Lagering Outdoors This Winter (in Oregon)

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BonnieJ

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This is the first winter that I'll be brewing here in the Willamette Valley. As those of you who live here know, the temps stay above freezing for most of the winter but don't get that warm, either.

Last year the temperature read about 43.5 almost every day (at least when I happened to glance at it, which may have been the same time of day) for weeks at a time. I was so surprised that it would land on the same temperature so often. I think it probably warmed up a few degrees during the day, but it stayed below 50 and above 40.

I don't have a fridge to lager in, and I'm not going to be getting one any time soon because of space limitations where we live (three of us in a smallish one-bedroom apartment. Thankfully one of us is three months old ;) ).

What do you think about lagering outside? I don't really have a covered area but I could fix something up, or put the carboy (I have all plastic right now) in a box. Anyone else do something like this? Is it going to be bad if the temperature varies by several degrees (say, 10) during any given 24 hour period? Also, perhaps I could insulate a box somehow so the temperature would stay more consistent.
 
Subscribed. I am interested in an answer to this, too.

FWIW, I know for miniature greenhouses/row covers, people recommend putting 2 liter or gallon bottles filled with water in with the house. The high specific heat of water acts a temperature buffer. I'm wondering if this would work if you put it in a box or something.

You might even be able to keep it in a snowpack, if you have lots of snow.
 
I would be tempted to make a wood box for the fermenter and put the whole thing in the ground. That should keep the temperatures fairly stable. I personally don't know if temperature variation during the lagering stage is a big deal or not. This sounds like a cool idea though!
 
No snow here. I can't really dig a hole because we're at an apartment and hardly any yard, either.

Too bad I don' t near a cave :p
 

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