I pitched two white labs 090 pure pitch pouches into 5 gallons of 1.060 wort at 64f. An hour and a half later the temp had dropped to 60f. For whatever reason I set my temp controller to 50f. I took the carboy out of my fermentation chamber into a room with 68f ambient temp. It took 36 hours but now I have a healthy active fermentation.
Do you think the sudden cooling after pitching stressed the yeast or will lead to any off flavors?
I doubt it. Probably just cost you some time. Heating too far would be more likely to cause trouble than cooling too far.
Just let it go. The beer will be fine. You didn’t get it that cold and the yeast will warm up the wort as they do their thing anyway.
I often chill down into the 50’s during the winter and then pitch yeasts that don’t necessarily work, optimally, at that low a temperature. It won’t hurt the yeast. I’ve always believed it’s better to start low than to start high.
Paul
I think the consensus is right - little to no problem is likely from the short term cold temp drop you experienced. I tried US-05 at lager temperatures a couple different times and I experienced a very low level clove spice that I attributed to the low temperature - it was barely perceptible and possibly was a very low level infection, but it occurred twice. I really can’t say, but it made me swear off ales at lager temperatures for all but the hybrid yeasts like WLP 029.
Brew on fearlessly!