[bassriverbrewer]

Anyone know a white labs ale yeast that wont stop fermenting down to 56 deg?  I'm planning on making a porter and the temprature in my house is 66deg during the day but I set the temp to 56 to save oil when I go to bed at night.  I like a little fruitiness in my ales.  Would insulating the carboy be enough or should I just use a lager yeast at warmer temps and if so what would be a good one to use.

[brewmasternpb]

Cry Havoc?

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp862.html

[Hokerer]

Anyone know a white labs ale yeast that wont stop fermenting down to 56 deg?  I'm planning on making a porter and the temprature in my house is 66deg during the day but I set the temp to 56 to save oil when I go to bed at night.  I like a little fruitiness in my ales.  Would insulating the carboy be enough or should I just use a lager yeast at warmer temps and if so what would be a good one to use.

Lager yeasts tend to be much "cleaner" than ale yeasts and you said you like some fruitiness - lager yeast probably won't give you that.  Your best bet would probably be a German Alt or Kolsch yeast.  I'm a Wyeast kind of guy so that would mean 2565 Kolsch or 1007 Alt.  Wyeast rates both of these as good down to 55F or so.  The Kolsch would probably give you slightly more in the fruitiness department.  I think the equivalent White Labs would be 029 Kolsch or 036 Alt.

[blatz]

You could try it, but Cry Havoc blows.  I've had beers from a handful of brewers in my club and none of them will ever use that yeast again.  Just sayin.

You could place your fermenter in a tub of water (i.e. swamp cooler) to keep the temp swings down - that will likely be a better insulator than say a bunch of blankets.  Just as important as the temp is keeping down the variance in temp, so you'll want to insulate it somehow.

Lager yeasts at ale temps are rarely successful - there are a few I've had that were good (New Belgium I think makes one) but by and large, they taste kinda funny. 

You have an ideal ale temp range (jealous) you just need to insulate to keep the temps in a tighter range.

[gordonstrong]

I've used the Scottish strains as well as the Alt/Kolsch at 58F.

Why not use the Anchor Steam yeast (Cal lager)?  That's a good one for those in-between temps.

[johnf]

Pacman is reputedly cold tolerant. It's also not as clean as people seem to think it is, so you'll get some fruitiness. A couple of shops sell it year round via the company that makes the Rogue kits. It is always a Wyeast seasonal.

[tankdeer]

WLP001 and WLP051 both do fine at cooler temps.

[Thirsty_Monk]

Why not use the Anchor Steam yeast (Cal lager)?  That's a good one for those in-between temps.

I have a good experience with this yeast.
Fermentation temp 58F - 60F.
Nice clean beer.

[ipaguy]

If your room is at 66 in the day and 56 at night then that averages out to 61.  If you are swinging your temp back & forth like that you definitely want to insulate your carboy to keep your yeast happy.  You can also figure that fermentation is going to raise your  beer temperature above room temp by maybe 5 degrees.  That being said, I don't think you have to worry too much about which ale strain you use.  Something like WY1056, WY1028, or WY1272 from WYeast or 002 or 007 from White Labs should do OK.  If it takes a few extra days in the primary that's no big deal, you'll just get a cleaner beer.  You could certainly go with a Kolsch, Alt, or Scottish Ale yeast, but I don't think it's really necessary.

[denny]

Anyone know a white labs ale yeast that wont stop fermenting down to 56 deg?  I'm planning on making a porter and the temprature in my house is 66deg during the day but I set the temp to 56 to save oil when I go to bed at night.  I like a little fruitiness in my ales.  Would insulating the carboy be enough or should I just use a lager yeast at warmer temps and if so what would be a good one to use.

What works well for me in that situation is to place the fermenter in a large tub of water.  The extra mass buffers thermal swings and keeps the temp really consistent.