60's before I pitched the yeast.

 

[pdxal]

I suppose it's just a rookie move. I'm still learning on how each beer needs to be taken care of. This Stout had a ton of fermentable sugars in it. Therefore, a ton of trub (probably close to 1-2 pounds).

I kept the beer in primary for what I deemed quite a while and thought it best to rack it to a clean environment. My intention was to get a clean, crisp and creamy Stout without all the extra crud in it. I hope I was going in the right direction to do this.

My next beer I am making is going to be a Honey IPA. A recipe that I made myself.

7 LBS DME Extra Light
2 LBS Clover Honey (Last 5 of boil)

1.5 LBS Caramel 10L
1 LBS of Carapils

1oz Centennial (60 min)
1oz Amarillo (30 min)
2oz Cascade (15 min)
1oz each Centennial and Amarillo (10 min)

Wyeast 1056 pitched at 77 degrees

Color 6L
OG - 1.074
FG - 1.019
ABV 7.3%
IBU 86

Not sure if the Honey flavor will be much. Mostly interested in the boost of ABV with a slight honey flavor in the background.

That is a crap ton of crystal malt in the recipe. DME has some crystal, and 2.5lbs in C10 and carapils will be an overload. Many people avoid more than about a pound total of crystal malts to avoid overly sweet beers with too much mouthfeel. You should also have an OG closer to 1.093 with that, and I'd doubt you could squeeze 86 IBUs from that recipe.
Make what you want, and maybe you'll like it, but IMO the recipe could use some tweaking.

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

Bottled my Oatmeal Stout on 10/12/13 and I tried a bottle about a week ago. Awesome! Came out to about 5.5%ABV and 25 IBU. Perfect balance, flavor and chocolate/coffee flavors. Nice medium brown head with decent lacing. Really excited to see what it tastes like around Christmas time!

 

[Wynne-R]

Gotta love a story with a happy ending.

Slainté

 

[pdxal]

Glad the stout turned out. Cheers.

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

Update

I still have 1 22oz Oatmeal Stout left in bottle. I've been waiting to drink it until it hit the 1-year mark in the bottle. I tried one at 10 months and it was fantastic. Huge roasty notes with a slight hoppy kick at the end. I'm reasonably impressed at how it aged. Although, after looking at my comments, I'm proud to say I'm not such a newb anymore haha!