what will this temp change do to my beer?

[deepsouth]

i brewed a black ipa two weeks ago yesterday. recipe below....

12 lb maris otter
.5 lb crystal 60
1 oz black patent
7 oz de-bittered black


90 minute boil.

0.50 oz Zeus [15.00 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [9.00 %]
0.25 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Apollo [17.50 %] (60 min)
0.50 oz Citra [11.00 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] (20 min)
0.75 oz Citra [11.00 %] (20 min)
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [9.00 %] (20 min)
0.75 oz Zeus [14.00 %] (0 min)
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] (0 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [9.00 %] (0 min)
0.50 oz Apollo [17.50 %] (0 min)


i finished with about 4.5 gallons. it ended up dark dark brown instead of black. my final gravity was 18 plato, which was spot on with what i was shooting for.

london ale 1028 (w/starter)


it fermented a a consistant 62-65 degrees for two weeks, but last night, the temps dipped down and i forgot to turn the heat on and the room got down to 51 degrees.

i turned the heat on this morning to warm the room back up to 60 degrees.


what will this do to my beer?

 

[HomerJR]

It probably won't have any effect whatsoever. If you brewed it two weeks ago, active fermentation is probably done, and it's likely that the yeast are done cleaning up after themselves as well.

Also, just because the room got down to 51 overnight doesn't mean that your beer did. A fermenter filled with 4.5 gallons of liquid will take much longer than overnight to drop to 51. And even if it did, I don't see a big issue.

And let us know how the black IPA turns out! Sounds interesting!

 

[Pivzavod]

I had a sudden drop in temperature about a week or two ago for 1-2 days and it was within the first week of active fermentation. I dont think the drop in temperature will have any negative effect on your beer. After all the yeast just slows down when it reaches colder temparature and I dont think 51F is cold enough for yeast to completely goto sleep.

 

[deepsouth]

i was crossing my fingers i was safe. sounds like i am.

 

[mmb]

At two weeks chances are primary fermentation had finished and the yeast should have been done with cleanup as well.

You cold crashed to help flock the yeast. No issues at all.

 

[deepsouth]

i guess a good follow-up question would be.....

how much longer should i leave it in primary before i can bottle or keg it? i had not planned on doing any secondary.

 

[smashed4]

At this point the fermentation is done and you mostly want it to clear up so you don't have too much yeast in the bottle / keg.

The london ale is less flocculent than other english strains. Give it another week and you should be good. At this point, lower temperature is actually a good thing as it will help the yeast settle out.

 

[TheMan]

I would let it sit another week or 2. It will ensure it all mellows out. However, I myself have simply tasted my beer to decide if I think it's ready. I've bottled after 10 days before because it was done fermenting and it tasted great (I was rushing this beer for an event anyway).

Overall though, I'd let it bulk age in the fermenter another week at least as I think it generally makes better beer.

 

[Paddle_Head]

i guess a good follow-up question would be.....

how much longer should i leave it in primary before i can bottle or keg it? i had not planned on doing any secondary.

I have a sorta similar problem now myself.

Chill has dropped my porter from steady 60-62 to 54, after ~ 2weeks in primary.

I was originally going to bottle this coming weekend.

Now, once I get the temp back up tonight, I'm going to give it another week. Like others have said, I'm not expecting an issue, just prefer the yeast cleanup to occur in primary rather than in bottle.

 

[deepsouth]

i think i'm going to let this one sit until saturday, then i'm transferring it to a keg to have for our mardi gras party