advice on lagering please

I don't have a fridge w/temperature control (yet) & had thought about trying to brew a lager & storing it in my garage. I'm in Texas & there's no telling what the weather will bring over the next six weeks--40 to 80 degrees is very likely. Does anyone think it'd be best to wait until the summer & I get the freezer rigged w/a thermostat or is it worth the time & effort to give it a go in the garage?

I'd like to try a Maibock & eventually keep several lagers on hand (the lady likes 'em best) so a freezer is definitely on the horizon once the Texas summers hit.

Thanks!

I have a thread about Ghetto Lagering in COLD climes here...

But you're in texas, you need a way to keep the beer cold. You're garage is not going to go down to the mid 30's to actually lager the beer.

If you don't want to wait to rig up a chest freezer, you could rig an insulated box up with a window A/C unit to chill the space. If your garage has a window, you could put a unit in a window. Then maybe get one of these rubbermade utility closets, cut a hole in the back to accomodate the unit and stick your carboy in there.

It's possible to do with a cooler, and lots and lots and lots of exchanges of frozen water bottles, at least for fermentation. But it won't be easy. And then you'd still have the lagering to worry about.

Lagers need fermentation temperatures of about 48-55 degrees. If the temperature is too cool, it won't ferment. If it's too warm, it won't taste right. So that's the hardest part. After fermentation is over, the beer is then lagered- which means stored cold. You could bottle and stash bottles in the fridge, but that's about the only way I can think that you could actually lager.

I think that lagers are pretty tough to do without strict temperature control.

Thanks. That's what I thought---wait & do it right. I'll get a chest freezer & thermostat in a couple months & fill it with 3 or 4 batches & brew another ale in the meantime.

This summer I'm thinkin lagers in the new freezer & saisons in the spare bedroom, stacked two or three high.

antony said:

Thanks. That's what I thought---wait & do it right. I'll get a chest freezer & thermostat in a couple months & fill it with 3 or 4 batches & brew another ale in the meantime.

This summer I'm thinkin lagers in the new freezer & saisons in the spare bedroom, stacked two or three high.

Click to expand...

That sounds great!!!!!!

Did you guys get the HUGE rain storm last night that we got on the coast? I think we got like 2 inches of rain down here last night. I know Texas needs rain, but it seems like it's coming all at once!

yup, sure did. it's still raining now. good day to stand by the stove...

thanks for the advice!

Revvy said:

If you don't want to wait to rig up a chest freezer, you could rig an insulated box up with a window A/C unit to chill the space. If your garage has a window, you could put a unit in a window. Then maybe get one of these rubbermade utility closets, cut a hole in the back to accomodate the unit and stick your carboy in there.

Click to expand...

What an awesome idea Revvy. I happen to have a aircon unit on wheels that come out for the hottest humid days of summer here where it can get to a shocking 26C and 95% humidity, either is fine, try to sleep with both... needs aircon.

So I could rig a vaguely well sealed wardrobe, put the aircon unit in there with the FV and then bottles and control the temp. Trouble is my AC only goes down to 18C, so would need a thermostat rig or manually watched.

I'd only be concerned about the electric bill. Unless the cold store was well sealed.

venquessa said:

What an awesome idea Revvy. I happen to have a aircon unit on wheels that come out for the hottest humid days of summer here where it can get to a shocking 26C and 95% humidity, either is fine, try to sleep with both... needs aircon.

So I could rig a vaguely well sealed wardrobe, put the aircon unit in there with the FV and then bottles and control the temp. Trouble is my AC only goes down to 18C, so would need a thermostat rig or manually watched.

I'd only be concerned about the electric bill. Unless the cold store was well sealed.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not the most cost effective way...but if you want to lager.

One thing people have done with central air is put an insulated box with the carboy in it over one of the vents to trap the cold in.

I'm actually going to attempt something in the spring/summer, maybe in the basement that involves an old cooler that I'm going to fill with a combo of dry ice and frozen water bottles, and a hole in it with another computer fan mounted over the hole, then I'm going to use a bit of duct to connect it to the venthole/fan on my ghetto lager box, and see if I can just draw in some extremely cold air from one to another. We'll see.

I also thinking an old second hand fridge (off one of them recycling websites). If I'm only doing 1 batch of lager at a time, I can adjust the temperature between ferment and lagering.

Just need to make sure 1 5.5gl FV fits in.