Too Cold to Ferment?

[greekstallion]

Hi,
Sorry if this has been asked a million times but I was wondering if there's such a thing as it being too cold to ferment. I don't want to have it ferment in the house because I know people will complain about any kind of smell, so I was thinking about just having it ferment in my garage, but it hovers around 40 degrees in there during winter.

Is that too cold? Or should it be fine as long as I keep it above freezing?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Just noticed some similar topics that pretty much answered my question as I planned on brewing an ale.

 

[Revvy]

You'll need to make lagers if you want to have your beers in that temp range. Ale yeast goes dormant in the low 50's.

You can use/rig up various types of heaters, insulated boxes, water baths with aquarium heaters and other things if you want to do ales.

Unless you live in a tiny space, there usually isn't a lot of odor with fermenting beer though. If you got a closet it really won't permeate beyond that.

 

[Dogphish]

the only part that smells is the boiling and mashing part. the fermenter will produce a slight "sweet corn" smell for about a day after fermentation starts, but that's it.

 

[Grinder12000]

fermentation does not really produce smell like when you are fermenting wine (which I love).

 

[flabyboy]

fermentation does not really produce smell like when you are fermenting wine (which I love).

fermenting a good red makes a lovely smell don't it??

 

[GaryJohn]

My fermentation always smells like hops. Yum!

 

[nebben]

When I hear "too cold to ferment" , I'm envisioning someone talking about wanting to make beer at Camp 2 on Mount Everest

Get a bottle belt, or an aquarium heater in a cooler or something with water in it and immerse the fermenter into that. Either way, with ~40F ambient temps, it should take hardly anything to warm up enough for lagers, and it wouldn't be a stretch to make a chamber or water bath with aquarium heater to get to ale temps.