Confused by instructions

[walcotteric]

Planning on brewing the Alt.Beer out of "Brewing Classic Styles" and confused by this instruction:

"Ferment at 60 degrees F. Allow the beer to lager for at least 4 weeks before bottling."

I guess what has me confused is doesn't the lager process normally involve a cold fermentation, the diacetyl rest, and then cold crashing? If I'm supposed to ferment at 60, do I just cold crash when fermentation is done and keep it cold for 4 weeks? Or let the temp rise higher before crashing?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Firstly, there are lots of ways to ferment a lager, not necessarily involving those steps. That aside, altbier is a hybrid style - sort of an ale cross lager. Ferment at the cool side of ale ferment temps (60F) but then store (lager) it for a while. You are looking for a clean, crisp ferment with a yeast that is technically an ale yeast. Because of the warmer ferment (compared with lagers) you shouldn't need a diacetyl rest (but can still do one if you detect diacetyl). You could get away with lagering at about 50F if you don't have a fridge to keep it in.

 

[RM-MN]

The word "lager" simply means to store. In historical times that storage was done in caves because they were convenient places and didn't require building. Being a cave, they were naturally cool. Therefore, lagering meant cool storage. With this recipe the author intends for the brewer to ferment cool to avoid the esters produced by warmer fermentation and for the beer to be kept in the fermenter at that temp or lower to allow more yeast to settle out.

 

[walcotteric]

Thanks for the replies. That's kind of what I thought it meant, but wasn't sure, so the confirmation that I was reading that right is very helpful.