Fermenting Lagers warm..what would happen?

I only brew ales because i'm afraid of the "difficulties" of laggering. My fermentation area has an ambient room temp of 74F and the floor is usually 62F during the days and 50Fs at night . I'm figuring that if i decided to make a lager i would have a fermentation temp of 69F and 62F (at night). If i decided to brew and ferment a lager at this temps what would be the outcome?

I would like to know as well. Can lager yeast handle temperatures that high?

tenchu_11 said:

. . . . . If i decided to brew and ferment a lager at this temps what would be the outcome?

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Steam beer (or California common), assuming you use lager yeast of course. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Steam_Beer

AFAIK, if you ferment at temps higher than the recommended range on the package for your lager yeast then you may get esters or some off-flavors. You can always take a lager recipe and substitute California Lager strains which are actually made for higher temps (see steam beer).

trevor_b said:

I would like to know as well. Can lager yeast handle temperatures that high?

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Yes typically, and what Erroneous said. Also properly fermented lagers almost require a diacetyl rest which is 10F higher than lager temps so that the yeast can clean up their diacetyl.

If you ferment a lager at higher than lager temp's, it is no longer a lager.

...i read the description to the California common beer
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Steam_Beer

is it actually crisp and light...pseudo lager...kinda like a kolsch/lager?

tenchu_11 said:

...is it actually crisp and light...pseudo lager...kinda like a kolsch/lager?

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Ummmmm . . . . slightly more caramely, different hop profile, no citrus, etc. . . . . it's kinda like . . . . .an anchor steam, when done right It will actually probably end up similar to a "Nome steam":rockin:

trevor_b said:

I would like to know as well. Can lager yeast handle temperatures that high?

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It wont end up tasting like a lager.

Using the california common, or steam beer, strain can get you close to the california common style, but in general using a lager strain at high temps will give you a beer filled with esters, and other flavors that you dont find in crisp, clean tasting lagers. Will it ferment into beer? Yes. Will your Pilsner Urquell clone taste anything like Pilsner Urquell? Not really.

Are you going to have the ability to cold condition your beer for extended periods (i.e. "lager" it)? If not, you won't really have a lager anyway.

Your best bet is to get your fermenter into a larger vessel (tub, trash can or whatever you can find) into which you will put ice to surround your fermenter to keep it cool. If you can get towels or a blanket over your fermenter that will keep soaked from the surrounding water/ice that will help keep the temperature down as well. People have done this with pretty good effect to keep their ale ferm temps down...but getting things to lager ferm temps is a challenge. I would suggest you pick up some S-23 dry yeast (I believe the corresponding Wyeast strain is 2206) which I have heard and found to perform well at temperatures as high as 60.

Using that yeast strain (on something like a Bohemian lager) and keeping your fermenter as cool as you can should allow you to end up with a decent lager, provided you have the ability to cold age your beer for an extended period. Or as others have suggested, do a Cali common--but that will get tiresome after awhile.

Good luck!

You'd end up with a lot of esters and phenolics. If you used a standard lager or pilsner recipe, the result would be pretty poor.

If you can't ferment at around 50 degrees, I'd suggest NOT using lager yeast as the results won't be very good. What can work well is a clean well-attenuating ale yeast. 69 degrees is pushing it for fermenting temperature for just about any ale yeast, though, so try to keep it cooler if you can. If it starts at 69 or so, it can easily go up 10 degrees or more just from the heat produced by fermentation.

I'd get a clean ale yeast like nottingham or S05, and put the fermenter in a water bath and add a few frozen water bottles to try to keep it in the low 60s. That can give you a very "clean", lager-like taste without too many esters.