venquessa

Recipes 

I'm looking of a recipe for my next 5 gallon batch.

I'd like to try an extract Lager-like, ie. Light malts, pilsner levels of hops (hoping to use Saaz for bitter and flavor/aroma), and Ale yeast, warm ferment.

Any ideas?

__________________
Paul
UK (Northern Ireland)
Brew Log: http://www.campbell-multimedia.co.uk/wordpress/

Yooper

Recipes 

How "warm" a ferment? If you can ferment at 57-62 degrees, you can use nottingham ale yeast and get a very crisp lager-like beer at the end.

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

venquessa

Recipes 

18C/64F is about the lowest ambient I can get for 5gl without putting the FV bin out in the apartments shared hallway and that would leave it exposed to some very cold nights and I couldn't guarantee it would stay above 57F.

__________________
Paul
UK (Northern Ireland)
Brew Log: http://www.campbell-multimedia.co.uk/wordpress/

DarthMalt

Recipes 

Try a Kolsch or California Common recipe. If you keep the temps at the low end of the yeast, you'll end up with an incredible crisp, clean lager-like beer.

Yooper

Recipes 

That is pretty warm, as fermentation itself produces heat and sometimes it can be as much as 8-10 degrees warmer than ambient, especially in the summer.

You can try a water bath, like in a bin or a cooler, with a couple of frozen water bottles exchanged out every couple of days and I bet you could keep it at 16-17C.

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

GrainWhisperer

Recipes 

Thanks Yooper.
I've been thinking about this as well.
My basement is about 60 right now, but I don't quite have a good temperature control set up yet to ferment in the low fifties, so I've been reluctant to try a lager.

venquessa

Recipes 

The cooling bath method scares me. I have far too much carpet around here to mess with huge bins of water Not to mention my coolest room is the bedroom! SWMBO must be carefully worked around. An FV I can hide in the corner... a 10gl flower planter with a FV bin in it, I can't

I suppose I can just ferment at the lowest I can and accept what I get. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work I didn't mind my Coopers Lager fermented at 22C with ale yeast.

Is it considered "too plain" to just use Extra Light DME + Hops? Would this be "bland beer"?

__________________
Paul
UK (Northern Ireland)
Brew Log: http://www.campbell-multimedia.co.uk/wordpress/

Yooper

Recipes 

As a minor point, the cooper's "lager" fermented at 22C with ale yeast was an ale. It's just called a lager for their selling purposes. If you like it, then you like ales as it should be a bit "fruitier" than any lager you'll ever have.

22C is even high for ale fermentation, but if you like it then you can continue at that temperature without any worries.

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006