Wort got too cold for lager yeast..?

[Rob2010SS]

Brewed up a Mexican lager today using imperial yeast L09 que bueno. My CFC isn’t great, so for lagers, I usually stop the cfc at 68F or so and finish chilling in the tank with the glycol. This is what I did today.

I started chilling and finished up everything else. It seemed like it was taking a while for the wort to chill. I waited until the temp on the wort read at the high end of the yeast limit (55F) and pitched.

Noticed that it was still taking a while to chill shortly after. I went and looked at my temp probes and they pulled out of the thermowell on the tank so I was getting artificially high readings. As soon as I corrected this, temp dropped to 43F on the read outs!!

I turned on the heater to get it warmed back up. Took a couple of hours for the heater to warm it to 52F.

So...
-I pitched at what I thought was 55 but maybe was closer to 46 - 48
-Temp dropped to 43 post pitching.
-Took 2-3 hours to get back up to 52 which is where it’s sitting now.

The yeast was a 0.5L pitch purchased directly from imperial.

Did I do some serious damage here or am I ok?

 

[Nate R]

I bet you'll be fine.
The yeast didn't freeze, and it sounds like you did a slow warm-up.
My $0.02.

 

[Upstate12866]

I would wager yeast will sort of go to sleep before they start dying. I haven't used your yeast but just used some California lager the other day. I used it once at 50 degrees, harvested yeast again and refrigerated 1 day, then put into another batch. It was going again in less a day.

I frequently hit ale and lager yeast with 35 degree fridge temps for a month or more, and they all wake up and do fine. Just something to think about, I don't have experience with your yeast. But I bet it is totally fine.

 

[Miraculix]

There's no problem at all. Where do we store yeast to keep them alive longer? In the fridge. What temperature is it in there? A lower one.

Does yeast work after getting it out of the fridge? Yes.

 

[monkeymath]

43 Fahrenheit is actually a normal fermentation temperature in a professional brewery.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Thanks everyone. This is really what I thought as well, but sometimes my novice self gets the best of me and I like to get confirmation. As of this morning, we have activity, so I think we're good.

 

[jdauria]

Should be fine once it warms up, I ferment my lagers at 48F all the time. But pitch at a higher rate due to fermenting colder.

 

[Chefmann]

Brewed up a Mexican lager today using imperial yeast L09 que bueno. My CFC isn’t great, so for lagers, I usually stop the cfc at 68F or so and finish chilling in the tank with the glycol. This is what I did today.

I started chilling and finished up everything else. It seemed like it was taking a while for the wort to chill. I waited until the temp on the wort read at the high end of the yeast limit (55F) and pitched.

Noticed that it was still taking a while to chill shortly after. I went and looked at my temp probes and they pulled out of the thermowell on the tank so I was getting artificially high readings. As soon as I corrected this, temp dropped to 43F on the read outs!!

I turned on the heater to get it warmed back up. Took a couple of hours for the heater to warm it to 52F.

So...
-I pitched at what I thought was 55 but maybe was closer to 46 - 48
-Temp dropped to 43 post pitching.
-Took 2-3 hours to get back up to 52 which is where it’s sitting now.

The yeast was a 0.5L pitch purchased directly from imperial.

Did I do some serious damage here or am I ok?

Thanks for posting. I just pitched a Vienna Lager at 64 and chilled it to 40 on accident. Then slowly brought back up to 55. Have always read it's best to start at the higher end of a lager yeast and slowly lower it over 30 days. Worried about the temperature swings, but the comments below lead me to believe I may be okay.

 

[odie]

not a thing to worry about. set your chamber temp and leave it be. the yeast will get started when they are ready.