Too Cold?

[RPG27]

I brewed a marzen last Wednesday. Just a 2 gallon batch. I used 2 packets of saflager 34/70 (seemed like a lot to me but brewers friend's yeast calculator suggested it).

I used my refrigerator to ferment. The temperature inside the refrigerator is about 40. I know this is a bit low, but I accounted for heating inside the fermentor (5-10 degrees). I've done a handful of lagers with this yeast strain and fermented in air temps of about 50ish which gave off a bit of a green apple taste. These fermentations produced a fairly large Krausen and active bubbling. This fermentation has been sluggish and the high Krausen was less than a half inch. Did I ferment too low? I'm now at 9 days after brewing and I haven't taken a gravity reading yet. It just seems too underwhelming.

Thoughts?

 

[billl]

I think you know the answer already. 40 is too low. The manufacture recommends 53-59. Take a gravity reading. If you are way too high, you'll need to rouse the yeast and raise the temp.

 

[RPG27]

It's at 42 right now. I figured I'd be on the low end of what's acceptable after taking into account the inside temperature. I will raise it.

 

[shtoive87]

The 5-10 degrees is when the yeast is full force chugging along. It may never get there if it starts off too low. It may also stop short if it's too cold


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[RPG27]

My OG was 1.054, FG is 1.015. Took a hydrometer reading yesterday and it was 1.030 after about 8-9 days. I bumped the temp up to about 46 and gave the fermentor a shake. A decent Krausen has reformed and it appears fermentation has restarted. It actually didn't taste all that bad yesterday when I took a swig.