Fermentation Temperature

A few questions...

What yeast?
How long in primary?
Why secondary?

Without knowing these here are a couple suggestions.

There is still plenty of yeast in the secondary if it has just not gone long enough. You may warm it up now to get the yeast going if it has gone to sleep.

 

Apply heat. Probably sounds like a smartass reply, but seriously, if your fermentation has stalled due to low temperature, that's the way to get it going again, even if you already racked to secondary. (Though ideally, it shouldn't have been racked yet, and most styles don't need a secondary anyway.) So... you have a basement, but no other place you could put your fermenter? Even a dark upstairs closet would be fine, assuming it's not too warm. Or you could apply heat from a heat wrap, or even a heating pad (preferably thermostatically controlled). Temperature control is one of the keys to making good beer. There's really no way around that.

 

Build a DIY temp controller, get a stopper thermowell, get a heating pad. Worked for me. I just made a Blue Moon clone in my chilly garage using this method. Worked like a champ. I placed the heating pad on the bottom, wrapped my Better Bottle in a fleece pullover for insulation.

Actually, I think I got my thermowell here. Better quality. I got a bung from MoreBeer or someone else. Make sure you get the right size or get the orange cap things, but I"ve never used those myself.

 

At the very least you need to get the beer off of the basement floor and closer to the furnace or water heater. The ambient temp around either of them is going to be warmer than 55 degrees. If that doesn't do it, then crank up the thermostat. If you can't do that (or any of the other recommendations above), then this likely should be the last beer that you brew in the wintertime. You can get away with some mistakes when brewing beer, but making your yeast freeze their little asses is not something that is pardonable unless you are using a lager yeast.

 

Contrary to popular belief, many ale yeasts will do just fine down in the upper 50s. 55 F is pushing the limits though. It would be better in the 60s if you could manage it. Or, purposely select a hybrid yeast such as 2565 or 1007 or whatever so that you can brew at lower temps without issues. Most important thing to keep in mind is that in about the second half to last one-third of the fermentation cycle, warming the fermenter to 60s or 70 F is almost always beneficial. So in this case, it might be time to do that if you can.

 

What I suggested isn't hard to do. In fact, given a reliably cold environment, heating a beer is easier than trying to cool it off. Just get a temp controller and a thermowell and get that probe in the middle of your beer where the temp is likely to be just that little bit warmer. The temp controllers are cheap enough to buy and build, and a heating pad from any drug store or WalMart costs next to nothing too.

 

Glad to hear that things are looking up. For the record, most folks here don't use a secondary even when dry-hopping, since you risk oxidizing or contaminating the beer and the transfer really isn't necessary. And if you still want to transfer to a secondary, don't do so until you have reached your final gravity, or pretty close to it. How long was the beer in the primary before you moved it?

 

I boil a small grain bag and put the hops in that. Weight it and just throw it in.

 

Since you are using a carboy it might be difficult to shove a bag in thru the neck, but a lot of people do it that way along with some sanitized marbles to weigh the bag down so it will sink. I just throw my pellets in and then when it's time to bottle I take care to keep the siphon intake away from any that sank or are floating. A bucket is much easier to use if you are brewing a beer that will be dry hopped. Usually a week to 10 days is all that you need to keep them in there.