Another fermentation question

[bb40bball]

Hi all. Yesterday I brewed an AHS Coffee Sout and pitched white labs London ale yeast at 75°. I put it in a cooler room in my basement, hoping to ferment at the lower temp range for the yeast, which said 66-71. I checked today and the thermostrip says it's 61°. There is no activity from the airlock. Do i:

1. Leave it and hope that the temp comes up.

2. Move it to a warmer room with an ambient temp of 66°.

I have also read of air leaks around the bucket lid or in the airlock itself. How would I check for that?

Thanks for the help.

 

[jbsg02]

Did you pitch one vial into 5 gallons? If so, you under-pitched a bit, they will need some time to grow. I would leave it in the cooler basement until fermentation begins to wind down and then take it into the warmer room when it's close to final gravity. At 61 degrees ambient, the main part of fermentation may be around the 66 degree mark. Growing in the cooler environment should help suppress esters, but don't let it cool back down when fermentation starts winding down. English strains flocculate better and you will want to encourage them to finish up by moving them to a slightly warmer environment to help clean up things like diacetyl.

 

[shtoive87]

Can you see inside the fermenter? There should be krausen during the main part of active fermentation. I'd be inclined to move it to a bit warmer place if there's nothing.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

To check the seal press lightly on the lid of the bucket. If it is sealed well then you should see bubbles in the air lock.

If the bucket is in a water bath then the temperature inside normally stays within a degree of the water bath. If it's not in a water bath then it could be several degrees warmer than the air temperature as others said.

If you have a IR thermometer you can get a pretty good idea of the temperature inside the bucket by measuring the temperature on the outside of the bucket near the bottom.

Personally I would avoid opening the fermentor. I've found the more you mess with the beer the higher your chances are that you'll mess it up, but that's just my opinion.

 

[bb40bball]

I moved it into a room that was slightly warmer before going to bed last night. And wouldn't you know, bubbling quite nicely this morning. Bucket thermo strip says 66. Thanks for the advice!