Fermenting chamber got too cold. Can I save my beer?

[Megachimp]

Hey all,

Did a batch of beer this past weekend. I've got a chest freezer in a storage shed outside with a temp controller and a heating pad. I put the fermenter in Saturday night.

Never even dawned on me that the heating pad wouldn't be able to keep the inside of the freezer warm. In hindsight that wasn't very smart of me. I just go around to checking it this afternoon and noticed that the internal temp was down into the 50's, which probably means the inside of the freezer got down right cold over the last couple days. (probably down into the 30's)

So My fermenter has been sitting in sub-50 degree temps for the last three days. Ugh.

I took it out today and moved it into the house, but at this point is there any chance the yeast will do anything? Could I pitch new yeast into it? Is there anything I can do to save this batch or is it gone?

thanks in advance for the help.

 

[meatcleaver]

once it warms up it should take off & be fine. I doubt you hurt the yeast, just slowed em down a little.

 

[RevKev]

Hey all,

Did a batch of beer this past weekend. I've got a chest freezer in a storage shed outside with a temp controller and a heating pad. I put the fermenter in Saturday night.

Never even dawned on me that the heating pad wouldn't be able to keep the inside of the freezer warm. In hindsight that wasn't very smart of me. I just go around to checking it this afternoon and noticed that the internal temp was down into the 50's, which probably means the inside of the freezer got down right cold over the last couple days. (probably down into the 30's)

So My fermenter has been sitting in sub-50 degree temps for the last three days. Ugh.

I took it out today and moved it into the house, but at this point is there any chance the yeast will do anything? Could I pitch new yeast into it? Is there anything I can do to save this batch or is it gone?

thanks in advance for the help.

Yeast are pretty resiliant creatures. What did you pitch and into what did you pitch it?

 

[Megachimp]

Yeast are pretty resiliant creatures. What did you pitch and into what did you pitch it?

pitched some London ESB dry yeast that I had bloomed in some water beforehand.

I've moved my fermenter indoors where it'll hopefull warm up. Go yeast go!

 

[RevKev]

pitched some London ESB dry yeast that I had bloomed in some water beforehand.

I've moved my fermenter indoors where it'll hopefull warm up. Go yeast go!

Making the assumptions of proper pitch rate per °plato I'm willing to bet the yeast are just dormant.. with temperature increase they'll liven up but they may need some help.

 

[Beer-lord]

I recently did a batch that was about half frozen and had an 'iceberg' in it. I warmed it up, it started fermenting again, finished right a projected FG and I'm drinking it now and it's perfectly fine. Worse case is it takes longer to finish but as said already, warm it up and let it finish and you should be good to go.

 

[Megachimp]

I recently did a batch that was about half frozen and had an 'iceberg' in it. I warmed it up, it started fermenting again, finished right a projected FG and I'm drinking it now and it's perfectly fine. Worse case is it takes longer to finish but as said already, warm it up and let it finish and you should be good to go.

Ice beer. I think you're onto something! Thanks for the advice.

 

[Oldskewl]

Same thing happened to me last month. I had my Ferm chamber set up to cold crash my last beer. I didn't hit the save button on the STC-1000 when I changed the temp. So I woke up in the morning to 40 degree wort. Once I let it warm up, it fermented out fine. It just took a couple days longer than it should have.

 

[gunnuts]

I just brought a fermonster inside and put a Christmas hat on it.

It woke right back up.

 

[GHBWNY]

Yeast probably thought they were settling in for a long winter's nap. My guess is that when the wort gets warm again, they'll wake up, stretch a bit and go about their business of making your beer.

 

[Toga]

You should take a look at one of these. Will keep the freezer plenty warm when plugged into your controller. https://www.chewy.com/flukers-ceramic-reptile-heat-emitter/dp/129150?utm_source=shopzilla&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Fluker%27s&utm_campaign=N

 

[Morrey]

Toga is on to a major point of how to avoid this issue going forward.

Where and how do you have your temperature probe from the ATC taking the readings to control the heating unit?

Heating can be simple with a reptile lamp above, or I made a paint can lamp for $11 worth of parts from Lowes. With a 75w bulb in a 7 cu ft freezer, I can keep wort well over 80F in sub freezing temps in my outdoor shed.