Lagering in the Garage - Effect of Temp Fluctuations?

[BackAlleyBrewingCo]

Hi all,

I live in NW Ohio, I'm getting ready to keg a Doppelbock, and I've got a couple of months of winter temps to take advantage of in my garage. How much will the day-to-day temperature fluctuations affect the lagering phase of my beer? How much would the finished product differ from lagering in a fridge?

 

[BargainFittings]

Yeast do not like fluctuations. You can slow the temp swings by covering the vessels with some insulation. An old blanket and a big cardboard box will keep them fairly stable.

How big a temperature swing do you have in your garage? You can do a simple test by putting a bucket of water without insulation and one with and take temp readings every few hours a couple days in a row to see how big a difference you will have.

 

[jfkriege]

Stable temperature control is more required through the fermentation than through the lagering phase, but it is still best practices. You can do the normal tricks of increasing thermal mass, and insulating, and those will help.

Try it and find out though. If you want, dra off a gallon or two and lager it in the fridge to find out how it changes. If you cant detect a difference or the difference is minimal, then keep going with it.

 

[Revvy]

Long before the introduction of refrigeration and temp control, people lagerred in caves, holes in the ground, and if they were lucky, ice houses....and yet they turned out some of the finest beers know to man...

I take the opposite tack than the other posters. Your beer will be fine. I ghetto lager in the winter in the storage cabinet in my loft building's garage, and one of them won awards last year.

As long as it doesn't feeze, and your temp changes aren't spinning in a 30 degree difference every day, I predict you will be fine.

 

[BargainFittings]

I think all of those examples would tend to be fairly stable in temp.

 

[BackAlleyBrewingCo]

How big a temperature swing do you have in your garage? You can do a simple test by putting a bucket of water without insulation and one with and take temp readings every few hours a couple days in a row to see how big a difference you will have.

I do plan to wrap the keg in blankets and leave it on the garage floor, which should pretty effectively dampen temperature fluctuations over the course of a single day. I'm more interested in how the beer is affected by daily/weekly temp fluctuations; say the average daily temp goes from 25 to 35 over the course of a week. Do slow, gradual temperature changes have a significant impact on lagering, or are they minimal?

 

[Primetime]

I did this in the fall when the temp was around 50 and under. I brewed a German Pilsner. I live in SE Michigan. All i did was get the fermentation started for a few days in the basement then transfer to the garage and forget about it for a month. Dman is it good. It has a nice clean smooth taste, my friends, who all brew really like it. I thought it was going to be a mess, but no worries. Try it, don't think you will be disappointed.

 

[BrianTheBrewer]

Long before the introduction of refrigeration and temp control, people lagerred in caves, holes in the ground, and if they were lucky, ice houses....and yet they turned out some of the finest beers know to man...

I take the opposite tack than the other posters. Your beer will be fine. I ghetto lager in the winter in the storage cabinet in my loft building's garage, and one of them won awards last year.

As long as it doesn't feeze, and your temp changes aren't spinning in a 30 degree difference every day, I predict you will be fine.

I agree with Revvy. I cold crash in my garage in the winter. The temp moves from 34-45 degrees. I have a Kolsch going right now and believe it will be fine. Brewing an Irish Red and another Kolsch later today and I am going to cold crash the same way and dont believe I will have a problem.

 

[Tbaz]

Not to Hijack the thread but in addition... a question.

I like that "ghetto Lager" very fitting. I am to about to attempt a garage lager, Do you ferment at a higher cool temp say 5-10 degrees C, then lager at a lower temp for a period of time? or can you just Ferment in a cool garage at said temp and rack to secondary and let sit in same temp range?