Hey all, I just got done brewing a 10 gallon batch of a cherry chocolate stout. After the boil I put it straight thru a reverse flow wort chiller and the wort went from 215℉ to a cold 55℉. After some adjustments to the chiller it was coming out at 60. What are your experiences pitching the yeast into that cold of a wort? It's still not time to check the gravity to see about the yeast working but I'm anxious to know. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers!
Largely depends on which yeast you used. There are plenty of strains that are perfectly content working in the low sixties, and probably just as many that will be pissed off at you. The latter set will work painfully slow at 60F, if at all.
I'll go out on a limb and say almost perfect if you allow it to warm to the bottom of your yeast's temp range.
I agree with @GreenKrusty101. Active fermentation is exothermic reaction raising the temp. Your 60 deg F is going to slow raise with yeast activity, yeast strain dependent 5 deg F +. Most ale yeast work very well at 65 deg F. 60 deg F should not be a shock either. Think about it this way, we store the yeast in the frig at 45ish and then it comes up to temp anyways.
Alright, going to give it another week before I add my cherries then. Going to look for signs of fermentation tonight after work.
What is your planned fermentation temperature? 60F is a bit too cold for almost all ale yeast, but 65 is fine. Expect the first signs of fermentation to be slowed by quite a bit. You might not really see any sign. Get up to 65 if you can, don't rely on the yeast to bring it there for you. They won't be doing too much fermenting and therefore they won't be producing too much heat either. Cheers.
In that case, your wort will warm up to 64-66 even if the yeast aren't active at 60F. Assuming your fermenter isn't sitting on a cold floor.
Negative, fermenters are on a tall work bench. And I used a packet of the liquid yeast per fermenter.
Is your fermenter sitting on a concrete (hard surface) floor? If so, it would be better to get your fermenter off the floor (e.g., put it on a table). Once fermentation is going full bore and generating lots of heat you could put the fermenter back on the concrete floor to dissipate excess heat. Cheers!
So I just called my wife, and the brew is fermenting, lots of bubbles at 62 degrees. Would I have to ferment it for longer considering the lower temperature?
You ferment it until it's finished, regardless of the temperature. Yeast don't wear watches. Let your hydrometer be your guide.
With an average room temp of 65F, your wort is probably going to get up to 69-71F ish. Depending on your goals and the yeast strain, that might even be a little high. But yes, cooler fermentations take longer than warmer ones.
I'm wondering because I want to know when to pitch the cherries. My OG was 1.073, at what gravity should I consider pitching the cherries and then finish off the fermentation?
When I use fruit, I wait until attenuation is finished, then rack onto the fruit in a secondary fermenter.
Ok, sounds good. Now for my next question, do any of you guys ever use DME for priming? Thanks for all the help guys
Do you have a reason for wanting to? Sugar works fine, with more precise control over carbonation levels, unless you know exactly how fermentable your DME is with a given yeast strain.
It was part of my recipe but it didn't specify which kind of dme so I chose one that wouldn't affect the overall flavoring/body.
