Bottle conditioning at lower temperatures

[brants77]

Hello, tried a search & found threads about higher temperatures, not any concerning temps lower than say 60.

I keep my house set at about 60 throughout the cold months, which are long here in northern Michigan, & plan on brewing quite a bit this winter. Anywhoo. . I've got my first batch (NB's 60 Shilling Scottish Ale) bubbling happily along in the carboy, & was flipping through the Joy of Homebrewing which recommends conditioning at 65 degrees or over. That's not really gonna happen. I'm hoping that it'll mearly take longer as opposed to not carbonating at all. Hopefully some of you experienced in brewing in colder climes can set my worries to rest.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Revvy]

Depends on how low, and what the flocculation/dormancy temp of the yeast is. If it's in the 60's it will just take longer, could be months instead of weeks.

I'm in the same situation half the year. I just expect my beers to take longer than the 3 weeks when at 70 degrees.

 

[brants77]

Thanks for the reply, sounds good. Fermentation seems very active right now, so hopefully yeast is happy at 60 degrees.

Looks like your in Michigan also & a Reverend who's a Lovecraft fan? Awesome!

 

[PT Ray]

When I've tried conditioning at lower temps it didn't do much of anything but I wouldn't jack the heat up in the house just to condition some beer. I have thrown them in the chest freezer that's turned off and heat up some 2 liter bottles in the microwave that are filled with water and throw those in there for heat.

 

[yancydc]

I was bottle conditioning my pumpkin ale the past few weeks in a cold room (~60) in hopes of bringing a sixer to a Halloween party on saturday. I popped one to test it - very, if not almost completely, flat. Never had that happen before.

I say almost completely flat because when I poured it, there was a bit of yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. So something was happening, it was just a hell of a lot slower. As always, gotta trust Revvy on this one! It'll carb up, just might take a looong time.

 

[Yooper]

When I've tried conditioning at lower temps like it didn't do much of anything but I wouldn't jack the heat up in the house just to condition some beer. I have thrown them in the chest freezer that's turned off and heat up some 2 liter bottles in the microwave that are filled with water and throw those in there for heat.

I had the same experience- my beers just won't bottle carb at my house temperatures in the winter. But I have a space heater in the office where I spend time on the computer in the evening (it's more like a den, where my kegerator is!) and I placed a few at a time in here so that they could carb up. It took 3-4 weeks at about 64 degrees, then I"d move them and put some new ones out.

I like the idea of putting them in a turned off freezer. But you could also try a cooler with a heating pad (not too hot!) or something like that to maintain temps of 65+ if you can.

 

[Revvy]

When I've tried conditioning at lower temps like it didn't do much of anything but I wouldn't jack the heat up in the house just to condition some beer. I have thrown them in the chest freezer that's turned off and heat up some 2 liter bottles in the microwave that are filled with water and throw those in there for heat.

That's a great idea

I had the same experience- my beers just won't bottle carb at my house temperatures in the winter. But I have a space heater in the office where I spend time on the computer in the evening (it's more like a den, where my kegerator is!) and I placed a few at a time in here so that they could carb up. It took 3-4 weeks at about 64 degrees, then I"d move them and put some new ones out.

I like the idea of putting them in a turned off freezer. But you could also try a cooler with a heating pad (not too hot!) or something like that to maintain temps of 65+ if you can.

Same here. And then after the entire winter the one warm spring day above 70 the beers all finally seem to pop and carb up.

 

[DSmith]

I've been using my small freezer that I use for fermentation now for conditioning bottles between batches now with a 15W heating pad inside and a PC fan circulating air. I have access to temperature logging equipment through work and logged data this weekend when I put 50 bottles in the freezer for carbonating in a 63F basement - graph below. I put 1 extra bottle in with water that was uncapped with a stainless temperature probe submersed to get an idea of the beer temperature inside the bottle. I'm going for 3 weeks at 70F based on the advice from this form. My bottle conditioning in the summer hasn't been a problem but I want this next batch conditioned before Thanksgiving.

I monitor the fermenter temperature for cooling, this is the first time I've controlled air temperature and don't mind if my heating pad cycles a lot vs over-cycling the freezer. I'm amazed that 15W is still too much heat for this. The beer temperature is about +/-0.1F. I'm not claiming that there's any benefit to very constant temperature for carbonation.

 

[brants77]

Sweet ideas with the freezers & coolers, might give that a shot. Would like to be drinking these & starting a holiday batch in time for . . .well the holidays.

Thanks!

 

[hoppyhopman]

I have a heating pad and I'm heating a little jury-rigged tent, getting a good 70-75 deg, up from the ambient 65 deg. But the pad has @^&%# auto-shutoff after one hour, so I wonder if the yeast needs some kind of uninterrupted number of hours without dipping, to get a critical mass of sorts. Anyone know how many hours at 70 deg are needed to get the yeasty party started?

 

[tgmartin000]

I just cracked a stout that's been at about 64 for 18 days. It's carbed, but still green.

 

[philjohnwilliams]

I have had good luck putting my bottles in a small closet with a 100w light bulb. The light puts out plenty of heat and the bottles carbed up in no time. Just make sure to keep the bottles in cases or otherwise protected from the light.