Lager?

I am looking for an economical way to make Lager beer and looking for advise on equipment needed. I have a spare fridge I could use for a cold fermenter. (So far I have only made ale beers).

Cheers!

I've only made one lager- so take this FWIW, but I don't think you need anything else, just a way to keep it at 50 degrees for primary, and then reduce it to just above freezing for lagering.

I didn't have a fridge at the time, so I did a "redneck lagerator" with a cooler in my basement in the winter. Otherwise, it's the same equipment, same tubing, same procedure. Lagers take longer to ferment, and a starter is more critical.

My suggestion would be to turn the temp controller all the way down on the fridge and see how cold it gets. If it gets as cold as you need it to, in the low 30s, then you are all set. Decide on the temperatures you want and then find out what that corresponds to on the fridge's dial.

If it doesn't get as cold as you want it, you will probably need a temperature controller.

It's not the low 30's that are a problem for stock fridge controllers, it's the low to mid 50's for the ferment that they usually can't do.

I have a lager in primary right now. My temps are between 46-48 degrees. A little on the low side, but fermentation seems to be chugging along nice. I'll do a diacetyl rest for 24-26 hours after racking over to secondary, then lager at around 35 degrees until mid August.

I'd drop the measly $50 on a johnson temp controller. Well worth the money. Makes it stupid-easy to control your temps, and not just for lagers. Even on ales, in the summertime, you can dial that thing between the low 30's up to 80f, I believe.

Ive had good luck lagering with igloo coolers. I put primary carboy with double bubble airlock and two frozen pop 2 liter bottles then wrap sleeping bag around it for insulation. This keeps temps at at about 50 -55 degrees. Swap them out morning and night with 2 liters you have freezing in your refridgerator freezer. Start saving up empty 2 liters, I have about 13 now. I put three 2 liters in cooler at secondary stage and can get temps down to 40 degrees and I keep room temps at 75 degrees in the summer. The down side is the labor involved swapping bottles.

Sorry Ive been imbibing, and forgot you said you had a refridgerator for lagering, well my method is good for all the ghetto lager brewers out there!

It's not that I have spare fridge the 2nd 1 I have we use for drinks (beer) and as a back-up freezer... right now it has several #'s of shrimp in it, not to mention all of the food stuff. So to use it for lagering I will need to jam pack my other freezer never mind the beer sitting in room temp.

There is noway my wife would let me have 3 fridge's.
(Although it is probably the way to go... At Sears yesterday they had a smallish fridge rated at about 45-50$ a year. It was just over $300.00. I can't imagine it would be running but about half time.) NEVER MIND I DIGRESS

Herein lies my problem... An economical way to do it. I live in FL so maybe in less than a month it will be too hot even for most ales. Unless of course I want $300.00 power bills.

So far the cooler idea is in the top running. I just can't wrap my mind on the idea of finding a cooler wide enough to hold a carboy and a blow off (jar?).

The "Dorm" fridges didn't look big enough.

Chris_Dog said:

So far the cooler idea is in the top running. I just can't wrap my mind on the idea of finding a cooler wide enough to hold a carboy and a blow off (jar?).

Click to expand...

Take a look at my gallery- that ice cube cooler ($20) is how I did my lager in my basement. I put water in it and added the frozen water bottles. I'll use it this summer for ales, if the temperature gets above 70 degrees here.

If you can use your spare fridge that is easy. Don't listen to the purists on here unless you are planning on entering a contest. Lagers are not nearly as sensitive as some would have you beleive. Get a thermometer and figure out a temp setting where the temp is somewhere between 40-55 preferably in the high 40's. Do your primary in that. After you do the diacetyl rest (dragging your carboy inside for 2 days) and rack to secondary. Crank your fridge down to a much lower setting and leave your beer there for as long as you want.

If you decide to go with the water bath. I have one added suggestion. Put an old T-shirt on your carboy. It will wick up the water and as it evaporates, it will cool the brew a little bit.

Another, very unorthodox possibility, is trying fermenting with a very neutral ale yeast (I recommend Safale SF-04 because its dirt cheap) and then cold conditioning, either in secondary or in bottles. This method is somewhat common with oktoberfest style beers.