Fermenter drop to 50F for 3+ days... power outage

[Willibauer]

Hey all,

Brewing a clone Pale Ale. Everything going well, into the fermenter on Dec 17th. Very vigorous fermentation started the morning of the 19th bringing the temp up to 69F at 8pm that night from 64F that morning. Then the next morning, 20th, a power outage for almost 4 days. Temp in the house drops along with the fermenter. Dropped steadily bottoming at 50F by the morning of the 22nd. Staying there for a couple days. Power back on later on the 23rd and the temp climbed back to 64F over a week or so in the fermenter.

Ended up leaving the brew in the primary until Jan 11th. Almost 4 weeks. Holidays got in the way and I couldn't get to it. FG was on target (as was the OG). So fermentation seemed fine. I figured everything would be fine. Was supposed to bottle after 2 weeks, but oh well.

Tried a bottle yesterday (6 days in bottle). Not fully carbonated yet which I'm used to when I sneak one early. But it also had some weird fruity smells I wasn't expecting and I want to say a soapy type of taste. Very faint, almost the taste you get as if eat a dishsoap bubble.

The good news is it's still not bad and I'm thinking will only get better with time. Probably won't be giving much of this one away if it stays like this, so more for me. Definitely drinkable.

Anyways, anyone else have a rapid sudden temp drop during fermentation and did it mess anything up?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I haven't had that issue, but a sudden temperature drop during fermentation is likely to cause some stress on the yeast, which could lead to some unintended off flavours. The good news is that bottle conditioning gives another chance for yeast to clean up the off flavours. I don't know how you can drink a beer after 6 days in the bottle - I find it tastes awful and nothing like the completely carbonated beer!

 

[Calder]

Temp drop would not cause a flavor issue. The 'soap' flavor has come from something else. All that happened when the temp dropped is the yeast went dormant,but as temps came up, they started work again. Off flavors with yeast are due to incorrect pitch amounts, aeration, and high temperatures.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

The soap flavor is from fatty acids in the yeast and yeast byproducts breaking down. They basically do turn to soap. If you leave beer on the yeast for extended periods of time, and not in very cold temps, soap will happen. Sorry, it's not going to go away. It wont hurt you. If it was really strong, it may give you a case of the goose squirts, but at those kinda levels, you probably wouldn't drink it anyway.

Soap flavor is uncommon and rarely discussed because most brewers want to enjoy their creation as soon as its done. It's rare that it gets left in the fermenter for that long. The more common problems are diacetyl or other funks with to higher temps, rapid fermentation, and/or kegging too early thus not giving the yeast enough time to clean itself up and settle out.

Oh, and dropping your temps didn't do a thing. The yeast took a nap until they warmed up. To kill any of the yeast, you would have had to create a solid block of ice in your fermenter, thus kinda exploding the yeast cells. Or, keep them cold dormant for many weeks. They wont generate off flavors when they are sleeping.

 

[Soulshine2]

Hey all,

Brewing a clone Pale Ale. Everything going well, into the fermenter on Dec 17th. Very vigorous fermentation started the morning of the 19th bringing the temp up to 69F at 8pm that night from 64F that morning. Then the next morning, 20th, a power outage for almost 4 days. Temp in the house drops along with the fermenter. Dropped steadily bottoming at 50F by the morning of the 22nd. Staying there for a couple days. Power back on later on the 23rd and the temp climbed back to 64F over a week or so in the fermenter.

Ended up leaving the brew in the primary until Jan 11th. Almost 4 weeks. Holidays got in the way and I couldn't get to it. FG was on target (as was the OG). So fermentation seemed fine. I figured everything would be fine. Was supposed to bottle after 2 weeks, but oh well.

Tried a bottle yesterday (6 days in bottle). Not fully carbonated yet which I'm used to when I sneak one early. But it also had some weird fruity smells I wasn't expecting and I want to say a soapy type of taste. Very faint, almost the taste you get as if eat a dishsoap bubble.

The good news is it's still not bad and I'm thinking will only get better with time. Probably won't be giving much of this one away if it stays like this, so more for me. Definitely drinkable.

Anyways, anyone else have a rapid sudden temp drop during fermentation and did it mess anything up?

I let mine condition 2 weeks , no less. why rush it, if its so close ?

 

[Willibauer]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I had a friend taste it without telling him what I thought was wrong and he enjoyed it. After telling him he still didn't really get what I was tasting, maybe a very small amount, not noticeable unless you're really looking for it.

As well, a couple of you asked why I drink it so early. That was my 5th brew of my "career" so I've been trying to get a feel for what a "green" brew tastes like. I'll take notes and compare it to my other tasting as it ages. Each brew so far has 6+ pages in my notebook...lol.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Cheers