What is the coldest you have fermented using US-05?

I've (unintentionally) taken it as low as 59F in an all-Columbus pale ale that I did a couple years ago. At that temp it started to throw some sulfur notes, but it cleared up after a couple of days. I recently made a blonde ale with it at 62F. That beer came out fantastic, as it displayed some of the distinct peach esters that US05 is reported to throw at the lower end of the temp range.

I don't have my notes with me at the moment, but from what I can remember both beers finished at or near expected FG and did not have any off flavors.

 

that is very interesting...I want to try that but push it lower

 

I did a 10.6% Imperial Stout in 2011, fermented around 55 (001, not S05) for 2 weeks, bumped it up to the mid 60s for another 2 weeks, it is smooth, clean, and attenuated properly. Tastes great after 2 years too.

 

The esters are distinct, but they definitely would have been overshadowed by a heavier beer. My recipe is 2-row, a little bit of vienna, some carapils, and bittered to just ~24 IBUs, if I remember correctly. The beer has been remarkably stable, with not much change in the ester profile. It really came into its own after about 3 or 4 weeks in the bottle, and I'm sad to report that I only have a couple of bombers left.

 

I did a big wheatwine with US-05 at 58 F for 5 days before warming up to around 62-63 F for it to finish, but didn't do a diacetyl rest. As a result, when I bottled it using a beer gun (my first time using the beer gun) I ended up having some bottles become diacetyl bombs because I didn't purge the bottles well enough and the diacetyl precursor was oxidized to diacetyl. If going cold with it, it might be good to do a d-rest near the end of primary fermentation.

A friend has done a rye barleywine with US-05 at around 55 F (keeping it there for a week before ramping up do d-rest), and he had some sulfur issues with the beer that took a while to clear/off gas.

 

Jack, I have often used my cellar floor as a heat sink to help with temperature control and in the winter time, when the ambient temp of my cellar can get down to ~55F, I have used the cellar floor to ferment low ester ales using US-05 and Nottingham. I don't have any of the details from these fermentations that you are requesting, but I don't recall ever having weird fermentation flaws, either.

Nowadays, when I ferment cold, I do try to raise the temp towards the end to help with diacetyl, which can really offend me. I sent a butterscotchy pale ale back to the bar last night at the local brew pub. I just couldn't bring myself to drink it.

 

I routinely ferment IPAs at 60°F using 05. There's a nice fruitiness that I like that I believe comes from the cooler fermentation.

 

It will definitely help, although IIRC the oxygen scavenging during bottle conditioning isn't as high as you might think.

I've been able to krauesen a beer in primary that had some diacetyl/precursor in it and got rid of it (added actively fermenting small starter). The easiest way to tell if diacetyl could be a problem is to do a forced diacetyl test on a small hydrometer sample after taking a reading (take beer, microwave it, cool, evaluate), and then if an issue, krausen it.

 

when i've done us-05 at cooler temps I've gotten a slight peach to apricot like flavor...I wouldn't notice it too much unless I'm looking for it. Also had one butterscotch problem too when i fermented it in the mid-50s ambient. Iirc i did d-rest and it helped...
Attenuation has never been a problem, but I always figure it will just may take a little longer to finish.