OOOPS !! rolling rock cloneis a ..LAGER ?

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yeasty

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well i am a noob and have only brewed ales. i thought when i ordered the rolling rock clone it was an ale too. i noticed a nice rotten egg smell to the fermentation and took a closer look at my ingredients and palmer book. seems that rolling rock clone uses lager yeast. am i in trouble on this one ? i am not set up to lager. its sitting in my basement at 65 degrees. i might be able to stick it in a fridge but probably wont be able to get it cold enough. what to do ?
 
unfortunately you are going to get some off flavors from fermenting that warm. try to keep it as cold as you can for as long as you can and it might clean itself up a bit. always read the temp recommendations on your yeast, because they vary even with ales.

good luck.
 
Do the best you can to get and keep it cold. If you can keep it in a fridge for few weeks all the better. An ice bath is a pita option.

What's the worst that can happen really? I'll tell you. It could actually turn out tasting like real Rolling Rock. Yecchhh. ;)

Actually the worst that can happen is that it tastes like bubblegum. The only batch I ever tossed was a lager that was fermented too warm. Tasted and smelled just like Fruit Punch Bubble Yum.
 
What yeast did you use? It definitely sounds like a lager yeast, if you're getting sulfur smells coming out of it.

If it's a lager yeast, it'd be great to get it to 50 degrees if you can. I put my fermenter in a cooler with a styrofoam lid (so just the airlock pokes out) and put some water and frozen water bottles in it. It keeps it at 50 degrees very nicely. Then, when it's time to lager, I rack it to the carboy and put it back in the big cooler and add more frozen water bottles to get it to 34 degrees. It's not hard, but it's different than making ales. It's way more convenient to have a fridge/freezer set up.
 
its white labs american lager yeast. i could put it in a corny and it will fit in my kegerator but it has been in the primary carboy for a few days now....
 
it turns out i was not too far off the instructions. i kept it warm until fermentation started. i then put it in the basement and it went to 65 not 50-55. the instructions then say to bring it up to 70 degrees for two days "to improve flavor" which i did but it was more like 72-74. i then put it back in the basement...this is when i realized my mistake. it sat at 65-70 for another 24 hours and now i have it on ice.


they give alternate instructions for those who want to ferment at room temp. they say to pull it off the yeast cake as soon as ferm slows down (5-7 days) and then let clear for 5-7 more.

do you think i should follow that set of instructions and transfer to secondary asap ?

it was brewed the evening of the 21s....today is day 5.
 
yeasty said:
it turns out i was not too far off the instructions. i kept it warm until fermentation started. i then put it in the basement and it went to 65 not 50-55. the instructions then say to bring it up to 70 degrees for two days "to improve flavor" which i did but it was more like 72-74. i then put it back in the basement...this is when i realized my mistake. it sat at 65-70 for another 24 hours and now i have it on ice.


they give alternate instructions for those who want to ferment at room temp. they say to pull it off the yeast cake as soon as ferm slows down (5-7 days) and then let clear for 5-7 more.

do you think i should follow that set of instructions and transfer to secondary asap ?

it was brewed the evening of the 21s....today is day 5.
Click to expand...

If you're at FG, you can transfer it. Fermenting it at 65, when the yeast likes 50 is pretty far off the mark. It'll be ok, but it won't be a lager. It'd be like fermenting an ale that likes 70 degrees at 85 degrees. You'll have some fruity off-flavors, but it won't be a bad beer at all.
 
thanks YB ! i will keep it as cool as i can until FG of 1.008. and then transfer to a corny and let it sit in my kegerator for a few months at 38 degrees. maybe i will be able to hang on to this one and save it instead of panicking and dumping it !
 

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