Changed Fermentation Temp - what to expect?

[toolman]

Short Version : Had a 5 gallon APA carboy fermenting precisely at 66F in primary for 10 days. Now its at 50F. What effect can/should I expect?

Long Version : Moved it to garage and was planning to rack to secondary carboy and then cellar for 2 or more weeks. But before i could rack it to secondary I THREW OUT MY BACK and now the primary is stuck in the 2nd fridge that does not yet have a temp controller on it.... The warmest it will stay without turning off entirely is around 50F..... Not sure when I'll be able to rack it or bottle/keg... My wife is far too tiny to lift the carboy on my behalf.

Anyone had experience with such a temp change / fermentation schedule???

Thanks, Tim

 

[TopherM]

It's all going to depend on the yeast you used....for a typical ale yeast, 50F is too low, and most of your yeast culture will go dormant, meaning either a painfully slow or altogether stopped fermentation.

At this point, put the thing out at room temp (around 70F) for around 24 hours, swirl it a bit to resuspend the yeast being careful not to agitate and introduce oxygen, then if you can through it back in the fermentation chamber back around 66-68F.

 

[toolman]

I used White Labs California Ale. Fermentation seemed to have stopped when I moved it from original fridge (which was at 66F)

 

[TopherM]

Ah, that yeast is best at 68-73F, so you definitely sent the yeast hybernating at 50F. Follow the procedure I outlined above, and you'll be fine.

 

[toolman]

Short Version : Had a 5 gallon APA carboy fermenting precisely at 66F in primary for 10 days. Now its at 50F. What effect can/should I expect?

(White Labs California Ale Yeast)

Long Version : Moved it to garage and was planning to rack to secondary carboy and then cellar for 2 or more weeks. But before i could rack it to secondary I THREW OUT MY BACK and now the primary is stuck in the 2nd fridge that does not yet have a temp controller on it.... The warmest it will stay without turning off entirely is around 50F..... Not sure when I'll be able to rack it or bottle/keg... My wife is far too tiny to lift the carboy on my behalf.

Anyone had experience with such a temp change / fermentation schedule???

Thanks, Tim

 

[toolman]

Ah, that yeast is best at 68-73F, so you definitely sent the yeast hybernating at 50F. Follow the procedure I outlined above, and you'll be fine.

Should I just abandon the cellar attempt and bottle? As I said, it was 10 days and Ferm seemed to have stopped....

Thanks!!!

 

[TopherM]

Did you take a gravity reading?? If it is at the expected FG, sure, go ahead and bottle, but if you didn't take a reading, then there's really no way to tell, and the fact that you accidentally bumped this down to 50F warrants re-rousing the yeast...

Plenty of peeps will purposely cold crash beer between fermentation and bottling to help with clarity, so if you did reach FG before the drop in temp, it may have actually helped your beer.

 

[lowtones84]

If you were at 66F for 10 days I bet you reached final gravity by then. I'm not sure about 50 degrees, but I've definitely had that yeast keep working at under 60 degrees. My feeling is that you could let the beer sit at 50F for quite a while and everything would be fine. Since it's an APA I'm guessing it's not a terribly "big" beer?

 

[toolman]

Thanks for your tips.... How long can. Leave it in that state without suffering negative consequences?