Went to bed last night with my freezer set up to ferment at 67F (freezer set to hold 51, warmers on carboys set to 67 from thermowell).
Somehow the carboys got down to 60F. I pitched Sat night. Had super healthy blow-off at 14 hours and now am warming back to 67F. I know yeast are really temperature sensitive. I am planning to order a vial of replacement for each batch and pitch a small healthy starter into each as soon as I get it (depending on how fermentation is progressing)
Batch is a 1.065 OG Porter fermenting with WLP001 and WLP028 in separate carboys.
Any other suggestions? How much damage you think it did?
You are way overreacting I think. My fermentation fridge is almost always set to 60* for ales, knowing the during active fermentation, the beer temp is a little above that.
How in the heck would you acquire more yeast, make a proper starter and pitch before this finishes on its own.
What makes you think yeast “hate” wort temps in the low 60’s?
Just to clarify, my concern was mostly with the rapid temperature swing. Based upon what I’ve read and learned, yeast are pretty sensitive to temperature and I wondered if the swing was likely to result in a stalled fermentation. Caps may have been a bit excessive. Additionally, the White Labs site specifically states that WLP028 does not ferment well below 62F.
In any case, I planned to let it ride and see how it progresses before I’d add any yeast, etc.
I’m curious why you have a heater battling a freezer? Set the freezer to the temp you want and let it battle the heat generated by fermentation. When fermentation is over, the freezer will quit cycling.
Basically, when I set my freezer to 12’ish degrees below target fermentation temp and wrap my carboys with the warmers, as the fermentation ramps up, the warmers keep me at fermentation temp. When the fermentation speeds up, the warmers do not turn on and when it slows down, they keep things a the right temp. It has worked great for me for the last several years and I remember the 12-15 degree split from a conversation with Greg Doss from Wyeast when I attended NHC a few years back.
