Drawback to a cool fermentation?

[jmcquesten]

Are there any drawbacks to fermenting too cool? I have a dipa fermenting in a back room in the house that stays pretty cool. I even shut off the heat vent for the room. The yeast is 007 English dry ale. I'm currently out of town so I can't do much about it, but it got pretty cold there over the past few days and girlfriend said the bucket felt cool to the touch. She did say it was actively bubbling away, so I'm guessing it is fermenting. Question is, if it's at maybe 50-55, what's the worst that could happen? Could it stop early after the very active fermentation is over and not fully attenuate? Will it be fine until the weekend when I can move it to a warmer room? If it stops and the yeast goes dormant, will they wake back up when I move it to a 66° room. I'm not gonna ask her to move a 6 gallon bucket of beer, so it will have to wait a couple days.

 

[dierythmus]

I had similar question. Looking forward to an answer!

 

[BrotherBock]

It'll have less esters. Also, I believe english yeast tend to produce more diacytl at lower temps. So a diacytl rest might be needed after initial fermentation

 

[Fathand]

It'll take longer to ferment.

Also 007 is highly flocculant so you may have to get yeast back into suspension with a swirl to help finish up fermentation.

 

[Spellman]

It probably won't attenuate all the way. In my experience with english strains, once they stop they give up. Those delicious lazy bastards go lights out and sink to the bottom pretty quickly if they get too cold. If it is close to final gravity it might be all you are going to get. If it is far from it you can try rousing them or pitching some more. If you rouse I would try getting it closer to 70 if you can.

 

[atom]

speaking from experience on that very yeast...

i just brewed a brown ale and fermented it with 007 at 62 for the first 24 hours then upped it to about 66 for the next 10 days. i took a gravity reading last night and it was 1.018 (not bad for a brown ale, but i would've liked it to drop a few more points. i suspect because i fermented on the low end, i didn't get the attenuation i wanted (white labs recommends 65-70). like i said, 1.018 isn't bad for a brown ale, but i wouldn't want it for a DIPA (which i intent to make next using the same yeast).

 

[solbes]

Its nice to be on the cool side for the first couple of days. After that you want to make sure it is warm enough to finish. Maybe open up the heat vent in the room until it done. That should help warm it up so it finshes. Or maybe she could drag it out into a warmer room?

 

[kanzimonson]

It'll have less esters. Also, I believe english yeast tend to produce more diacytl at lower temps. So a diacytl rest might be needed after initial fermentation

This is incorrect. They will produce less initial diacetyl and therefore will be easier to clean up later.

As other posters have mentioned, raising the temp to ensure a strong finish to fermentation is a requirement for my beers. As the fermentation comes to the end, the lower activity creates less heat than the vigorous early stages. This slows down yeast activity and can make the yeast give up.

One of the best things I ever bought for my homebrewery was a simple $15 heating pad (the kind for injuries).

 

[jmcquesten]

Thanks for the replies. I will move it tomorrow when I get home. Hopefully the yeast won't have given up by then. It's been 5 days since I sealed it so maybe it will be ok. We keep the whole house on the cool side, usually no warmer than 68, so it might be a challenge getting up to 70 or more. I do have a heating pad, so that might come in handy.

 

[mdbrewer1]

This is incorrect. They will produce less initial diacetyl and therefore will be easier to clean up later.

As other posters have mentioned, raising the temp to ensure a strong finish to fermentation is a requirement for my beers. As the fermentation comes to the end, the lower activity creates less heat than the vigorous early stages. This slows down yeast activity and can make the yeast give up.

One of the best things I ever bought for my homebrewery was a simple $15 heating pad (the kind for injuries).

How do you use the heating pad? Just put it under the fermenter? We keep the house around 68 during the day and 64 at night, so I'll probably need something for my next batch. Thanks!

 

[HollisBT]

This is incorrect. They will produce less initial diacetyl and therefore will be easier to clean up later.

As other posters have mentioned, raising the temp to ensure a strong finish to fermentation is a requirement for my beers. As the fermentation comes to the end, the lower activity creates less heat than the vigorous early stages. This slows down yeast activity and can make the yeast give up.

One of the best things I ever bought for my homebrewery was a simple $15 heating pad (the kind for injuries).

While they may produce less initial dactyl, it would be a relatively small difference, and it *would* be easier to clean up, but in a colder fermentation they are more likely to flock out sooner, leaving that dactyl behind in the finished product.

So even though it may be less diacetyl, the end result would be a beer with a higher amount of residual diacetyl, unfortunately.

After the first few days of fermentation (typically after you have reached high krausen) your flavor profile is already set from your yeast, and you are good to raise the temps of your beer to promote a more complete fermentation. Most of your flavors will be contributed during the aerobic/growth phase of fermentation.

 

[fartinmartin]

I have a 1.056 brew going, it's been average 14C, in just five days from pitching is now 1.015 on Safale US 05
14C = 57F

 

[kanzimonson]

I put it on one side of the fermenter and wrap a towel around the whole thing. If I have two carboys I'm trying to heat, I just wedge it between and wrap towels around the whole mess.

The one I bought has a low-med-high setting which is helpful. Just make sure you don't get one that has the safety feature where it cuts off after a certain amount of time.

 

[Spellman]

Might be a good opportunity to make a Christmas list. I like using the flex watt heaters, you can make them yourself easily and cheaply finding components on ebay. Pair that with an stc-1000 temp control unit, and if you are really adventurous upgrade it to a stc-1000+ and have the ability to have it ramp for you. <-Highly recommend!

With that it would make your back room a great place to ferment and keep steady temps this winter for less than $100. It might only get you the warm side, but there are plenty of cold side options you can add on later. It also won't take up very much space and is portable so you could maybe do something in a basement during the summer. After doing it once, you won't ever want to do one without control.