After pitching the yeast in my Caribou Slobber at 72°, I did 8 days in the primary, then 21 in the secondary. What I neglected to be diligent about was the temp, once the krauzen fell after a couple days. My fermentation was at 56° for all but those first couple days. When FG hit 1.018, i bottled and placed them in a warmer room (68-70°), hoping to reverse any potential ill effects i may have caused. Do you think my beer will be okay, considering the low fermentation temp? Thanks in advance for your input!
You did far more right than wrong fermenting that cool.
Cool is better. At 56° another week or two in the primary would not have hurt. I ferment the Caribou Slobber 64° to 66°. My FGs have been 1.009 to 1.012 Your Slobber may be a little more sweet than with a lower FG, but may not even be noticeable. You will have a good brew. Bottle conditioning at a warmer temperature won’t change much that happened during the ferment. Your temp is proper for carbonating the bottles.
Thanks guys. Super helpful. Looking forward to cracking a bottle in a couple weeks!
When you say “your fermentation” are you referring to ambient temp or beer temp? You should always measure beer temp when fermenting. When yeast metabolize sugars, they generate heat.
Grab some $0.79 temp strips from NB with your next kit, repeat your exact same pitching schedule with this beer, and you will see what I am talking about. If you pitched at 72 and put the fermenter in a 56* room, I would bet your fermentation started when the beer was about 68-70, maybe dropped a few more degrees during the growth phase, then the majority of the ferment probably happened somewhere in the mid 60’s.
If you want to control this better (and you should, I’d lay a bet on the fact that the improvement in your beer will be quite noticeable), find a tub that can fit your fermenter, fill with about 6 inches of water, and place this in your 56* room. This will make it harder for the yeast to raise the temp of the beer, then when they slow down, it will make it harder for the temp of the BEER to drop.
Keeping ferment temp steady is far more crucial that what at temp you ferment (within the range of the yeast, though cooler is usually better for cleaner flavor).
One final piece of advice, try to pitch colder. Ideally, you want to pitch the yeast at 65ish (IIRC Slobber comes with US-05), then let the yeast raise the temp of the beer up a few degrees, then keep a collar on them! (this will limit diacetyl production). If you really want to get fancy, move the fermenter to your 68ish room after the first 5 days of fermentation.
Either way, you’ve made beer this time, and it will be good (as the above posters said, 56 ambient is far better than 68 ambient). Good luck! :cheers:
Awesome…thank you for all that info. Great advice. The beer temp was 56°…definitely not the room. (i have the temp strips on my carboys). To be honest, i totally flaked about making sure the beer temp was at its recommended temperature. It wasn’t until well into the secondary fermentation when i went back to the recipe and read some threads on here that i realized my temp was low. Next batch, i’ll be all over it though. Thanks again!!
wow that is low! Do you have an FG reading? I thought 60 was the low end for US-05, but great to hear it works below that…
I think you will like the results.
[/quote] wow that is low! Do you have an FG reading? I thought 60 was the low end for US-05, but great to hear it works below that…
I think you will like the results.[/quote]
FG was 1.018
right. You did say that above didnt you.
Sorry, long day today. Need to go home and brew to clear my head :cheers:
