I'll relax and have a homebrew, but tell me this...

[texasgeorge]

Does this picture just look like a case of "your yeast got too cold and stopped doing stuff?"

Reason I ask... I put the carboy in the blue cooler (left) and put a 2-liter frozen bottle in with it (right), THEN wrapped towels over the top to create an insulator. I measured the temperature and it was in the low 60's F. It's an ale, so I know that's pretty low... too low for yeast to do anything besides settle to the bottom?

And if so, will heating it back up to 72ish get these boys rolling again? You can see the relatively small amount of krausen stuck to the sides there.

Thanks for the refreshing words, or words of failure, whichever the case may be

 

[Beermaker]

Thats good. Looks ok to me. How long has it been in primary? Kraisen looks normal, and trub looks normal too.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I measured the temperature and it was in the low 60's F. It's an ale, so I know that's pretty low... too low for yeast to do anything besides settle to the bottom?

Low 60's is definitely not too low for ales. I fermented all my ales all winter at 63 F. (I have those therm strips on all my carboys and cornys). They did just fine. If I'm not mistaken, the optimal ale fermentation temp is 55-70F. Someone out there correct me if I'm wrong.
What's the gravity at right now? You're probably ready to rack to secondary.

 

[texasgeorge]

I put it in primary last tuesday night/wednesday morning. It's been chilly for much of the weekend. A gravity reading wouldn't be very helpful because I didn't get a good reading before I started fermentation. You see, I didn't account for evaporation during my boil so I had to add water after I saw how low it was in the carboy after trasfering from my boiling pot. I think there's a shade under 5 gallons in there now but I really don't know for sure. I'm going to leave it out of the ice chest overnight and check it tomorrow morning to see if there's any new activity.

But yeah, she looks tasty.... and if nothing else, it's still BEER!

 

[waskelton4]

george,

I'm in the EXACT same situation as you except my 2 liter wasn't a coke zero bottle..
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8667

my krausen has fallen too and the bubbling has slowed greatly.

i'm not sure i can offer anything but i'll be checking back to see what sort of replies you'll be getting..

ws

 

[uglygoat]

krausen has dropped already it looks like... another week in the primary will not hurt it.

what kind of yeast did you use? do you know the optimal range for the strain of yeast?

 

[texasgeorge]

what kind of yeast did you use? do you know the optimal range for the strain of yeast?

It's the white labs WLP001. According to their website the optimal temp for it is (I believe) 65-73 F.

What would it mean if the temp was above or below this range?

 

[user 574]

It's the white labs WLP001. According to their website the optimal temp for it is (I believe) 65-73 F.

What would it mean if the temp was above or below this range?

Higher than optimum will provide off flavors and a faster ferment which fast isn't always a good thing if higher than desired temps per the yeast. Lower will only create a slower or perhaps stalled ferment. You are always better served to be on the low end of a yeast optimum range. It may take longer but your beer will thank you for it.