Lagers

[Devin]

I have been brewing for a few years now, but I have never brewed a lager. I have a friend that has an old-school cabin up in Colorado that I frequently visit. It is a great place - no electricity, no plumbing. A little woodstove and the old school oil lamps.

Anyway, I had the idea of bringing my brewing gear up there one weekend and trying to do a lager "naturally". I think that the average temp in his cabin around this time is probably in the mid to upper 40's, which would probably work ok for fermentation for some yeast strains (if I am reading things right).

However, my concern is I won't have a way to perform a d-rest. Perhaps we could go up for a weekend and fire the woodstove to get the temps up a bit or something?

Anyway, the idea of heading up to the mountains and brewing beer in that setting sounds super fun. So, all of you lager experts - if you were going to try something like this - any steps/procedures you would suggest?

Thanks.

 

[max384]

I'm certainly not a lager expert, but I do my lagers "naturally" as well.

I only do them in the winter and then store them in my basement (that has a frequently used ground-level outside door) and keep the heat turned off so that it stays right around 40F or so. I do monitor my temps frequently (both for the beer and because I don't want my pipes freezing). My temps vary quite a bit more than they would in a temperature controlled fermentation chamber, and it never gets as close to freezing as it should... But, it tastes great!

I bring my carboy upstairs for a diacetyl rest. Since you have a woodstove up there, I'd plan out a weekend where you can stay there and keep the stove going. The problem is that it takes awhile to warm up, so you may not have a long enough rest in just a weekend. Maybe you'd be able to make it a long weekend, or just stop up and feed the stove once in awhile over a couple days before the weekend?

 

[wardens355]

If you pitch the yeast cold (mid-40s), you may not necessarily need a diacetyl rest. Firing up the woodstove to get to around 60 or so for a week at the end of fermentation would be the safe bet.