I normally don’t screw around with my beer once I have it in the primary, prefering to let things be instead of risking introducing contaminants but I broke down and checked my latest brew and I discovered that the temp is a bit lower than I was expecting. It has had a wet towel on it and been sitting in a short water bath because I wanted to get it cooled lower before pitching the yeast and I just left it alone. The temp in the beer, not on the outside of the carboy, seems to be about 62 degrees. What can I expect from this cooler temp? The yeast is Wyeast 1318 London Ale III. According to Wyeast, it should be ok from 64 - 74 so being a bit lower shouldn’t be the end of the world, should it? I checked the temp because it was taking what I thought was an awfully long time to ferment out and this could help explain why. It’s been a week and still bubbling strong. I didn’t take a gravity as I assume since it’s bubbling, it’s not done so why bother risking it.
It’ll be fine, though let it warm up a bit and go for a couple extra days.
It’ll be great. I’ve used the London Ale III at about 62 F and it’s great.
A suggestion, not a requirement.
After you package it, you can send me some for analysis! I recently discovered that most of my fermentations have been 2-3 degrees cooler, at least, than I had realized. And they have all been real good. London III among them.
No worries! Don’t rack/bottle too early. Let it go a couple extra days or a week for sure.
+1
Monitor the gravity and warm it up only if it stalls. I ferment my ales in the low 60’s all the time. No worries.
Thanks all. I’m in no rush to rack it off the yeast so I’ll leave it another week or so. I usually leave my beer in the primary a couple weeks anyway, I’ve never seen a big rush to get it off the yeast. I’ll probably leave it another week and then cool it and put it straight into a keg. Sorry for being such a worrier…
RDWHAHB.
As has been said, it’ll be great! With the exception of some Belgian yeasts, my experience is that lower fermentation temperatures produce my best beers. You just have to be patient. And it’s easier to be patient if you brew a lot, so you have a respectable inventory (my neighbors think I’m crazy, but they love visiting my basement).
Fermentation seemed to be stopped so I took a gravity and it was about 1.020. Still too high so it’s out of the water bath now and working away. It should get up to cellar temp or so (68F) so hopefully that will finish it off. It seems pretty active now so let’s hope it finishes off.
I’m hoping to rack it on Friday into a keg (2 weeks in primary) and re-use the yeast for another batch of the same.
The only thing that might be missing, depending on the yeast strain, is that british or irish ‘interesting-ness’ which are phenols and esters that are produced with the warmer temps. The belgian yeasts will produce more than enough of these even at lower temperatures, and doing them at higher temps may produce more of that character than you actually intended. But again, depends on the yeast and the beer you’re going for.
If people are saying (and they seem to be) that with that yeast and lower temps that it still makes a great beer with great character, you’re safe, and like everyone else said, and I think you’re already doing, letting it warm up to finish fermenting out is a good idea. Just be sure there are no dips in the temperature, especially with the british strains, as they’ll tend to flocculate and drop out and you may have a hard time getting it to final gravity.
Well that’s a good point. It is subjective and I prefer to ferment a bit warmer- 66-68 range. I get more acetaldehyde flavors such as pumpkin and green apple from ales fermented on the cool side and fermentation takes that much longer.
I will be interesting if I can harvest the yeast and re-pitch into another batch of the same recipe. I’ll let this one go warmer and see what the difference is. Problem will be, can I remember to leave some of the first batch without drinking it to compare?
Cool exercise. Yes you can leave some…all you need is willpower… 
Oh, if only I had some…
Well, the beer went into a keg to secondary today. FG 1.012 and I have to admit, it was probably still working a little bit. It’s in the cold room now which should slow it down. It was fairly hazy and had a lot of hops material in it because I didn’t remove them well enough when I put it into the primary. Too many things to worry about being my first AG. Last batch was far better. I expect the first few glasses may be discarded because of this.
I’m going to try to wash the yeast and re-use it either tomorrow or Tuesday depending on when my pound of EKG shows up. I am going to do the exact same recipe again but lower the Maris Otter by 1 lb. My 2nd batch (different recipe) was much more efficient and I over shot my OG so this time I’m going to use 75% efficiency in my calculations (65 first time, 83 last time so it’s sort of average).
Thanks again for everyone’s help. I really appreciate it.
Graham