Oh Smack...Accidentally Chilled Beer During Fermentation

[dbrews100]

So, I had a nice brew day on Sunday - brewed an IPA. Pitched US-05 Sunday afternoon. Fermentation bubbling away by Monday night. On Tuesday morning I noticed I hadn't plugged in my freezer (ferm chamber) into my temp controller, only my heater. It's cold out, but the temp was rising to just past 68 so I plugged it into the wall outlet instead of the temp controller! Came home Tuesday evening to 41 degree beer and obviously no signs of fermentation.

Anyone ever done this and was the beer drinkable? Hopefully, fermentation will start again once the beer has warmed up!

 

[popgunandy]

You may want to stir it and pretend it's day one again

 

[DurtyChemist]

It's fine. Yeast are strong you just slowed fermentation. Give the beer an extra week in the chamber.

 

[AkTom]

/\ this. Merely a delay of a few days. You're golden. Brew on.

 

[dbrews100]

Excellent. There beer warmed up fairly quickly and is bubbling away!

 

[TerryFrench]

I did about the same, but with cider. I'm hoping the answer you gave will also work for me (one of the yeasts I used is for ale).
Started last saturday (5 days ago) with 2 1 gallon batches. i.e. apple juice. One with Red Star Montrachet, one with Danstar Nottingam. Kept between 65 and 68F. All good until Monday (active and quite fast bubbling but not out of control).
Then Monday (day 2) I had some skylights changed, and turned off the heat. I forgot to turn it on until Tuesday morning. So about 24 hours with the temperature falling to 55F. Today I decided to check the status, and no bubbling visible in theair lock, a little 'foam' near the top of the 1 gal carboys, and most of the yeast as a thick layer at the bottom of the carboys.
Basically it seems that I cold crashed the fermentation. I did a little (very little) of shaking and that's about it. I'll wait and see if it starts again. If you guys have any idea in term of "vigorous shaking"? and/or boosting the temp to something in the 70s that is better for the yeast to help it recover, please let me know.
note: I've not done a specific gravity measurement, as I've yet to buy the equipment (and I don't have a "wine thief" yet either), but I would guess that there's still plenty of sugar to go around for the yeast.
Thanks!
Thierry

 

[AkTom]

Good job. You gotta love the yeast.

 

[TerryFrench]

quick update: I got some bubbling activity today, about every 45 seconds to 60 seconds, so fermentation is still going on.
Now to be patient will be hard

 

[dbrews100]

Yeah, I had a cider in my ferm chamber too! It restarted also. I haven't checked my gravity yet.

 

[Zepth]

I had a similar moment when a temperature controller decided the actual relay was optional. Couldn't tell anything about the batch ending up different than others. No horrible off flavours, no over/under attenuation. Just good beer.

 

[lumpher]

John Palmer talks about it happening to him in "How to Brew" with a lager. He warmed it back up, let it go, and won an award with it.

 

[TerryFrench]

To close the loop:
I was doing 2 1 gallon batches of Cider. They both turned very well.
I did "rack" them up to some other glass container to get rid of the yeast sediment, but they were clear by that time (about 1 month after starting). Then 2 weeks (I think) before I bottled them with 1/2 tsp of granulated table sugar per 12oz bottle (still at 68F). No visible yeast action, but eventually I saw the yeast sediment, and when opening a bottle, I'm right at the carbonation level I wanted to achieve.
I'm a happy camper with my first experiment. Next will be some beer, then more cider, and likely some mead too, all in small 1 gal batches.

 

[emsroth]

I'm in the same situation.

I have 3 fermenters but 2 temp controllers. The temp controller was connected to one fermenter but the chilling tubes that recirculate ice water were connected to another fermenter. So when fermenter A was trying to chill itself, it was really chilling fermenter B. Luckily this happened between dinner and bed. My biere de garde dropped from 66 to 51.

I applied heat and its up to 63 this morning. It'll make it back to 66 by midday. If no activity in a day I'll pitch more dry saison yeast.

The recipe was 7 days fermenting with California Lager yeast and then dry it up with French saison. It's 3 days into saison time.

 

[jrgtr42]

I'm in the same situation.

I have 3 fermenters but 2 temp controllers. The temp controller was connected to one fermenter but the chilling tubes that recirculate ice water were connected to another fermenter. So when fermenter A was trying to chill itself, it was really chilling fermenter B. Luckily this happened between dinner and bed. My biere de garde dropped from 66 to 51.

I applied heat and its up to 63 this morning. It'll make it back to 66 by midday. If no activity in a day I'll pitch more dry saison yeast.

The recipe was 7 days fermenting with California Lager yeast and then dry it up with French saison. It's 3 days into saison time.

You should be fine - you may want to give it a stir or shake to get the yeast up off the bottom, but things should start up again no problem.
I did have a similar situation a while back - lived in an apartment with a shaky heater (electric) Brewed over the week, went away for the weekend, and by my estimate, about 10 minutes after I left, the heater shut itself down. When I got home Sunday night, my place was at about 40 degrees. I almost went into hibernation myself.
Turned the heater back on, and while it took a while to get the place warmed back up, and of course longer for the beer to get back into zone, Monday night things were working again.

 

[emsroth]

Checked it last night, back up to 66 and bubbling about once per 5-10 seconds which is where I left it. Shook it a few times which produced a rush of CO2 release, so hopefully that brought any active but flocked yeast back into suspension.

I figured I was fine, but that's what this forum is about. Finding others who have had your experiences and learning from them.