Beer Forum

I used Wyeast Pacman yeast as well as my temp controlled fermentation chamber both for the first time yesterday. I brewed up the Shakespeare stout clone, everything went well and I hit a brewhouse efficiency of 78% doing a batch sparge! That's a big deal for me. My problem didn't arise until I was trying to cool my wort with my immersion chiller as I could only get the wort down to 70 degrees.

I understand pacman yeast does best at cooler temps, down around 60, so I put my unpitched wort in the chamber for 3-4 hours but was still only able to get it down to 66 degrees in that amount of time. At that point, knowing I was going to be gone last night, I decided to pitch my 2L starter and leave the fridge pumping on down to 61 degrees. Now this morning my wort is finally sitting right where I want it but that's after the 5 degree drop in temp after I pitched.

An episode (or 10) are coming back to me where I remember Jamil saying that yeast begin to drop out and go dormant when the temp begins to drop (mostly post fermentation) and that's why you raise the temp a degree or two a day on the backside of fermentation.

I'm concerned now that I may have created the same effect while dropping the temp after my fresh pitch. Should I be concerned? I see the airlock has moved although it's not bubbling away and this is the coldest I have ever fermented an ale at so I'm assuming it may take longer for the wort to absorb the co2.

Thoughts and tips welcome! Thanks

I think you'll be fine, nothing you can do about it now anyway, but relax and wait!! Did you make a starter?? How big if so? There may have been a lag time anyway, and in that case, a 2-3 hour lag would have put you right in line with where you were shooting for anyway.

After the nuclear war, only two organisms will be left- cockroaches, and Pacman yeast. That stuff don't care about no steenkin' temperature drop. It'll be fine.

No worries. Pacman is very forgiving. Just be sure to give the beer a good 2 wks in primary to allow for the yeast to clean up any off flavors produced during primary fermentation. You might even want to bump the temps a few degrees towards the end of fermentation to assist the yeast in their work.

Thanks for the responses!!!

I keep hearing and reading to raise the temp a degree or two a day towards the end of fermentation but have yet to really get a grasp on when this should be done. I have never been one who takes gravity readings during the fermentation process, I more less just let everything go for 2-3 weeks and then bottle.

Is it safe to start raising the temp by one degree a day on day 4 or 5 of fermentation and continue to raise it to 70 over a two week period for ales?

NokeStarBrewin wrote:Thanks for the responses!!!

I keep hearing and reading to raise the temp a degree or two a day towards the end of fermentation but have yet to really get a grasp on when this should be done. I have never been one who takes gravity readings during the fermentation process, I more less just let everything go for 2-3 weeks and then bottle.

Is it safe to start raising the temp by one degree a day on day 4 or 5 of fermentation and continue to raise it to 70 over a two week period for ales?

I generally will bump the temp 1 to 2 deg a day after the krausen falls in the beer. I dont go higher than 70 for most beers, but will go to 80 for some belgians.