Possible Stupid Question

[tfbrews]

Hey Guys,

Been brewing for a while and became pretty used to the process.

Just moved my fermentation to from a colder room in my house to an actual converted freezer ferm chamber.

Does this control, and fermenting at a lower temp 62-64 compared to 68-72, make the fermentation take a little longer?

 

[porterpounder]

As long as the yeast is healthy and pitched in proper amounts that temp drop shouldn't significantly affect fermentation time.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Depends on your yeast, but, in general, low 60's will take a little longer to ferment out than low 70's. But the benefit is a cleaner fermentation with fewer esters or off flavors like fusel alcohol.

 

[IslandLizard]

Sure it does! How much difference depends on the yeast and the beer's gravity.

Good move, by the way, you'll be making better tasting beer this way. Most of my beers I start out at 65F, then when they're around 80% done I raise them to 68F, or let them free rise to the lower 70s. To find the sweet spot I either use an educated guestimate, a drop on the refractometer, or a hydrometer sample.

Now for example, my recent 1.060 ESB with WY1968 took 2.5 days (~60 hrs) at 65F to reach 90%, a bit faster than I had anticipated. It's conditioning at the moment in the low 70s.

 

[kh54s10]

I agree that it could make fermentation slower. Yeast love warmer temperatures and will eat through the sugars quickly. But that is not good for the flavor of the beer. The difference in time depends on the difference in temperature, the type of yeast etc.

Controlling fermentation temperatures is one of the best ways to improve your beer.

 

[JimboVorlaufski]

Temp does impact fermentation time, altho the majority of the fermentation might take place in the first 3 days at 68 (depending on yeast selection) and take twice as long, 6 days at 63 so if you go 2 weeks primary, and 2 weeks secondary you wont notice the difference. What you should be more careful of is ester production and flavor of your beer as temperature has a significant impact on production of the various congeners (fermentation byproducts). Generally speaking cooler temperatures result in lower esters and cleaner fermentation but thats not always the case. And if youre brewing intentionally with a high ester yeast (like some british or belgian strains) you might not get the result youre looking for at cooler ferments.

Cheers.

 

[tfbrews]

Awesome. Thanks so much guys!!!

 

[Calder]

Does this control, and fermenting at a lower temp 62-64 compared to 68-72, make the fermentation take a little longer?

Yes!