I'm a recent (fanatical) convert to homebrew and my obsession is slowly taking over my life. Sadly, I don't have the funds to purchase the necessary equipment (mainly real estate with room for a fermenting fridge or cold storage) but I'm really eager to take on a pilsner very soon. I live in Vancouver, and in a month or so, autumn will kick in and we'll have temperatures from about 2-4 C in the evening and 10-12 in the daytime. If I stick my secondary outside during this time, will this be better than simply using a neutral ale yeast? How will the fluctuation affect the beer?
Oh, and don't worry. I'm relaxed. And I'm having a homebrew.
I ghetto lager in the winter here in michigan....I live in a loft and we have a garage (which is the former loading dock of the department store this used to be.)
In our garage we each have wooden storage lockers, and once the deep freeze of winter kicked in, the lockers and the garage were only in the 40's during day time, and much colder at night. So I did a few lagers down there...It worked OK...you just need to make sure you have a couple straight months of steady cold temps...a few weeks to ferment and at least a month to lager in secondary.)
The only issue I ran into was discovering this ability too late into the winter, and abruptly running into spring like temps while one of my batches was still conditioning.
Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YooperBrew
I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac!
Well, I live in a low rise, on the ground floor. So I will put the carboy directly outside, on my ground-floor balcony', where it will have shelter from west-coast rain. I'd probably put it in some sort of cooler to keep the sun off and temperatures more constant.
Well, I live in a low rise, on the ground floor. So I will put the carboy directly outside, on my ground-floor balcony', where it will have shelter from west-coast rain. I'd probably put it in some sort of cooler to keep the sun off and temperatures more constant.
I would build some sort of insulated box/fermentation chamber...first to hide it from prying eyes, protect it from UV exposure AND to maintain a somewhat constant temp, you don't want it to go to a hard freeze...someone posted a thread about that once, iirc using a glass carboy, which cracked.
I would get get a thermometer with a log needle probe and drill a hole in the top of the cabinet with the probe sticking in, not into the fermenter, just in the airchamber around it, so you can check the temps regularly...If you really got fancy smancy using a digital probe thermometer where you can set the high and low temp range with an audible, so you know the beer isn't nearing freezing point, and lets say not going above the yeast's top range.
Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YooperBrew
I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac!
Well, my DIY skills are positively primeval, but I think I can handle a box. Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a shot!
Look around on our DIY section for different fermentation chambers (not the electric kind )but boxes lind inside with pink foam insulations...
I would suggest just get a cardboad box and glue inslilation inside but that wouldn't survive rain or anything....
Are you planning to use only one fermenter in your lager?
If so you could get a large tplastic rash can and turn it over the bucket or carboy....and you could line it inside with some insulation. Anything to create a chamber to protect your fermenter from the elements.
Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YooperBrew
I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac!
Keeping a constant temperture is almost nesessary in making a good lager, almost as much as lower fermentation tempertures. If you are planning on a lager, then looking to keep your primary steady around 10c is one key to success. Only then do you decrease temps to lagering temps of about 2 to 4c.
Keeping your fermenters/lagering carboys in a bucket of water helps even out uneven temperture swings, provided you don't let the water freeze. This along with the other suggestions already provided should help you along.
Best is getting an extra fridge off kijji for example and adding a temperture controller. Not all that expensive if you have the room to fit it in your place.
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Keeping a constant temperture is almost nesessary in making a good lager, almost as much as lower fermentation tempertures. If you are planning on a lager, then looking to keep your primary steady around 10c is one key to success. Only then do you decrease temps to lagering temps of about 2 to 4c.
Keeping your fermenters/lagering carboys in a bucket of water helps even out uneven temperture swings, provided you don't let the water freeze. This along with the other suggestions already provided should help you along.
Best is getting an extra fridge off kijji for example and adding a temperture controller. Not all that expensive if you have the room to fit it in your place.
But if you have natural, steady and long cold, you would be surprised how successful "Ghetto" lagering can be. I did 4 batches last winter, My cream ale using lager yeast, My Rogue Dead guy/maiboc using lager yeast, AA vienna lager, and a swartzbier...and all except the swarzbier were exquisite, very very clean...and the swartzbier was drinkable, but I ran out of true lager temps, so it wan't as clean as the others.
And all I did was chuck the fermenter in my cold closet for a month, bring iit up to my place for a d-rest, and racked it to secondary and lagered them for a month.....
Don't forget long before there were fridges, and temp control, there were lagers, usually in cold caves or underground vaults, kept cold only by ice and the ambient cold temps around it, and brewed seasonally. Heck MOST of the lagering in the 1800's were done that way....Ask Llabatt's and Molson up your way
Someone wanting to try their hand at lagering for the first time, or seasonal brewing for that matter, like I did, can with some ingenuity come up with a way to do it in colder weather.
I think the water bath is a good idea, but I would be worried about that freeaing...I wonder if using a salt bath, or a little glycol antifreeze in the water bath would work???
Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YooperBrew
I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac!
If you don't mind ugly, a sheet or two of extruded insulating foam and a can of spray urethane can do the job. Leave the bottom open and set your fermenter on a slab of foam, then set the box over it.
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