fermenting temps, too low?

[PitRow]

Ok, I have my first homebrew in probably 15 years sitting in the fermenter and I'm curious about fermenting temp.

If it matters its a BBS summer wheat kit with unlabelled yeast, so I can't really look up what the proper range is, however a couple days into fermentation I checked the temp and it was running 70-72 degrees, which I recall being at the upper end of ale yeast temps without running into off flavors. So I gave it the old wet t-shirt wrap and now it's sitting at about 60 - 62 degrees depending on where I check it.

In all my previous home brewing I never bothered too much with fermenting temps, just let it go in my garage which stayed on the cool side, but I never really cared to check. So this is all new to me.

Anyway, is that too low for ale yeast? Should I try to bring the temp up a couple degrees?

 

[ong]

60-62 should be ok for most ale yeasts. Ideally you would pitch a little bit below your target temp and then warm to that temperature -- the early part of fermentation is the most critical, and fermentation itself will raise the temperature of the wort a few degrees.

 

[shaneshepherd]

Without knowing the exact yeast strain, it's hard to know for sure. My best guess would be that that 60-62 is very much on the low side of what is viable for an ale yeast suitable for that style of beer. If it were my beer, I would try to get it back up around 66-68. That being said, I've fermented plenty of beers at 70-74 and they turned out great! I try not to sweat the temperature too much unless it starts reaching extremes...I doubt 70 is too extreme for what you're brewing (my 2 cents)

 

[GHBWNY]

Without knowing the exact yeast strain, it's hard to know for sure. My best guess would be that that 60-62 is very much on the low side of what is viable for an ale yeast suitable for that style of beer. If it were my beer, I would try to get it back up around 66-68. That being said, I've fermented plenty of beers at 70-74 and they turned out great! I try not to sweat the temperature too much unless it starts reaching extremes...I doubt 70 is too extreme for what you're brewing (my 2 cents)

This^ According to some comments I've read on this kit, it's more than likely Munton's ale yeast, pretty much the cheapest yeast there is.

 

[flars]

Your fermentation temperature could be good if the wet t-shirt is covering the thermometer. The wet t-shirt will be cooling the thermometer more than the wort.
64° to 68° may be the optimum temperature for the ale yeast.

 

[PitRow]

yeah I was using my I.R. thermo so it should have been measuring the surface temperature of the carboy that had the wet shirt against it. I did pull the shirt away, but I'm sure it's not an entirely accurate temp reading. I just don't want to pop the airlock out to stick a probe in there.

I'll probably pull the shirt off a little bit and hopefully get the temps up a couple degrees, but as you can tell I'm not overly concerned about it, otherwise I would have been on here asking immediately.

Anyway I did some looking online and I only found two references to the yeast that it might be and that's either Munton as noted above or Coopers.

If it's Munton then 72 was a little on the warm side and 62 is a little cold, since it's range is 64-70. And if it's Coopers then 72 would have been ok, but 62 is pretty far below it's range of 65-75. I suppose the smart thing to do would have been to ask BBS before I started, but oh well.

Either way, it's not going to change much at this point! We'll see how it turns out in a couple weeks.

 

[shaneshepherd]

yeah I was using my I.R. thermo so it should have been measuring the surface temperature of the carboy that had the wet shirt against it. I did pull the shirt away, but I'm sure it's not an entirely accurate temp reading. I just don't want to pop the airlock out to stick a probe in there.

I'll probably pull the shirt off a little bit and hopefully get the temps up a couple degrees, but as you can tell I'm not overly concerned about it, otherwise I would have been on here asking immediately.

Anyway I did some looking online and I only found two references to the yeast that it might be and that's either Munton as noted above or Coopers.

If it's Munton then 72 was a little on the warm side and 62 is a little cold, since it's range is 64-70. And if it's Coopers then 72 would have been ok, but 62 is pretty far below it's range of 65-75. I suppose the smart thing to do would have been to ask BBS before I started, but oh well.

Either way, it's not going to change much at this point! We'll see how it turns out in a couple weeks.

Good luck! Hopefully you'll be drinking home brew soon!