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Good Day,

I just moved into this awesome historic house built directly above a spring. My basement actually has the spring running through it around the concrete floor, almost like a 3/4 moat. I'll upload some pics when I get them off the camera. I'm using the water for the grain whiskey I've got fermenting down there right now. My issue/question is that the research I've done suggests a optimum temperature for fermentation of 70-75 degrees F. The spring comes out at 55 degrees and regulates the temperature of the basement to a constant 60-65 degrees, summer or winter.

Can someone recommend a yeast that will tolerate cooler temperatures and the alcohol production (8-10%) that I'm going for with whiskey? I do not want to deal with deactivated yeast or a weak wort!

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

EC-1118 is well regarded as a low temp yeast. The maker claims a fermentation range of 50 to 95F. I'd be a little leery of trying it at the extremes but it should do just fine in your temp range.

wendellbaker - There are a lot, I mean a lot, of yeasts that do very well at lower temps. As Braz has suggected EC-1118 is good down to 60F, but EC-1118 is a nutral yeast and for whiskys I think you'd do much better with probably some beer yeast. Yeast's have a substantial contribution to flavor. If I were you I'd look at some ale yeasts. There are also some good wine yeasts also that do well at lower temps. I've used Lalvin D47 for some brandies, it's good down to 59F.

Ya, I haven't really answered your question, and perhaps clouded it as well.

You have a great situation there. I can think of a number of situations where a long cool ferment would be ideal!

Big R

I can't add anything about yeast but I would love to see some pics of this spring.

Here's where the spring comes out of the ground. It's under the house. It comes out in another place too, right next to the house.
Here's a pic of the still in the back of the house. The stairs lead down to the basement and to the spring...right under the sleeping dragon...
More to come

You could try Whitelabs WLP810 San Francisco Lager Yeast ,
Attenuation: 65-70%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 58-65°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

It's a lager yeast strain that was developed in early America when lagers were becoming popular around the world, but before refrigeration. So it produces a smooth, clean flavor. This is the yeast used to make Anchor Steam Beers.

Or Wyeast 2112, California Lager. Same thing.

very cool pics, let us know what yeast you wind up going with. ever thought of doing a couple of small washes and comparing the result? that is what i would do, make two or three 2 gallon washes from the same batch of wash + nutrients then seperate into containers and pitch yeast. monitor fermentation rate, sg, ph, etc. would make for a great science experiment, and you can drink the results...pepsi challenge style!!

I think that is the route i'm going to take eventually. I read everywhere to start small so I did an all grain 20 gallon mash! Trial by fire if ever there was one.

Most of it was dictated by the donations i got from friends to the first batch. i steeped 15 pounds of hand milled corn overnight, added 7 pounds malted rye, 4 pounds 6row barley. Whiskey Yeast with AG. It started at about 75 degrees and fermented strong for a few days, whole house smelled like a bakery. then when the temperature evened out, it slowed down. I dont think i ever got a quality seal on it because the airlock never actually bubbled, something else on the todo list...

I waited about 5 days and opened the fermenter up. it was at 1.000 specific gravity but still bubbling a little. I'm ancy and busy all week. Besides, I'm sure I'm going to screw up more than just pulling it early so I'm doing a stripping run right now using the 50 degree pond water to run though the condenser. I'm getting about 50% alcohol so far. I just changed to the 4th quart and it's running about 208 at the head of my pot still rigged brewhaus still with a leibig condenser. Man does it smell buttery! Even after 3 full quarts.

I saw a yield calculator somewhere, but can't find it now. Any one know where there's one? It took quarts and ABV of the beer and told you how much distillate to expect and the ABV of that.

I'm going to do a new post somewhere and go through the whole process and ask for feedback. Hopefully, I'll see you guys there.

I believe this is what you are talking about.

http://homedistiller.org/pot_calc.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

That was even better than what I found...

http://homedistiller.org/#use_pot

wendellbaker wrote:That was even better than what I found...

http://homedistiller.org/#use_pot

That link just leads me to the new version of the parent site which is still being worked on, I think, and isn't pointing to any specific page... It is for this very reason that I still use the old site for doing my ongoing research when attempting to point new members to the best reference information...