Nottingham Yeast - Temps

[whoneedsabeer]

I pitched my yeast on Saturday, 4 days ago. I put it in my basement, where it's a bit cold, the carboy never got over 57F.

On Monday, I decided it needed to be warmer, so I brought it up to my pantry.

Tuesday it was 65 and very active.

Today (Wed) it is 68 and slowing down.

It's an English Pale Ale, 1044 OG and 33 IBU, With Argentine Cascade, Glacier and Kent.

My question is, is this too warm now? Should I bring it back down to the basement, and let it age out there a bit?

I'm planning on keeping this in primary for 3-4 weeks, as I have a LOT of cold break and pellet hops, as my whirlpool attempts failed.

And it's my first brew, so it's going to be a challenge waiting that long as it is.

Thanks!
Jay

 

[danielinva]

The temperature range for nottingham is 57-70. If the carboy wasn't going much below 57 in the basement you probably would have been good to go, although it may not have produced the fruity esters that are standard in english pale ales.

65 and 68 degrees are also fine for nottingham, so your brew should be good to go.

As far as the patience part, all I can say is good luck. It will get a bit easier once you have a bit of a stockpile built up.

 

[Conehead]

You will be fine. I use Nottingham as my main yeast and it works best in that range, 65F - 68F. I have found if you get over 70F, you'll pick up some off flavours. It works fine in the 58F - 64F range too. Just needs more time. That is my experience on it.

Conehead

 

[whoneedsabeer]

Thanks for the replies. That's good to know.

I'm going to be building a fermentation box in my basement with a small heater and thermostat, to keep my temps up near the 65F mark. I've already got a box that would work great, just need to add heat and thermostat.

Good thing I love to build stuff