Must I Lager a Cream Ale?

[long3465]

I just had a Cali Creamin Cream Ale for the first time today and have now found my next brew. Problem is I live in an apartment and do not have the space for a lagering fridge. I live in San Diego, so the ambient temp is almost always over 72. So I have no way of doing it au naturel. As I am reading through the forums posts, it seems pretty consistent that this is a bastard ale, and must be brewed in lager conditions.
How strict is that? If I ferment at 72 will I just be wasting time, money and dreams? Or will it be 8/10 instead of 10/10? Is there a way around this is my main question? Yeast strains, more corn, pixie dust?
Sorry if I am rambling a bit, but like everyone else in this forum seems to already know, cream ales are easy drinking.

 

[airdog_47]

I do a cream ale about twice a year. I have never lagered it or even have used lager yeast in mine. I always have used 1056 American Ale. You may want to think of a the swamp cooler or other simple methods during your fermentation due to your 71 degree temp.

 

[OneImpBrewery]

Agree with Air. Last cream ale I used ringwood ale yeast iirc and no layering turned out great. Or look for a strain of yeast that is happy at 72

Sent from my D2-721 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Jaimez]

There are many ways to bring the Temp of the Fermenter down. Submerge it in an ice water bath, Have a wet towel draped over the fermenter dipped in water(evaporation), have a fan blowing on it.
You can get it into the 60's quite easily. A Cream Ale is an ALE.

 

[augiedoggy]

Honestly, if you lagered it it would be and American light beer like Genesee or genny light, not a cream ALE.... some people lager it because you get a cleaner tasting beer. (and many of your American pilsners are made this way with corn or rice of both I believe like miller, rolling rock and old Milwaukee..... Im not sure but I believe one of the differences with bud light is they use a lot of rice and no corn along with cheap 6 row grain to make up much of their beer.

Even Yuengling uses corn grits..

you could always use lager yeast and make it a steam beer

 

[long3465]

Thanks for the replies everyone. These are the answers I was looking for. I just checked the closet I keep my fermenter in, and it is sitting around 70. In my head I have always tied ales to higher temps, so when I was reading about these home brewers treating it like a lager, I was a little thrown off. Now it looks like I know what my next batch will be. Anyone have any suggestions on if blueberries would work in this, if I add them to the secondary? SWMBO is hinting that I should brew up something that she would think of as easy drinking, and she loves fruit beers. I want to avoid liquid extract, if possible. Also, I only bottle, kegging is still a pipedream for this guy. (For now)

 

[cheezydemon3]

Any ALE, by definition, is NOT Lagered, lol.

Beer is in 2 categories.

ALE or LAGER.

A cream Ale that is lagered is NOT a cream ALE anymore.

 

[max384]

Any ALE, by definition, is NOT Lagered, lol.

Beer is in 2 categories.

ALE or LAGER.

A cream Ale that is lagered is NOT a cream ALE anymore.

By definition an ale or lager is defined by the yeast used, not the temperature that it is fermented at.

What about kolsch? Or steam beer?

 

[cheezydemon3]

I guess if you want to argue semantics, KNOCK YOURSELF OUT.

Ferment lager yeast at 80F if it floats your boat and makes some wierd point.
Just because you used lager yeast does NOT make that a lager though.

Regardless a CREAM ALE is not lagered or it becomes a CREAM LAGER.....

Capiche?

 

[airdog_47]

When it comes to a fruit beer. First thing that comes to my mind is a basic wheat beer with either raspberry, strawberry, apricot or a mix. I have done 5 gallon batches with 2 packages of frozen raspberry in secondaries which gave it a more tart fruit bite which is a nice quality, if you want a fruit but not sweet beer. Otherwise add the fruit after fermentation. Many LHBS carry a variety of extract flavoings which you can add during bottle / keg. I have learned to try half the amount of extract flavoring at the beginning then additions to the keg till I felt is was good. Also take a look at some sweet mead recipes (this is what my SWMBO prefers).

 

[max384]

I guess if you want to argue semantics, KNOCK YOURSELF OUT.

Ferment lager yeast at 80F if it floats your boat and makes some wierd point.
Just because you used lager yeast does NOT make that a lager though.

Regardless a CREAM ALE is not lagered or it becomes a CREAM LAGER.....

Capiche?

It's not arguing semantics. You're factually incorrect. A cream ale doesn't magically become a cream lager when lagered if an ale yeast is used. The argument could be made that a mixed style is made this way, but you can't just call a beer that uses an ale yeast a lager because it is lagered. Ale and lager yeasts are two different species of yeasts that produce two different styles of beer. It just so happens that using lager yeast generally requires the beer to be lagered to get the correct flavor profile.

 

[sdrockstar]

I did a vanilla cream ale recently (Feb 2014) and it turned out good. I used WLP080 with excellent results. I fermented around 68-74 degrees. good luck!

 

[AnOldUR]

Regardless a CREAM ALE is not lagered or it becomes a CREAM LAGER.....Capiche?

The broader semantics would say that to lager is to store cold. For a beer geek conversation this doesn't work. Here’s my take. On many occasions HBT posters talk about lagering their ales. Can’t do that. You can cold condition it, but you can’t lager it if it wasn’t a Lager in the first place. And it’s not a lager in the first place if you didn’t use lager yeast. Ale or Lager is defined by the yeast used. Fermantation temperature or aging process has nothing to do with it. Steam beer is a Lager fermented at Ale temperatures. Don’t age your Lager in the cold? It’s still a lager, just a crappy one. Put your Ale in the refrigerator for two months and all you have is a cold Ale with less hop character. :cross:

My definitions would be:
A Lager (noun) is a beer fermented with Lager Yeast.
To lager (verb) is to store a Lager cold.

 

[cheezydemon3]

The broader semantics would say that to lager is to store cold. For a beer geek conversation this doesn't work. Here’s my take. On many occasions HBT posters talk about lagering their ales. Can’t do that. You can cold condition it, but you can’t lager it if it wasn’t a Lager in the first place. And it’s not a lager in the first place if you didn’t use lager yeast. Ale or Lager is defined by the yeast used. Fermantation temperature or aging process has nothing to do with it. Steam beer is a Lager fermented at Ale temperatures. Don’t age your Lager in the cold? It’s still a lager, just a crappy one. Put your Ale in the refrigerator for two months and all you have is a cold Ale with less hop character. :cross:

My definitions would be:
A Lager (noun) is a beer fermented with Lager Yeast.
To lager (verb) is to store a lager cold.

Fair enough.

Can we just agree that "Can I ALE my american lager?" doesn't work.

"Can I LAGER my ALE" is flawed.


RIGHT????

The title of the thread was "DO I HAVE TO LAGER MY...ALE?

FAIL.