Pale ales and IPAs at 12 degrees?

[peted]

Hi, I have recently been giving space in a friends cellar to ferment my brews. This is great as my current space is small and warm. This is quite the opposite, this is large but cold. I will have space for a couple of stainless steel conical fermenters.

My problems is the cellar is temperature regulated at 12 degress. (it is a pub cellar ) I have been told I am not allowed to do anything that will raise the ambient room temperature. I originally looked in to many clever ways to try heading the fermenter, this is possible, but likely to be expensive.

So my question is, has any one had success with ferment Pale ales and IPAs at 12 degrees. Is there ale yeast out there designed to do this? would a insulated jacket around the fermenter be enough with the heat it would generate it self? (i know it would still be a little on the cold side)

Should i just consider hoppy larger?

Any suggestions or comments would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Pete

 

[myndflyte]

I would bet if you pitched at 16C and insulated it, it would keep it in the optimum fermentation range. Otherwise, time to start brewing some lagers.

 

[DVCNick]

Not sure how it would work on SS but carboy heat wraps are cheap to buy and cheap to operate, and take up little space.

 

[schmurf]

Nottingham works at those temperatures, I'm sure some liquid strains exists too.

 

[peted]

Thanks for your advice. Time to start experimenting!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

My problems is the cellar is temperature regulated at 12 degress. (it is a pub cellar )..

So my question is, has any one had success with ferment Pale ales and IPAs at 12 degrees.

Well Barclay Perkins and Guinness seemed to do alright at not much more than that (12C = 54F). Although the alleged low temperatures historically used by Scottish brewers were probably more an artifact of the fact that they brewed more high-gravity beers, which everyone pitched at lower temps to allow for more heat being generated during fermentation. But at one point Younger's were certainly going down to 12C for their >1.090 beers.

Is there ale yeast out there designed to do this?

You're not far off the ~60F (15.6C) that British commercial brewers typically pitch at (although they have more reason to worry about retained heat of fermentation that the average homebrewer. Almost any yeast will ferment at those temperatures, the only things to worry about are that it will do it more slowly (so more risk of contaminantion growing before the alcohol is enough to kill it), and it not generating as much of the esters that you want for a lot of styles.

But you will make beer.

Notty certainly likes it cooler, but don't rule out lager yeasts like 34/70 and Mangrove Jack M54. Thinking of yeasts that tend to go off like a rocket, T-58 might be well worth a go at cooler temps. Give hefe yeasts like Munich Classic a go.

Among liquid yeasts, you have warm-adapted lager yeasts like WLP051 California Ale, and cold-adapted ale yeasts like WLP800 Pilsner.

Give yeast some sugar and it wants to ferment it, don't sweat too much the distinctions between warm and cold.