Safale at 15.55C.

[Whorst]

I'm wondering how low some of you take your fermentation temps? I made an English Pale Ale with 10lbs. of Maris Otter and 1lbs. of 80L. crystal. I hopped with Bullion. I tried FWH with 1/2 ounce, then 1/2 ounce starting at 30 minutes. I do sixty minute boils. I set my fridge at 60F or 15.55C. Inside the fermenter is roughly 65F. I hoping for a nice, clean ale.

[Fatgodzilla]

By my sources, 15.5c would be fine (but slow). Got a few weeks to spare ?I have done a couple at that low temp in our (mild) winter though I would probably still be using lager yeast at that temp. Depends on the final results you want.

[Aleman]

The yeast is likely to be extremely slow to start, but once it has done so, it will work slowly, it may stop prematurely depending on strain.

I have recently (This year) changed my fermentation temp from 18C to 20C as I was getting 'sluggish' fermentations and the ales were too 'clean' for what I wanted.

I would suspect that a lager yeast would be a better choice for a clean ale (looking at kolsch and alts for example - IMBWIOA) although they can get pretty funky outside thier preferred temperature range, so yeat again you might be better off looking at a Steam Beer yeast - Wyeast California common.

And another tip for a clean beer in general - Pitch BIG, I'm looking at pitching the yeast from a 25L starter into my CAP (80L Brew Length for this batch) and I want this to dry out and be clean, its a style that you simply cannot hide any faults in.

[steve_flack]

I've got a German Ale yeast (WY-1007) pitched yesterday into an Alt at 16C...I'll let you know..

[Aleman]

Gillian Grafton does report that teh yeast in Bottled summer lightning can get pretty Funky if fermented above 19C, although it does settle down on subsequent fermentations.

[steve_flack]

FWIW I ferment my English ales at 20C. I haven't picked a yeast yet though - I have a backlog of yeast strains that will take a year to get through. So far -

S-04 - OK in stouts and mild. Not in light bitters. Don't like the flavour.
Nottingham - too dull in weak beers.
S-05 - too dull in weak beers.
WY 1275 - Flavour OK but too attenuative for light beers IMO.

To go - Hopback, Hook Norton, Scottish (thanks DaaB), Brewlabs 'No 9' and TV3, Woodfordes (actually Charles Wells' apparently), Crouch Vale.

[Whorst]

The fermentation on this beer has not been slow. It's actually slowing down now after 2 days of pretty good pumping. Fuller's ferment their beers at 62F. I'll post the flavour profile when I rack it into the keg.

[spearmint-wino]

FWIW I ferment my English ales at 20C. I haven't picked a yeast yet though - I have a backlog of yeast strains that will take a year to get through. So far -

S-04 - OK in stouts and mild. Not in light bitters. Don't like the flavour.
Nottingham - too dull in weak beers.
S-05 - too dull in weak beers.
WY 1275 - Flavour OK but too attenuative for light beers IMO.

To go - Hopback, Hook Norton, Scottish (thanks DaaB), Brewlabs 'No 9' and TV3, Woodfordes (actually Charles Wells' apparently), Crouch Vale.

Will be interested to hear your thoughts as you go through this Steve

[bconnery]

Nottingham and S05 can be fermented down around 15-16 quite well. In fact a few people have used Nottingham as an Alt yeast down that low with great success.
S04 will work but for me you will probably lose some of the english ale character. 18-20 is the optimum for this one I feel...

[Whorst]

I smell bubble gum from the blow off hose. I don't know how strong the esters are, but they're there. I will rack this on Saturday and post the flavor profile.