Question - Which Lager Yeast to use?

Hi all,

I have always brewed ales but am looking to do some lagers finally. As a point of reference, I brew 10 gallon AG batches.

I am looking to brew traditional German Lagers, either bock like or a Munich type of lager. Something in the 1.045 - 1.050 range.

I live in Minnesota (ie COLD!) but do not have a lagering fridge yet. I could use my beer fridge if needed, but it usually has a few corny's on tap.

I have a mechanical room downstairs that is not heated like the rest of the basement. I took a reading the other day with a electronic temp gauge and got 51 degrees.

What type of lagering yeast would you recommend? I know the California "Steam" strains could work, but I am not sure if I will get lager characteristics from this or not. Also, after fermentation, would I still be able to lager/secondary at this temp? Or, would I really need to move to a fridge, or, even in the garage?

Just looking for some real world advice here.

Thanks ahead of time!

My favorite of the lager yeasts is the White Labs Bock yeast -- nice & malty but still a decent attenuator. It ferments out well at 48-54F, so that should work fine for you.

You could ferment at basement temps, I suspect with no problem. For lagering itself you really want colder 32-40F, so that could be the garage though a fridge with more stable temps would be better.

I brewed my first few lagers just like this though (basement & garage temps). They turned out fine -- not as good as once I got temp control, but still good.