Dark lager alternatives?

[jubuttib]

Hiya. Me and my father really like dark lager style beers (including bocks etc.) and our particular favorites tend to be Czech dark lagers and German rauchbiers. Problem is that as of right now I'm not able to do lager style beers (though I am looking into a refrigeration solution, possibly available to me sometime next year).

So what I'm looking for are alternative darker ale beer styles that I could look into making so that we have something to drink. I'm new to this and very open to experimenting, though I'd like to keep things as simple as possible, if possible. FWIW stouts generally aren't our thing so I'm not hopeful of those working out. I'd say generally the intention would be to get a solid body with enough but not overdone hoppyness (I am a massive hophead myself but I'll brew my own IPA batches for that). Color doesn't have to be pitch black by any means, it's more about the taste than the looks. =)

Any ideas? All help would be welcome.

 

[iijakii]

What is it that you dislike bout stouts? Too roasty? You could stick to porters with minimal roasted malts. A lot of brown and mild ales would fit your decent body/malt without hoppyness requirements as well.

 

[joshesmusica]

Do you have a basement? If so, surely you have some space where it's sitting at about 14-15C?

If that's the case, you could use a kolsch yeast, like WLP029, and get a great lager tasting beer.

At that point you could brew a rauchbier recipe, and just ferment with that yeast.

https://byo.com/mead/item/1296-rauchbier-style-profile

 

[Yooper]

It's fall/winter and maybe you have a place that is around 9-12C? Or soon will be? If so, that would be perfect for lagers.

Otherwise, you could do a lager recipe but use an ale yeast and ferment it at 16-18C, but it won't be as "clean" and "crisp" as a lager beer.

 

[jubuttib]

Thanks for the responses. =)

What is it that you dislike bout stouts? Too roasty? You could stick to porters with minimal roasted malts. A lot of brown and mild ales would fit your decent body/malt without hoppyness requirements as well.

All of the ones I've ever tried (which is I think about 10-15 different ones, because never say never) have had a very unflattering mouth feel (very flat and watery for some reason) and have generally tended towards more "burnt" than smoky, including some fairly high rated stuff like Young's Double Chocolate Stout. I've just never had a stout that was anything other than disappointing. I'll probably experiment with them in the future, but they're not on the table right now.

Yeah, I've enjoyed brown ales in the past, and they're definitely one of the options I'm looking into. Will have to settle on a recipe at some point. =)

Do you have a basement? If so, surely you have some space where it's sitting at about 14-15C?

If that's the case, you could use a kolsch yeast, like WLP029, and get a great lager tasting beer.

At that point you could brew a rauchbier recipe, and just ferment with that yeast.

https://byo.com/mead/item/1296-rauchbier-style-profile

It's fall/winter and maybe you have a place that is around 9-12C? Or soon will be? If so, that would be perfect for lagers.

Otherwise, you could do a lager recipe but use an ale yeast and ferment it at 16-18C, but it won't be as "clean" and "crisp" as a lager beer.

I live in a small apartment where even now that it's getting cold I actually have to go to some efforts to find a place that's below 22 C (during summers I struggle to stay below 32C during the day, it's a real heat trap). That's one of the reasons I'm working on a solution that'd allow me to control my temps, if I can't cool down I won't be able to brew anything come summer... So yeah, the long term idea is to be able to do lagers, but that'll take a while. =)

Looking at the description of WLP029, Kölsch yeast sounds like it could work to some extent at least. Worth a shot definitely. Might also look into making just a straight up altbier, they look and sound tasty as well.