I bought a Lager kit!! CRAP!

CornyKegs 728
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tubejay

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Well, my wife loves Bud. What can I say. I'm trying to impress her with my beer, so I bought a Bud kit. This one:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=3434

Well, damned if I didn't read fully before I bought it...it's a damn lager. So am I screwed, or am I screwed. I live in Wisconsin, so I can probably keep the temp during primary and secondary fermentation down around 57 degrees by putting it on the basement floor. However the directions say that I musn't put the bottles on the floor after it's been bottled. WTF? What difference does it make?

Anyone know where I can get a cheap $50 refrigerator or something?

Damn!

In other news, I bottle my first batch (dark amber ale) of home brew tomorrow. When I transferred it to the secondary, I tasted it....mmm it was pretty dang good. Tasted like flat beer!

Tomorrow I'm going try to skim enough away for a full beer. All I had was a taste when I racked to the secondary. :ban:
 
You could substitute a european ale or california lager yeast for whatever your kit comes with. Your 57 degrees would be a good fermentation temp for either of those, I believe. Or maybe Kolsch yeast--whichever best matches your fermentation temps.

I'm guessing the reason it says not to put the bottles on the basement floor is that bottles don't condition very well unless they get at least a week at something more like room temperature.
 
I don't want to disapoint you, but light lagers (like Bud and others) are among the more difficult to get right for the homebrewer. This is due to the subtle flavor of these beers that cannot hide off-flavors caused by less than ideal fermentation techniques.

Maybe you can put it aside until you got the hang of brewing lager beers or you just make it an ale by using a cleanly fermenting ale yeast (e.g. WY1056 American Ale).

Kai
 
tubejay said:
Well, my wife loves Bud. What can I say. I'm trying to impress her with my beer, so I bought a Bud kit. This one:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=3434

Well, damned if I didn't read fully before I bought it...it's a damn lager. So am I screwed, or am I screwed. I live in Wisconsin, so I can probably keep the temp during primary and secondary fermentation down around 57 degrees by putting it on the basement floor. However the directions say that I musn't put the bottles on the floor after it's been bottled. WTF? What difference does it make?

Anyone know where I can get a cheap $50 refrigerator or something?

Damn!

In other news, I bottle my first batch (dark amber ale) of home brew tomorrow. When I transferred it to the secondary, I tasted it....mmm it was pretty dang good. Tasted like flat beer!

Tomorrow I'm going try to skim enough away for a full beer. All I had was a taste when I racked to the secondary. :ban:
Click to expand...


don't worry, sure you can get around this. (people here will help)

Cheap fridge? where in wisconsin do you live? near UWMadison? they may have a surplus store. the university surpluses are good for getting all sort of gadgets like old fridges, glass lab (erlemeyers, flasks etc) and other things. A dorm fride goes like 25 in my U surplus store. A full size 50.

see the positive aspect: may be this is the excuse to buy a dedicated fridge and temp. controler :mug:

good luck!
 
I second the CA Common/Kolsch option. I just bottled my steam beer. It was my first endeavor into the realm of "lager". I know Southern California isn't Wisconsin, but the temp has been cool enough lately to try it. It stayed between 55-60 for two weeks in the primary and another 2 in the secondary. Tasted it last night and it was great. If you can't do a traditional lager, use the CA Common yeast. Won't be exactly the same, but closer than an ale strain.
 
Thanks for all the replies! So which do you think will TASTE better, going with a clean ale yeast, or something like the Cali Lager yeast? At this point, it's not going to be close to bud anyway, not that it would have anyway, but as long as it's a lighter beer that tastes good I should still be able to impress my wife. :rockin:

I'm a couple of hours from Madison. I've been to their surplus store, and it is a fantastically weird, yet good place. You wouldn't believe the crazy stuff you can buy there. Well spring is here, should be garage sales soon, maybe I'll try them.
 
With my lager, the place in my basement was 50-53 degrees where I set my secondary and with my bottles, I just set it up off the basement floor with some blocking. Not sure why midwest (same directions and company as my lager) wants it off the floor, but I thought maybe the direct cold off the floor itself may have been an issue so I set my cases of bottles on blocks. Next week, I am going to warm them up a bit upstairs to insure carbination for a couple of weeks, then back to the basement. This was my first attempt at this so I was trying to follow directions to the letter (except warming up...which was recommended by someone on this site)
 
tubejay said:
So which do you think will TASTE better, going with a clean ale yeast, or something like the Cali Lager yeast? At this point, it's not going to be close to bud anyway, not that it would have anyway, but as long as it's a lighter beer that tastes good I should still be able to impress my wife.
Click to expand...
Either will make a great beer, it's just a matter of what you are looking for. If your temp is going to remain at about 58 I say go with the CA Lager. That temp is a little cool for a regular ale. I t would need to be around 68 for the ale. As far as taste goes, the Ca Lager won't be as fruity/estery as the ale. However, it will have more than a traditional lager. It's like a compromise between the two.
 
I'd go with a Kolsh yeast. They are very good for producing lager-like ales without the need to lager.
 
According to Wyeast's site (http://www.wyeastlab.com/beprlist.htm), the optimum fermneting temps are:

European Ale: 62-72
Kolsch: 56-70
California Lager: 58-68

Looks like either Kolsch or Cali Lager is your best bet for your conditions. I think either will produce a fairly neutral flavor, fruitier than a true lager but not as fruity and full-bodied as an ale.

Either way, it should be sort-of like Bud, but better and a little less dry tasting.
 
tubejay said:
I'm a couple of hours from Madison. I've been to their surplus store, and it is a fantastically weird, yet good place. You wouldn't believe the crazy stuff you can buy there. Well spring is here, should be garage sales soon, maybe I'll try them.
Click to expand...

I am myself a visitor of the MSU surplus... and I can imagine, yes. hahahahaha

Garage sales, yeah! also try to find a freecycle group near your home, you can get tons of stuff for free from them.
 
You can get your fermentation temps lower by placing your fermenter in a shallow pan filled with water and having a towel around your fermenter and the bottom of the towel in the water. The towel will wick up the water and then will cool your fermenter by evaporating water from your wet towel. Google Swamp fermenter and see what you get.
 

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