Too cold to ferment?

[spaceweaseal]

I have a extra refrigerator that I put my carboy in yesterday. It has 5gal of True Brew Octoberfest, (my first brew) that has been fermenting for a week inside with the temp at a steady 70*. I put it in the refrigerator yesterday and wanted to leave it there for a couple of weeks at around 60* to finish it off but last night the temp was around 56* in the frige so I turned the fridge off and left it in there. Just a few min ago I checked the temp of the Octoberfest and it was sitting at 52*. Is that too cold for this brew and will it affect my beer?
Should I move it back inside until I can control the temp. I do have a tempature controller on order but it won't be here until later next week.
I did use the search feature but I am still confused so any advice would be appreciated .
Thank you

 

[buffalobrewer]

It should be fine. Most likely the active fermentation was done or close to done. depending on the yeast the 70 might have been a little high, but not much.

What yeast did you use? Do you have any gravity readings?

 

[NineMilBill]

62ish degrees is pretty much the standard for most beers...some ferment at higher temps depending on what strain of yeast you are using and what affect you are attempting to acheive. 52 degrees with cause your yeast to go dormant until they warm back up. Don't worry about it affecting your beer, just get it warmed up!

 

[spaceweaseal]

Thanks guys.
That does make me feel better. I will move it back inside until I get the temp controller..
Thank you

 

[Liberty97045]

This is a challenge of brewing in winter time many parts of the country. My brew room (AKA the laundry room) is barely 60' F at night. I tried wrapping the carboy with a heavy towel to minimize the effect of the lower night time temps. I know you already ordered a temp controller but the same thing can be accomplished with a household thermostat and a pair of low wattage light bulbs. (a pair in case one burns out) I intend to build one when I find an old upright freezer to use.

 

[zeg]

I'm doing my first fermentation in an unplugged fridge in the garage. It can get down below 40°F at night, but I've been able to keep the beer at 63°F pretty steadily just by heating a couple gallons of water to about 120°F, putting in bottled water jugs and storing it in the fridge. Once in the morning and once before bed is enough. (I actually started by filling them with hot water from the tap, but I felt bad about pouring out gallons of water at a time, so I just heat and re-fill the jugs now).

 

[NineMilBill]

I'm doing my first fermentation in an unplugged fridge in the garage. It can get down below 40°F at night, but I've been able to keep the beer at 63°F pretty steadily just by heating a couple gallons of water to about 120°F, putting in bottled water jugs and storing it in the fridge. Once in the morning and once before bed is enough.

Is it not practical to ferment in a closet or such in your house? Heating water to 120F twice a day, every day during the course of fermentation sounds like it could burn a guy out of the whole experience?!

 

[zeg]

Is it not practical to ferment in a closet or such in your house? Heating water to 120F twice a day, every day during the course of fermentation sounds like it could burn a guy out of the whole experience?!

The whole house is kept at about 68°F, and for the Nottingham ale yeast I'm using, I wanted to stay a bit below that. For a warmer ferment, I'd use a closet.

The heating isn't bad. It takes about 10 minutes each time. We've got kids, so I just do it while making breakfast in the morning or cleaning up dishes at night. This being my first batch, I actually like having something active to do that's not going to infect anything. In the future, I might look in to a heater + regulation, but that would require getting another outlet in the garage.

 

[helibrewer]

I'm doing my first fermentation in an unplugged fridge in the garage. It can get down below 40°F at night, but I've been able to keep the beer at 63°F pretty steadily just by heating a couple gallons of water to about 120°F, putting in bottled water jugs and storing it in the fridge. Once in the morning and once before bed is enough. (I actually started by filling them with hot water from the tap, but I felt bad about pouring out gallons of water at a time, so I just heat and re-fill the jugs now).

You might consider a FermWrap or heating belt on a temp controller. They work great. The FermWrap generates about 20W per foot. I use 2 feet and can easily keep my buckets or carboys warm enough. You can buy it by the foot and make your own: www.beanfarm.com

 

[BamaRooster]

I like to ferment my ales at around 64 degrees and then once the most active phase is over raise the temp to 68 so the yeast can finish. Most of your off flavors caused by high temperature fermentation of ales occurs during the first 3-4 days of fermentation.

 

[zeg]

You might consider a FermWrap or heating belt on a temp controller.

Thanks. Yeah, I've seen this, but I'm currently limited by not having an outlet in the garage. (It's bizarre, and obviously something I'd fix, except it's a rental house.) For now, I'm happy doing manual thermal regulation. I'm a bit more concerned about summertime, actually, so I may have to get power out there when temperatures rise. I'll face that when the time comes, though.