Lager temps?

My Lagering fridge won't let me get above 42 degrees. Is this too low of a temperature for the primary fermentation? I read that 50 degrees for the primary, diacytl rest at mid 60's for a week, then secondary at 33 till finished. I am getting fermentation but it's extremely slow. I am worried about crashing my yeast. I pitched a pretty large starter of Wyeast California Lager-- 1/2 gal into 6 galons.

I'm not a lager expert, but I believe the California lager yeast is a warmer fermenting lager yeast. I fermented a lager at 50 degrees, but I used Bavarian lager yeast. If you're using the California yeast, it would do better at 60 degrees than at 40. I think you're way too cold for the actual fermentation temperature range of this yeast. When it's time to lager it, though, you've got the perfect temperature set up.

Lorena

57f to 68f is the recomended temperture to ferment this yeast at. Warm it up a bit.

You really want to get an external controller for your fridge so you can keep it at any temp you want.

my problem right now is that it's 33 degrees outside where the fridge is. The fridge is even turned to the off position. I'm going to need to put a lamp or something in to warm it up.

boo boo said:

57f to 68f is the recomended temperture to ferment this yeast at. Warm it up a bit.

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In White Labs info on this yeast it says you can go down to 50 to do other styles of lager. It is going to be slow going for any yeast at 42.

Get a controller that lets you run a heater or fridge, that yeast won't do much at 42F. You could probably even bring it inside the house.

I saw this device at Lowes for about $21 by Honeywell with a name that had "winter" in it. The way it works is you plug a 100watt lamp into it and set the temp you want the light to come on. It's adjustable from 30 to 60 degrees. It's supposed to warn a neighbor that your heat isn't working.

I built a heater for inside my fermentation chamber for about $20. It's just a cheap thermostat from the hardware that handles line-level voltage attached to a lightbulb. I use it in the winter months to keep my fermentation fridge from getting too cold (it's in the garage and the temp drops too low out there.)





I guess Bobby's suggestion is basically the same thing, but I like to be able to set mine up at 65 for the ales.

that should work fine for my application, and I just happened to have the parts too. thanks.

This is what I did to bring up the temp in the fridge. THe temp in the garage was in the 40's-50's and I needed it to be 65-70 in the fridge. So, I bought one of those fermentator wraps and taped it into the fridge. Plugged it in and jst kept playing with the temp controller on the fridge to get it to 68F. Works like a charm, and very easy. Hope that helps!