Lager/Ale experiment underway

After sampling my first lager batch, I got to wondering if the extra work, and more importantly the waiting, is worth it. It's my second favorite brew so far, but maybe it was the recipe rather than the lagering.

I decided to do two batches of out of season Oktoberfest and ferment one as a lager and one as an ale. The lager version was brewed on 11/26/06 and has been in my lagering fridge for a while now. I just brewed the ale version on 1/8/07 and plan to keep it in a secondary for at least 3 weeks at which time I'll bottle both batches.

There is an obvious fault in this test as you might attribute a better taste on the lager for the simple reason that it has been aged for more than a month (longer) than the ale. I probably should have brewed them at the same time. Then again, I was thinking in terms of when you would start drinking for either method and most start about a month into bottling.

The other issue I'm concerned about is that I had to crush my steeping grains with imprecise tools (hammer) and the crush could have varied quite a bit between batches. I wish I thought to ask for a crush when I ordered it.

In either case, the info will be pretty valuable to me and I'll be sure to publish the results.

Thanks for the experiment.

I'm a new brewer and am fascinated with lagering, but don't have the experience/equipment to take a stab at it. I would definitely be willing to invest the extra work/money into it if I knew it made a significant difference.

I'm interested too. I would like to try some lagers but don't have the equipment. I accidently ordered a lager recipe (Shiner Bock) from AHBS and they informed me that it and all their lager recipes can be fermented at ale temps and will turn out fine. We'll see, I plan to brew it this weekend.

This will definately be interesting to follow. What would have been even MORE intriguing, IMHO, is to have done a third batch, using a California Common yeast. Wondering how that would have fit in between the other two brews, how closely it would match up with the lagered brew.

That's a good point but since I already have the means to lager, the results will definitely be "good enough" for me to decide one way or the other. Maybe if the lager is the better batch, then it's time to decide if I really needed the precise temp control to acheive the same taste or not.

What if I actually like the ale version better? Geez.. then I have to decide if I just like Marzen malt/hops combos done as ales. The list is endless.

Just for the record, what yeast strain are you using? Be sure to keep track of temperatures for all stages of fermentation for both.

JnJ said:

I'm interested too. I would like to try some lagers but don't have the equipment. I accidently ordered a lager recipe (Shiner Bock) from AHBS and they informed me that it and all their lager recipes can be fermented at ale temps and will turn out fine. We'll see, I plan to brew it this weekend.

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Wouldn't that make it a steam beer? Not the American Dark Lager that it is...

There's nothing like a good homebrewed lager, good luck. Last years Oktoberfest is my favourite beer to date.

You'll certainly see a difference, but I wouldn't treat it as an ale Vs lager competition. Both have their own charms!

I just brewed an Anchor clone last month with White Labs California common yeast. It's a good yeast alright but it's not miles away from US-56 brewed at the same temperature.

dcbrewmeister said:

Wouldn't that make it a steam beer? Not the American Dark Lager that it is...

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I don't know, but I'll have the real thing to compare it too.

My lager/ale experiment is almost done. I split a batch of wort, brewing heavy and diluting; so, the only differences are yeast (Saflager and WL London Ale) and temperature.

I'm thinking of doing the same. A 5 gallon brew and split into 3 batches.

1 lager (It'll fit in my fridge) lager yeast
1 cool ale temp ferment lager yeast
1 ale ferment with ale yeast

Yeah, in retrospect a split batch would yield much more accurate results.

I'm using Saflager (primary at 53-55dF and Lager at 36-38) and Nottingham (Primary and secondary at 65-67). I'm thinking about moving the ale to my living space at a constant 69dF because I think it would be more representative of what many people ferment their ales at and accentuate the difference between the two.