Lagers- keeping the temp

[geer537]

On my second Lager (Many ales though)

I keep the temp by submerging the carboy in about 6 inches of water (just below where I put the thermometer) in a styrofoam ice chest and keep the water cold with ice packs I have accumulated from numerous shipments of yeast from homebrew shops. It worked great last time. This time I got a little ambitious and put a few too many ice packs in the water... I came home and noticed my temp was at about 36 degrees... I syphoned off the water and pulled the ice packs in order to let the Yeast warm up and hopefully start to work much faster again. It was still slowly churning out a few bubbles from my blow off tube so those yeasties are champs!

I will be keeping it around 50- 55 degrees until my hydrometer samples tell me I am done. Anyone ever got the ambient temps too cold them warm the beer back up? What off flavors might be produced?

I am not worried- I'll still have beer but let me know if anyone has had any experience with this and how it turned out. We'll compare notes.

Cheers

Steve

 

[pompeiisneaks]

Slowed fermentation, due to cold temps, from what I've heard, will never cause off flavors, the yeast just goes sleepy time for a while. it will warm up and get active again. Shouldn't be a big deal. Over temps causes a lot of off flavors, but aging usually can clean those up.

 

[geer537]

Got it up to 50 degreea by this morning and there is more activity. Cant wait to try this one