Lower than expected fermenting temp

[pudland]

Hello all,
I brewed a Brew-Ha-Ha variation Sunday. Sunday night I had to use the freezer side of my fermentation chamber to temporarily store some beef. Monday morning I saw the primary temp was 52 f. The Nottingham Ale yeast did start and has a healthy head as of today. I got the meat out today and the temp is slowly coming up to the target of 67, it's at 56.
My question is, what could be the results of starting fermentation at a low temp then raising to my 67 deg target?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[Zepth]

I'm in a similar boat. Things got a little cooler than expected and my ferm room temp dropped. Currently I've got a Belgian at 13C (55f ?), and a slightly older batch of red ale split us-05 and wy1084. Belgian still has krausen, the others dropped it before cold snap. All 3 show signs of airlock activity. Since it hasn't warmed up as of yet it leads me to believe that they're all still chugging along slowly.

Of course this happens when my last part needed for the ferm chamber is in the mail. Prepare for summer... Then cold snap and you're too cold. Damned nature. I'm willing to bet that all our batches are going to be fine. Biggest threat as far as I can tell is the temp dropping when yeast are in the "clean up" phase and never getting around to it.

 

[govner1]

Hello all,
I brewed a Brew-Ha-Ha variation Sunday. Sunday night I had to use the freezer side of my fermentation chamber to temporarily store some beef. Monday morning I saw the primary temp was 52 f. The Nottingham Ale yeast did start and has a healthy head as of today. I got the meat out today and the temp is slowly coming up to the target of 67, it's at 56.
My question is, what could be the results of starting fermentation at a low temp then raising to my 67 deg target?

Thanks,
Adam

I always try to start low when I pitch my yeast and let it rise to my target temp. It's less stress on the yeast.

 

[BigFloyd]

Hello all,
I brewed a Brew-Ha-Ha variation Sunday. Sunday night I had to use the freezer side of my fermentation chamber to temporarily store some beef. Monday morning I saw the primary temp was 52 f. The Nottingham Ale yeast did start and has a healthy head as of today. I got the meat out today and the temp is slowly coming up to the target of 67, it's at 56.
My question is, what could be the results of starting fermentation at a low temp then raising to my 67 deg target?

Thanks,
Adam

Fortunately, Nottingham is much more tolerant of cooler temps than most ale yeasts. I've gotten good activity from it at 55*F and a very clean tasting result.

I'd not take this up to 67 though with that strain. Raise it to 62-63 a few days and let it finish no higher than 65.

 

[pudland]

Fortunately, Nottingham is much more tolerant of cooler temps than most ale yeasts. I've gotten good activity from it at 55*F and a very clean tasting result.

I'd not take this up to 67 though with that strain. Raise it to 62-63 a few days and let it finish no higher than 65.

I had a blow out with my last batch at 67 by the 2nd day. I'll set the chamber to 65 and see what happens. My understanding is that lower temps for that strain yield less fruity esters etc.. correct?

 

[BigFloyd]

I had a blow out with my last batch at 67 by the 2nd day. I'll set the chamber to 65 and see what happens. My understanding is that lower temps for that strain yield less fruity esters etc.. correct?

Yep. Some of those esters can get rather funky if you run it above 68.

A blow out is not necessarily a good thing. In a non-wheat beer, it's often indicative of either not enough headspace or too high of a pitch/ferment temp or a combination of the two.

 

[pudland]

I use a 6.5 gallon carboy for my 5 gallon batches. The last nottingham batch was fermented at 67 deg and had a blow out. This one is about 5 inches from the airlock after 3 days so I think I'm safe at this point.

 

[Zepth]

I use a 6.5 gallon carboy for my 5 gallon batches. The last nottingham batch was fermented at 67 deg and had a blow out. This one is about 5 inches from the airlock after 3 days so I think I'm safe at this point.

Be careful. Particularly since this is the batch that is (just finished?) ramping in temperature. Many a brewer thought they were safe from blow off and a seemingly slight increase in fermentation temperature taught them otherwise.

 

[paperairplane]

OMGYOUREDOOMEDITSTHEENDOFTHEWORLDWEARENOTGONNAMAKEIT

What's that thing that brewers say when things aren't 100% to plan - oh yeah, RDWHAHB. The yeast know their business. It'll be fine.

I use S05 all the time and basically do this on purpose.

 

[Chadwick]

Considering that you are brewing with Nottingham, I don't think the low temps won't cause anything other than an exceptionally clean tasting beer.

 

[pudland]

I'm not worried about a blow out. I would guess that a blowout during highly active fermentation would mean the CO2 being expelled from the mouth of the carboy would keep it free of oxygen. I check on them daily during this time. I sanitize a new airlock, stopper and clean the inside of the mouth and reattach.

I'm liking the "clean tasting beer" idea. I have read that in numerous posts.