How do you keep fermenter at lager temps?

[kiblerjd]

Hi all. I have not been a member of this forum long but I love it so far. Seems like a great community of people.

Anyway I have been brewing a long time now but for some reason have never done a lager. I'm considering doing and Oktoberfest but I'm having a hard time deciding how I want to ferment the beer and keep the temp down where it needs to be.

My keggerator is a pretty big chest freezer that holds a ton of home brew kegs and it would be ideal to ferment in. The problem is I like to keep my beer at like 37 degrees for serving temp and that is probably way to low when fermenting a lager. I don't particularly want to go buy a spare fridge just for this purpose either.

So I guess the question is.... does anyone have any suggestions. I searched around the forum for topic about this and didn't see much. My guess is I wasn't looking in the right spot. Regardless thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[maida7]

You need a dedicated fermentation chamber with temp control. A fridge or freezer with a controller is probably the easiest.

 

[jhall4]

If you're happy with your ale fermenting space and you just want to make the very occasional lager you could try a heating belt/jacket on a fermenter in your serving freezer.

It's going to waste a lot of electricity since the fridge will constantly be cooling your beer and the belt will constantly be warming your freezer, but in theory it should work - especially if you insulate your fermenter with a blanket or something to keep more heat in/cold out.

I've never tried that myself, but it seems like it would work...

 

[ShaineT]

I just recently fermented with WLP830 in my serving freezer at 48F. Worked great and I just tolerated that serving temp for a couple weeks. I'll lager in it as well, a bit cold for serving but it doesn't take long for a glass of beer to warm up.

 

[ShaineT]

Found this nice temperature explanation and guidelines for serving temps:

Since all beers will warm up after they are poured into a glass, this factor can also be accounted for in your bottle-service refrigerator temperature settings. A room-temperature, rinsed, thin-shell glass will raise the temperature of beer by about two degrees Fahrenheit. A room-temperature heavy glass chalice or mug increases the beer’s temperature by about 4° to 6° F.

Below is a discussion of handling service temperature for craft beers, first bottled, then draught.

Bottled Craft Beer Service Temperature Guidelines

Short-term storage of bottled beer at service temperature will not harm the beer. For proper craft beer service three separate bottle-temperature zones are recommended. Conveniently, these double up nicely with wine categories. The temperature recommendations are designed to assure an optimum serving temperature, accounting for a 2° F glass warming factor. The three categories are:

1.Cold, no lower than 41° F (5° C) Lighter styles of beer — Sparkling wines/Champagne

2.Chilled, no lower than 46° F (8° C) Most craft beers — White wines

3.Cellar, around 53° F (12° C) Higher alcohol, richly flavored beers — Red wines

Cold – This is for your lightest styles of craft beer. These include American Pale Lagers and Pilsners, German-style Helles Lager, lighter American Wheat Beer, lighter summer seasonal beers, sweet fruit-flavored Lambics, Belgian-style Wit (white ale), and Kölsch.

Chilled – This workhorse category works for craft-brewed Pale, Amber, Brown, Blonde, & Golden ales; Hefeweizen, Stout; Porter; Dunkel, dark Wheat Beer; Tripel; dark sour ales, Gueuze, Amber lagers, and dark lagers. This cooler doubles for your white wines.

Cellar – Cool cellar temperature (like those in a true, unheated in-ground cellar or cave) is where you keep your cask-conditioned English Ales & Bitters, India Pale Ales & double IPAs, most things labeled Imperial, dark Abbey beers, Dubbel, Barleywine, Baltic Porter, Bock and Doppelbock. This cellar-temperature cooler doubles for your red wines.

 

[Ramitt]

I use my keezer to ferment in as well. I created a sleeve from reflectix insulation with a lid, then to a seperate temp controller I have a fermwrap around the fermenter, only used it once so far bt seemed to work ok. I have not done a true lager yet, just a psuedo lager with a kolsch yeast, seemed to work well. I did up the keezer temp a bit to 40 degrees while fermenting at 55.

 

[aiptasia]

A heater belt/sleeve wrapped around the carboy/bucket will work, but yeah just set the temperature of the freezer to 50 degrees for lagering. I think you can tolerate serving temps of 50 degrees for three to four weeks while your beer lagers.

If not.....

Oh.. The.. Horror...

 

[Bamsdealer]

I use an old fridge in the basement. Fermenting in the garage or using a tub w water and swapping out ice works in the coller months. For the keezer you can get some lager yeasts that work in the mid to upper 40s.

 

[Bamsdealer]

I use an old fridge in the basement. Fermenting in the garage or using a tub w water and swapping out ice works in the coller months. For the keezer you can get some lager yeasts that work in the mid to upper 40s.

 

[ShaineT]

I use an old fridge in the basement. Fermenting in the garage or using a tub w water and swapping out ice works in the coller months. For the keezer you can get some lager yeasts that work in the mid to upper 40s.

I'm planning on some lager brewing this coming winter. The mild winters here allows an insulated fermenter in the garage to be at perfect temperature. Lagering without insulation right on the garage floor also works great.