Lagering at cellar temperatures

[DaveSeattle]

I have a large chilled beer cellar, currently set to 53 degrees F. I can ferment lagers at that temperature nicely, but I don't have a good place to condition them that is close to freezing. All I have is one slot in my keezer, but I'd like to be able to condition multiple lagers at once (I like lager). What would happen if I just kept my lager beer at 53 and only crashed it down to freezing when I put it on tap or slightly before?

My normal process to date has been to ferment at 50 until within 10 points of FG, then raise to 68 for 2-3 days, then slowly chill to 38 and lager for weeks to months. I pitch big and oxygenate well and always have a nice clean fermentation.

 

[jahdub]

If you're kegging and carbing at serving pressure, you'll probably find your lagers to be very clear after the 1-2 weeks it takes to reach desired carb levels.

With brulosopher's fast lager method, he only recommends 3-5 days at the ~32F range.

 

[DaveSeattle]

I usually shake to carb but I'm not worried if it takes a couple weeks to be perfect. So you don't think there will be detrimental effects from going 53-68-53 (long)-38? I've found that the 1-2 week period is not nearly enough in most cases for the beer to smooth out - yes, it may be clear, but it's not ready and still tastes "green". So I'm wondering how time at 53 will affect that process.

 

[jahdub]

I've only done a few lagers and I did it just like that, around 51 for 7 days, ramp to 68 and hold for a few days then down to 38 for 5 days and to the keg. I have 2 lagers in the keezer right now that taste the same after 3 weeks as they did after 3 days (24h at 30PSI then 48h at serving pressure). I'm very satisfied with both of them.

Maybe initial fermentation at 53F is a tad warm?

 

[Gavin C]

Other processes other than clearing occurs during the lagering phase but the key with lagering is to get the beer as close to freezing as possible without freezing. That is of course dependent on your setup. If you can do ~50F I think that while not ideal will be just fine but may take longer to achieve the same results as a lager that has been lagered.

From the Braukaiser

cold stabilization (lagering) : the low temperature causes haze forming proteins and polyphenols come out of solution and drop out of suspension. There is also a mellowing of flavors and some formation of esters happening. The latter becomes only significant after more than 12 weeks [Narziss 2005]

And as always, transferring processes from commercial to homebrew-scale may not be totally applicable. As others have mentioned already @Brulosopher and others have shown great results with a faster process with which to bring a lager to its prime.

Results trump everything else.

 

[DaveSeattle]

Gavin I think that's the info I was looking for - the processes will still happen at 53, just slowly, and then will speed up when I keg and chill it. My objective is to be able to stockpile beers when I have more opportunities to brew, so this should work fine for that (though obviously if I let it age too long I'll have other problems like bitterness dropping out). Most immediately I plan to do this with a doppelbock and a pre-freezing eisbock, so age should not be a problem.

53 works fine for fermentation. I'll use my fermentation chamber to hold it at 50 if I don't need it for something else though.

 

[Gavin C]

That's my undestanding also. I am still very much a novice when it comes to brewing lagers so pinch of salt warranted.

That site by the braukaiser I linked earlier is a veritable trove of great information about making lagers. Really fun to explore the theory and science behind it. He presents it so very well. Truly I am in @braukaiser 's debt.

I lager at 35F as that is what my keezer is set to, so that's as close as I can get to prolonged near freezing temperatures. Got a Munich Dunkel fermenting in my chamber at 50F and a Helles and Vienna on tap.

Been using WLP833 for all with results I like.

A stockpile of lager, sounds like a great plan you got there. Best of luck.

 

[DaveSeattle]

Yep, I've read through braukaiser's site before, but couldn't recall seeing the particular information I needed here. But overall it's a great site as you said.