Like many of you, I'm currently only setup to do ales using the fermentation chamber in my sig. I don't have any space left for a lagerator, but I really want to start brewing lagers more often -- currently I only lager once or twice a year when I can put up with warm kegs (and foamy pours
) for a couple of weeks but I love my homebrewed versions of cheap swill beer!
I've been stewing on this for awhile and I think I have a solution that may let me ferment lagers in my ghetto fermentation chamber using only a few bags of ice and a couple of tricks.
First, the recipe. This ain't no steam beer -- it's a pale American lager. If it has any flaws, they will show up in spades. That is exactly the point, to test out the process and to determine if it produces a clean lager.
Mid-American Lager
BJCP 1B, Standard American Lager
75% 2-row (3 lb 2 oz @85% eff. for 2.25 gallons)
20% Flaked Rice (13 oz)
5% Vienna (3.5 oz)
Hop:
1/8 oz Galena 60 (13 IBUs for 2.25 gallons)
Yeast:
WLP840 American Lager
The process:
Two days before the first batch of wort, I will prepare a 1500ml starter on a stir plate. This will give me a pitching rate of about 2.2M cells/ml/*Plato, or about 50% over the normal recommended pitching rate for lagers. This starter will be chilled and decanted.
Brew day #1 is simple BIAB, step mash at 122*F and 150*F on the stove top, to produce ~2.25 gallons of 1.056 wort. Reserving 1 quart for trub, I'll have 2 gallons of wort. I will aerate the snot out of it, chill down to 50*F in my fermentation chamber using plenty of ice, and pitch.
Of course my chamber has no insulation, so I expect the temp will rise gradually up to the low 60's by the next day. At that point I'll maintain the temp as close to 60*F as I can with water bottles, which is just above the recommended range for the yeast. The key is that with my high pitching rate and pure O2, I expect any yeast growth will be complete by the time the temp gets above 58*F, so I should have limited ester production as a result of the warmer temps.
Brew day #2, 24 hours later, I'll prepare another batch of identical wort. I'll chill back to 50*F using a bag of ice, oxygenate the fresh wort, and pitch onto the actively fermenting wort. At this point I have enough yeast to easily ferment the four gallons of lager, so again I should be through the growth phase within 12 hours and back into vigorous fermentation.
I'll then keep the temps as close to 60*F as I can with bottles of ice until fermentation slows after which I will let it finish at room temp. After attenuation is reached, I'll rack to a keg, top up to five gallons, fine with gelatin, lager for a week or two, and then filter the beer into a serving keg just like the big boys do. I'm using ALDC enzyme at the suggestion of JB from Austin Homebrew, so I can skip the D-rest altogether further shortening my fermentation time.
Target is 15-20 days grain to glass, 1.045 OG equivalent, ~10 IBUs.
Comments?
Warm temp lager fermentation experiment
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