Lager tasting ale

This will probably get some contentious comments but please they are my taste buds and it's what I like.
Now, I would like to find an ale yeast that gives the same flavor characteristics as lagering. At our condo there is no room to add a lagering refrigerator. The interior temps are just standard room temps. No basement or anything like that. So I am very limited. Even Steam beer is out because it needs around 54F to ferment. So ale yeasts are it.
So does any one know of an ale yeast that has the flavor characteristics I'm looking for?

Kolsch might fit your bill.

I've never brewed a lager, but I understand the yeast ferments clean. One of the cleanest ale yeasts available is PacMan.

Temperature range for PacMan is 48 to 72 F. Obviously lower temps will produce cleaner tasting beers.

Proprietary yeast strain from Rogue breweries in Oregon. Ferments very clean with little or no esters which will highlight your grain and hop flavors. Massive attenuation will ferment just about everything it can get its cells on, leaving you with a low final gravity for crisp, refreshing brews. It prefers to ferment in the 62 to 64° range, but it can handle temps down to the mid 40's and up to 70° depending on what style you are making, which makes it a great all-around workhorse yeast for any beer that you want to completely ferment. Great flocculation characteristics leave your beers clear, too. Try it in a Barley Wine!

Profile (from Wyeast): A versatile yeast strain from one of Oregon's leading craft breweries. Pacman is alcohol tolerant, flocculent, attenuates well and will produce beers with little to no diacetyl. Very mild fruit complements a dry, mineral finish making this a fairly neutral strain. Pacman's flavor profile and performance makes it a great choice for use in many different beer styles.

I think you could pull off a steam beer. Can you setup a simple rope bucket with some water and frozen water bottles to lower the temp a few degrees?

As an alternative. You might want to try out the Centennial Blonde recipe on this site.

PacMan is awesome. I use it for most of my beers.

I have done two beers with WLP810, SF Lager yeast. I fermented them around 68~70 F, and they turned out really delicious. Of the 7 brews I've done, these have been my favorite.

I can only realistically keep my thermostat around 72F, so I throw a wet towel over the fermenter to drop it a little more.

How about Nottingham Ale Yeast made by a company called Danstar. It's a dry yeast so it's cheap. I have used it for lagers and they have fermented at room temperature. The taste is always good.
I have noticed that my local brew shop packages it's own kits with Nottingham Ale Yeast for the lagers or ales. This shows the versatility.
This yeast is commonly available and it is often called for on recipes listed on the site including Centennial Blonde extra.
My daughter is watching so I have to include this banana.https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/n045.gif

Agreed on all comments so far. Looking at Wyeast's site for the kolsch yeast it says:
"Temperature Range: 56-70° F (13-21° C)"

I'll second the nomination for a kolsch. That's the best beer I have made yet.

I'm brewing a 2.5 gallon batch with (I think) 3.5#s German Pilsner and 1.5#s 2 Row, with bittering with Perle and flavouring with Tettantger. Going to use Notty at 58-60 degrees as it comes out way too clean for my ales at that temp. My basement/house is super cool, but still not really lager temps. Notty fit the bill for the temp, but the flavour is kind of clean for how I want my ales.

Anyways, curious on if I should try to lager this one, or just treat it as I would my ales?

What did you decide to try OP?

What about the California Wyeast that has a temp range of 58-68 Degrees? I enjoy lagers as well and I am planning to do a lager using this yeast at a temperature of around 68 or less.

I use Nottingham for the beers I brew for my wife. I've found that if I mash around 148F, don't use much crystal malts, and ferment around 60F internal temp my beer has a very light, lager-like characteristic. Sticking the kegs in a fridge for a couple of weeks also helps a lot.

So just a quick question is it better to place a yeast it the middle of its temperature range? Or is the lower end of its range better for it all around? Sorry to semi thread jack this.

Depends on what you want. If you're looking for clean, ester free beer go for the low end. Higher temps create more flavors, but also more off tastes. The middle range is usually a good compromise.

Thanks for this thread. I've been wondering how to make an imitation lager/ale myself.

My 2c: California Ale/American Ale/1056/001 is very clean when cold (60-62 degrees), at least in my experience. Kolsch yeast would be good, as would California Lager yeast, or Alt yeast. I also like the Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale when fermented COLD. Also clean. (the White Labs strain I've read is the same strain, but Wyeast rates their temp range a lot lower, down into the mid 50s so I'm not sure).

The problem is even the cleaner strains aren't going taste lager-like in the upper 60s/lower 70s. You'll still need to keep those temps down. I too have no refridgerated set up. As someone said above, a plastic bin full of water swapping out ice will do the trick. I ferment both my Kolsch and my Cal Common at 58-60, and I'm able to "lager" them both around 40 with that method.

corkybstewart said:

Depends on what you want. If you're looking for clean, ester free beer go for the low end. Higher temps create more flavors, but also more off tastes. The middle range is usually a good compromise.

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Ah thank you and that makes sense too.