Lagers without tempreture control

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cstacey44

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Hello,
Ive been tempted to move onto brewing a lager style beer (like festa brew Blonde Lager). Most of the kits appear to use the following yeast :Saflager S-23

The yeast recommends you ferment between 9-15 Celsius. I am fairly new to brewing, and I dont have the equipment to control the tempreture of the fermentation. The room that I have been using is typically around 20-22 Celcius.

Has anyone tried fermenting a lager yeast at this tempreture range? Can I simply ferment at this tempreture, and then lager later on once its bottled?

Just wondering if I should bother, or stick with Ales.

Thanks!
 
Lagering is just essentially cold temperature fermentation. It takes longer to complete but it produces some nice clean smooth tasting beers. You could use a dual purpose yeast like nottingham that does well in a wide range of temperatures or just hold off on lagering until you can control your fermentation temperature.
 
A 20-22 degree room is even a bit on the warm side for most ales, and I wouldn't attempt a lager until maybe winter or late fall when you may have a cooler place.

I'd try my best to even keep my ales at 20 C or under, and since fermentation creates heat sometimes I hit 20C with my fermenting beer even in a room where the ambient temperature is 17C.
 
yeah, you're not lagering without the temp control. Steam beer is a style that involves brewing with lager yeast at ale temps - but you get a lot different product. The esters and yeasty flavors come out pretty heavily - exactly the opposite of what you're going for in a lager.
 
You'd be better off using an ale yeast at those temps. You have to ferment it in the temperature range specified to get the clean lager flavor. I'd hold off until you get temperature control in hand before tackling a lager (or ales for that matter, but I digress). That being said, there are some very inexpensive ways of controlling your temp. Do a search for "swamp cooler". I personally use an igloo cooler for my lagers, and they turn out quite well. I use a glass carboy for primary fermentation, put that in a 60 qt Ice Cube Igloo cooler with water filled to the level of the wort. Swap out ice bottles to maintain near 50F, it works well.
 
Seasonal brewing is great. Although I have a controlled fermentation chamber, I don't do lagers, except in the winter. My brewery was originally an attached, but unheated garage. In the winter, the temperature is ideal for fermenting lagers. The new garage is completely uninsulated and tends to sit around freezing. The only heat is gets is a small trickle through the brewery wall. It's just right for lagering.
 
Hmm, ive got an attached unheated garage, i'll put a thermometer out there and see how cold it gets in the winter time. Here in Ottawa, overnight temps can drop pretty low at night in the dead of winter.
 
Hmm, ive got an attached unheated garage, i'll put a thermometer out there and see how cold it gets in the winter time. Here in Ottawa, overnight temps can drop pretty low at night in the dead of winter.

That's why you use a setup with a cheap temp controller and a heater to keep the liquid above freezing.
 
Hmm, ive got an attached unheated garage, i'll put a thermometer out there and see how cold it gets in the winter time. Here in Ottawa, overnight temps can drop pretty low at night in the dead of winter.
as a former native of ottawa (actually aylmer, across the river) i can assure you that it will eventually get too cold, even inside your garage. that probably won't happen until december but it will happen. so i would count on being able to lager in late fall and early spring, but not in february.

lagers need to be lagered for several weeks/month, so the challenge is to find a time of year when you have a long enough window of cold-but-not-freezing temps. you might have to keep an eye on that garage thermometer and be ready to spring into action once it starts dipping below zero inside the garage.

revvy': your ghetto-chamber is one of the coolest things i've seen on here recently.
 
since you live in the north with all of us cool brewers. use a swamp chiller in the winter in your coldest room of your house wrap a t-shirt around your carboy and stick a therm in there...i did my first few lagers this way b4 i got temp controlled freezers. if your into all grain look into my bud clone. got good reviews from yooper a few yrs ago
 
I've used Kolsch yeasts in cream ales, lawnmower beers, etc and have gotten lager-like results. Not perfect, but pretty darn good, and they're much easier to make than true lagers.
 
You might also consider WLP-810 San Francisco Lager yeast. I've used it without all that great of temp control and gotten very nice results.
 

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