BeerBorg

I doubt it will throw off the brew schedule, but the northeast has been hit with a crazy cold snap. Like, single digits in some places, and wind chills below zero. It's gonna warm up a bit starting today, but man, was it cold for the past three days!

Thing is, my unfinished (and unheated) basement is my fermenting room. Usually it stays in the 60s, which is dandy for fermenting ales. It gets a little higher in the summer, but I either make saisons, or else I take a break from brewing. But I've got three batches at various stages of fermentation down there; one of which I brewed on Sunday, in the middle of this Arctic weather. It's in the mid-50s down there. I think the yeast strains I used are suited for cooler temps (Mangrove Jack M10 Workhorse, and White Labs Kölsch and White Labs Irish Ale). They're still working okay, even the one in the early stages.

I'm not worried; it might even make these batches more mellow, who knows? I'll have to check on the SG of the Kölsch in a day or two, since I intend to bottle it Saturday. Just a natural cold crash, I guess.

We're unseasonably high this week in the mid to upper 60's. El Nino sure gave us a mild but wet winter so far.

Yeah been just warm and wet down here...so far.

I've had ales ferment fine in the high 50F's, using yeasts like S05 or Nottingham.

Best of luck with the beers, Dave. The past few days have had us at 76-80 which is ridiculous for February.

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I was planning to brew this past weekend, but my Northern Brewer ingredients order, using their "we'll ship it whenever we feel like it" flat-rate shipping, hasn't shown up yet.
It's just as well; even if the ingredients did make it in time, it was single-digits and windy as hell on Saturday, and MINUS-NINE when I woke up Sunday morning.
No thanks - not gonna brew in that!

Dave we don't live all that far apart so I know the feeling. Even in south central Jersey the 2F temperatures caused me to cancel brewing this past weekend. The brewroom slash heated garage would have been fine to brew in just the drain from my sink runs out to the lawn, and I was afraid that would ice up the sidewalks out front. The good news is this weekend looks like its gonna be a warm one, and I'll get to brew a nice hoppy IPA.

Vince, I think NJ got the worst of this bad weather, along with eastern Long Island.

The beers are doing okay. Fermentation on the Hopsperiment I brewed on Sunday is slower than I've come to expect with the M10, but it's definitely fermenting, even at 56 degrees. The temp-strips on the other beers indicate a temp of 52 or so, but they're further along. I always give my beers three weeks before bottling/kegging, and it's warming up now anyway, so I have no worries.

FedoraDave wrote:Vince, I think NJ got the worst of this bad weather, along with eastern Long Island.

The beers are doing okay. Fermentation on the Hopsperiment I brewed on Sunday is slower than I've come to expect with the M10, but it's definitely fermenting, even at 56 degrees. The temp-strips on the other beers indicate a temp of 52 or so, but they're further along. I always give my beers three weeks before bottling/kegging, and it's warming up now anyway, so I have no worries.

Dave, that's because we're 'Jersey Strong'! When it comes to beer, we'll always figure out the best way of brewing it.