Lagering Questions

I bought a wine fridge to lager in. I am now attempting my first lager with a Labatt's Blue clone. I got the fridge down to 52 degs for the fermenting period with no problem, and last Saturday I re-racked it into the secondary. It's now suppose to set in the fridge for 3 or 4 weeks at 40 degs. Right now it is sitting at 49 degs which I think might be all it will go.

Will this be OK? Will I have to let it sit in the fridge longer. It's a thermal electric, so would a Johnson controller work to get it down to the target temp? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I think many people lager at 40 degrees- that's a typical fridge temperature. It will be fine, but maybe not quite as crisp as a lager that was lagered near freezing for a longer period of time. The polyphenols will still drop out at 40 degrees, as will excess yeast so you still should end up with a very nice lager.

Edit- I see your fridge is actually 49 degrees. That's probably ok for beer, but it's a good thing it's not a fridge for food! If that's as low as it can go, I don't know if a temperature controller will be much help unless there is a way to check and make sure it's not the compressor.

It will be fine. It will jut take longer to mature. Before I got a dedicated lager chamber my lagers would just sit in the basement until I had room in the kegerator. This could be up to 6 months for an O'fest. When space would become available, I'd let them chill in the kegerator for two weeks before starting to drink it. Normally within two more weeks it would be drinking great.

That being said, I do have a 4 keg system so I could wait the extra time. Now I have a proper lager chamber so this isn't an issue.

Thanks for your answers. I just checked the fridge and it is now down to 47 degs and is still running hard. That makes me feel better.

BeerB4Liquor said:

Thanks for your answers. I just checked the fridge and it is now down to 47 degs and is still running hard. That makes me feel better.

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Hey man just had a couple questions about the cooler you bought because I'm looking for a reasonable way to make lagers myself...what size batches are you making? I have been making 5 gallon batches in 5.5 gallon fermenting buckets, and I wouldnt think that would fit in there?

I actually use a chest freezer with a temp controller, the compressor doesn't need to stay on very long to maintain temperature.