Limited lagering lagers

I've been wanting to make some lagers for a while now without the capabilities to do them justice. With the weather cooling down, I've found I can get a cool ferment with a swamp cooler setup - I've currently got a cal common fermenting at a steady 58 F with very little maintenance. So my wheels are turning, but my lack of experience is keeping me from being confident in my choice of yeast and lager style.

Here is what I am working with: I am confident in my ability to get the swamp cooler into the low 50s F. I have negotiated for the ability to stick a carboy in the fridge for a period of 7 days maximum at a time. What lager style and yeast combination would suit me best with good results? I am very interested in pretty much all lager styles. The yeasts I use for most of my ales are WLP013 and Pacman. I think I also have a jar of WLP029, the WLP810 I am using for the cal common, and packet of notty - but it would be no trouble getting a true lager yeast if my schedule could work for it.

Thank you for any suggestions.

If your going to do lagers make sure you can do lagers. If you are planning a d-rest then you will need around 10 days around 50 to get you around 80% then d-rest. If no d-rest need to keep it around 50 till you hit fg. Then need to get it down to 32 for 30 days+ depending on your og. You will want a true lager yeast for this.

I use 830 for all my lagers. I even make IPL's instead of IPA's because the ferm fridge is running anyway. I keep that at 48 air temp, and have no issues.
After a couple weeks at 48, I crash in the kegorator for a week or so then into the keg. I keep 8 kegs there and it sits at 35 until time to tap it.

I do understand the importance of a lagering period, however my circumstances do not yet allow me to let it go for a month or three in the 30's like I would want to do. Bearing this in mind, would a 10 day 50F ferment + D-rest followed by a 7 day swamp cooler session in the 40's followed by 7 days at ~36F in the fridge and then bottle conditioning produce a decent lager (~1.050) for my purposes, or would I be better of making pseudo lagers with pacman and notty in the 50's?

I'd prefer the more traditional methods, but given my circumstances is it a waste of time? I really enjoy lager styles and will definitely be investing in a chamber for them once I move in the next six months. The reason I don't wait to do it is because with the weather I am able to get my primary temps down to lager temps - but that leaves this issue of needing to ghetto lager.

What styles of lager are you looking to make?

beerman0001 said:

What styles of lager are you looking to make?

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Helles, dortmunder, schwarzbier, vienna, dunkel... those delicious toasty crisp german lagers that you can drink liters of. Maybe down the road a bock or pilsner.

The only way to get "those delicious toasty crisp German lagers" is lagering at the right temps for the right amount of time. If you have room in your fridge you can lager them in the bottles after you carb them up. Just put them in the back corner and leave them alone.

Has anyone here combined an ale-style yeast for initial ferment, and lager yeast whilst dropping temp?if so how'd it turn out? I have it underway in the primary now and seems ok for a lager (so far!)

takaboy said:

Has anyone here combined an ale-style yeast for initial ferment, and lager yeast whilst dropping temp?if so how'd it turn out? I have it underway in the primary now and seems ok for a lager (so far!)

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Once the beer is fermented with the ale yeast you are just wasting your $$ on the lager yeast. There is nothing left for it to do.

Since you're saying that you can't do a lager properly, I'd suggest trying an ale yeast like Wyeast kolsch that will be pretty close to what you want. It does great at 62f, which will make keeping cool much easier. And pitch a ton of yeast and it will ferment quicker. And it doesn't need extended lagering... 1 to 2 weeks is fine. I just made such a kolsch and I'd swear I used lager yeast.

i'm actually in the middle of my first lager.. i had it ferment for 7 days at 48, then a d-rest for 2 days, and now its at like a week and a half so far at lagering temps.. its in a keg, so i figured i'd try it on friday (which would be 2 weeks on co2 and lagering) and just see how it changes for the next 2 weeks.. with bottling conditioning like you mentioned though, it may take 2-3 weeks anyway to get the carb levels correct as long as you can keep all of the bottles at lagering temps