Beginner's yeast questions

butch81385 · Oct 17, 2012

Hi everyone. New to the boards here, but I did plenty of reading before starting my first batch of beer (and IBA all grain beer).

So, I pitched my yeast on Saturday with the wort at 74F (White Labs California Ale yeast: http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp001.html). Started getting bubbles about 16 hours later. Bubbles had mostly stopped after about 1 day. I freaked out, went online, and found on here that this is normal and I relaxed. I did not take a reading with my hydrometer yet as I wanted to wait till this Saturday to do so when I rack to a secondary fermentation bucket (to act as a bright tank for about 3 weeks). I was afraid of contaminating the beer by having the lid off too long, not having things sanitized enough, etc.

So, fast forward to last night/this morning. I did not realize that my roommate turned the heat off when we had nicer weather this past week. Temps had stayed relatively constant between 68 and 70. Well, it got cold last night. Woke up and saw that the temperature in the room with the fermenter was 62 degrees. Quickly turned the furnace back on to get the temps back to normal. The yeast has an optimum temp range of 68-73.

My question: how much damage could dropping to 62 for one night do? Is it likely to go dormant, or are they tougher than that? Should I take a hydrometer reading today and tomorrow to see?

TLDR; Temp dropped to 62 overnight after 3 days. Will yeast go dormant? What to do?

jpabian · Oct 17, 2012

So, you pitched last Saturday and the temps dropped down for about 12 hours a couple of days later? I bet you'll be fine. I would take a reading tomorrow and see if you are on track if you feel like it.

Also, even thought the ambient temps dropped down to 62 over a short amount of time, 5+ gallons of wort probably didn't get close to ambient temps. Think back down long it took to cool your wort after boiling it!

As they say, relax and have a home brew!

freisste · Oct 17, 2012

You're all set. Likely the yeast had plenty of time to get through the bulk of fermentation. Also, your brew was probably warmer than the ambient air.

butch81385 · Oct 17, 2012

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I've searched the internet looking for answers, and have found plenty of people warning about getting too cold and stalling the yeast, and got worried. I mean, when the optimum range is only 5 degrees, going 5 degrees below that sounded chilly.

I am very curious to see how this beer tastes. Between having a boil-over after adding the first hops (did I lose much hop flavor?), to having the OG before fermentation lower than the recipe called for (1.047 instead of 1.067 I think, but the reading before the boil was on track and it wasn't mixed well before I took that reading), to not aerating much (except for transferring from containers) before pitching the yeast, to these temps.... I guess when you put a worrier in front of a multi-step process, there is alot for me to be concerned with! I just hope I end up with something drinkable

jpabian · Oct 17, 2012

butch81385 said:
I guess when you put a worrier in front of a multi-step process, there is alot for me to be concerned with! I just hope I end up with something drinkable

As you get more experienced, you'll worry less. I'm sure it's going to be great... however, if you need a second opinion, I'll be happy to try it!

:mug:

butch81385 · Oct 17, 2012

jpabian said:
As you get more experienced, you'll worry less. I'm sure it's going to be great... however, if you need a second opinion, I'll be happy to try it!

Haha. If you swing by the Pittsburgh area, maybe I'll pour a pint for you. The recipe is actually for Lakefront's IBA, so my buddy from Milwaukee is gonna try to send me a bottle of their beer so I can compare the two. I'm sure I'll like mine better.... lol