Ferm temp pickle

[bacchusmj]

So, I've got an alt and a kolsch in my ferm chamber. It's set at 60 and will be done in 3 days to lager. I just brewed a pale ale I want fermenting at 65, but my house is 71.

Any worries about letting the two hybrids finish at 65 while I toss the pale ale in the chamber? I imagine that since the hybrids are probably done the 5 degree bump in temp shouldn't hurt them too much. Then they can move into the fridge while the pale finishes up.

Thoughts?

 

[Lopsy]

You're golden. If the hybrids are stable on gravity or even past 70-80% apparent attenuation then the 5F rise will serve as a low temp D-rest. Maybe just do 2 days (if they're done) at the increased temp and then lager those puppies clean. If they're not done, let them finish at the increased temp and you'll be fine. I'd try to take them to the new temp over about 2 days or so. Your pale ale will be fine at the initial lower temp. I'm guessing you're using an American ale yeast, they'll do fine around 62-63 while you raise the temp.

 

[bacchusmj]

So, after about 3 hours of sanitizing, adjusting and fussing, the alt is in a keg in my fridge at 41 degrees, the pale ale and the kolsch are side by side in the chamber at 63 degrees. I plan on getting the kolsch in another keg tomorrow.

I think this experience has really made me this twice about laggering in the summer. You really need a separate lager chamber to get it done. Might just stick to ales in the summer and laggers in the winter when I can ferment inside the house.

 

[BigFloyd]

I think this experience has really made me this twice about lagering in the summer. You really need a separate lager chamber to get it done. Might just stick to ales in the summer and lagers in the winter when I can ferment inside the house.

I experienced similar disruptions in the pipeline due to fermenting some lagers, so I set up a lagering chamber with an upright freezer (from Craigslist) and an STC-1000. I keep it set at 35*F. It turned out to be quite handy not only for cold conditioning lagers in corny kegs, but also serves as a cold-crash chamber and a great place to store jars of rinsed yeast.