I mistakenly pitched my California Common kit’s Saflager S-23 in the Dead Ringer IPA I brewed this weekend. The recipe for Dead Ringer called for Safale S-05. It’s fermenting at about 60 degrees in the basement and seems to be going well. Anyone ever do this? Any thoughts on how it’ll turn out?
never done that but i would think at that temp it might be fruity
Yeah that’s what I fear. I’ll try to cool it down with a swamp cooler. No temperature controlled fermentation chamber yet, so I’m just doing everything at ambient temps. Thanks for the reply, speed.
Took a hydrometer reading this morning and SG is now at 1.014 (OG was 1.064).
Tasted the sample and it tastes fine. Don’t detect any off flavors or fruity notes at this point. I’ll take another sample tomorrow and if the SG is stable, I’ll probably be putting it into secondary as well. We’ll see …
I used the cali common yeast at about 60* last summer in a brew with 2-Row, 5% honey malt and all Citra hops and it turned out pretty damn tasty so I think you should be fine.
Fruity at 60*?? I have used SF lager (and other lager yeasts) at that temp and had fermentations that are clean as can be, particularly if its a maltier style with more ale-like characteristics. To the OP, I think it will be a very tasty beer at that temperature.
My main worry would be fusels due to a low pitch if he didn’t do a decent-sized starter. Either way, your IPA should have enough going on with all the centennial to obscure the off-flavors that MIGHT develop.
