Should I lager at these temps?

I'm about to start my 5th batch, but first using lager yeast (white Labs oktoberfest lagar yeast 820). It's an Oktoberfest recipe I picked up.

Directions say:
If Lagering: 40-50 deg F for 4-6 days, then 3 weeks in secondary.
If not: 70-75 deg F for 4-5 days, then 10-14 days in secondary.

My basement closet is a steady 62 right now (no spare refridgerator). But we are about to enter a stretch of outside temps around 40-50 with a 10 degree swing each day.

I'm tempted to try these lagering temps, but I can't trust the weather to keep cool for weeks. Can I do the primary ferment in an outdoor shed at 40-50, but then keep the secondary at 62 in the basement if I have to? Or should I just stick with the steady ale temps for both primary and secondary?

DO you have to brew this now, or can you wait a couple more weeks?

I discovered last winter that I can "ghetto lager" in my apartment garage once we get to a point where it is consistantly in the 40's or colder...so I am planning to brew lagers once we have our first frost...probably after nov 1st here in Michigan. But not before.

If I were you, I'd save this recipe for a few more weeks, and stick to ales til you are sure that you can get the temps you need.

One of my ghetto lagers caught the tail end of witner/spring, and the temps rse, it definitely had some off flavors that would not have been present if I had the deep cold I needed for the lager phase.

But I have a few bottles left, and I have been leaving them a long time in the fridge and they do improve tastewise with the cold conditioning.

You ought to ferment that batch at roughly 50F, whether you lager it properly or not.

Keep in mind that, although the air outside your basement may fluctuate in temperature by 10 degrees or more each day, the air temperature inside your basement should fluctuate much less, and the beer temperature even less than that.


TL

Thanks. I think you are right that I should wait and make for better conditions.

I plan to ghetto lager in my basement. My basement is around 64-66°F now, so I figure a nice bath in a tub for my fermenter and swapping out some water and ice/ice packs twice a day should easily keep me in the 50s. Then I can lager lager in my normal fridge.

It's been said that that swinging temps going up and down can cause yeast to flocculate early and leave behind acetaldehyde and diacetyl.

You guys notice any of these off flavors when 'ghetto' lagering?

petep1980 said:

I plan to ghetto lager in my basement. My basement is around 64-66°F now, so I figure a nice bath in a tub for my fermenter and swapping out some water and ice/ice packs twice a day should easily keep me in the 50s. Then I can lager lager in my normal fridge.

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I switched out two 1 gallon jugs of ice every 12 hours, and noticed big fluctuation, from 53F to 63F (water temp). This was with a Cream Common, Cali Lager Yeast (good up to 65), with the fluctuation I got huge amounts of fruity esters. I'm going to wait until my basement gets around 50 and going to try a Classic American Pilsner probably.

ODaniel said:

I switched out two 1 gallon jugs of ice every 12 hours, and noticed big fluctuation, from 53F to 63F (water temp). This was with a Cream Common, Cali Lager Yeast (good up to 65), with the fluctuation I got huge amounts of fruity esters. I'm going to wait until my basement gets around 50 and going to try a Classic American Pilsner probably.

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1 Gallon Jugs of ice? I'm confused.

Fill empty milk jug with water, put in freezer overnight, wake up and it's a gallon of ice! I had 4, and swapped 2 every 12 hours.

What was your basement temp when you started?

I think it was a steady 65ish.

Well, here's my update:

I decided to go with the experiment. I got 3 days of desired temps and a decent ferment going. But then temps dropped into the 30s and I feared it would be too cold, so I brought it inside hoping that it would finish at a higher temp. But I must have shocked the little guys (and maybe it flocculated out) because the ferment slowed to a crawl at about 1.044 (OG 1.064). The krausen fell and stuck at half an inch for a while before falling almost completely, though the airlock still bubbled slowly. In the ensuing weeks I stirred the cake twice (which helped) and just waited it out. It was making slow progress so I resisted pitching new yeast. After almost four weeks (having transferred to a secondary) it finally bottomed out at FG 1.020. I'm drinking one now. A little on the malty side, but quite tasty. Keeps a nice foamy head. Just goes to show you that we new guys can goof up pretty good and still get a batch of beer. At least I can say that I learned more about brewing from this one experience than I could have with 10 easy batches.