WB-06 at low temps

[kalbarluke]

I am currently making a beer with WB-06. It was a fairly old pack so I made a starter and pitched it into 20L.

Anyway, even though I have a temp controlled chest freezer, because it has been so cold here (-2 ish) the temp in the freezer gets as low as 11 degrees. This morning I put a sleeping bag around the fermenter to try and insulate it a bit.

There is a lot of information about WB-06 at high temps and certain temps to get desired flavours (banana, clove, bubblegum, etc) but not much on lower temps. I know it's not supposed to get below 15 deg. My question is: what sort of flavours am I likely to get or will the low temps just make my yeasties sluggish and therefore take longer to brew out?

 

[hoppy2B]

G'day kalbarluke,

How did that beer turn out? I've fermented WB06 at warm temps and I didn't get any of the flavours you mentioned, (banana, clove, bubblegum, etc.) So I was wondering if you got them at the cooler temps.

I currently have a ferment going with a cultured Weihenstephaner hefe bottle yeast. That's a nice yeast, fruitier than the description of Wy3068 in my opinion, and a good one for banana, clove and bubblegum type flavours and nice and spicey. I haven't used wy3068 but from the description I think its a different yeast.

 

[kalbarluke]

It turned out okay, but I decided to do a bit of an experiment. When it was fermented I put 800g of frozen raspberries into the fermenter and crash chilled for a week. The result was a bright red, tart, fruity beer that was surprisingly good. Will try it again with a kilo or so of cherries or strawberries in the future.