Inexpensive Cold Lager Fermentation

[Willy]

Love a good lager. Not easy to do well. Takes time, temp control and patience. Let it lager a month!

Well, winter is always good to make a real lager... For me, late November thru Feb... It's cold enough to just use a heater.

But summer? Glycol chiller is a little too expensive and a big piece of equipment.

So, here is my solution - less than $ 500 of equipment to ferment cold.

1) get a smallish freezer, top open type. You may or may not need a small 2"x4" collar depending on the size. You'll need room for about 18" diameter in the inside dimensions.

2) get a 15+ gal (1/2 barrel keg) that has been fitted for a corny keg lid (prv and in/out posts). You can ferment about 11-12 gallons of wort and have plenty of room.

3) Get an inkbird to control the freezer to keep lagering temps (about 51-61, I ferment mine at 56 or 57... A little faster and stays clean as a whistle.

Use the freezer with a mini collar be your fermentation chamber for 2 weeks. After that ... Package it up in a corny keg or two depending on batch size. Use the same mini freezer as your lagering space. Stuck the 5 g corny kegs in the mini freezer and let them lager.

Anyway... Works great and will save you a lot of money over a big conical SS fermenter with a glycol chiller.

 

[wsmith1625]

Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are good sources of freezers or fridges for this purpose.

 

[danno6102]

I have a 5 gallon bucket of water with an aquarium pump in my keezer. Pumps the cold water through my chilling coil in my Northern brewer Reactor conical. Can easily hold 50 degrees. Someday I'll post some pics of the setup.

 

[Kickass]

Second hand fridge/freezer, warm fermented lager, and pressure fermentation are all cheap options.

 

[WesBrew]

You could ferment under pressure, if you have or get a fermenter that can hold pressure.

 

[Indian_villager]

Kinda what I have been doing for 10 years.

Dorm Fridge - Free
1*12 collar to extend it out - Think I paid ~$25 for this ages ago
Temp Controller - I had one laying around but lets say ~$35 for an inkbird.

 

[VTMongoose]

Or just jam two of these in one and pressure ferment while you're at it. Built in floating dip tubes. Just saying. Link to the cheap spunding valves I love from Kegland.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I got a minifridge on Craigslist some time back. I cut the door shelves out and bent down the chill plate to fit a bucket. Still working like a champ today.

If I had known about pressure fermentation at the time, I would've done that. You can make a really good lager at 80°+ ambient temp.

 

[dmtaylor]

What really works great is S-189 yeast near room temperature. If you home is air conditioned, and you have a wet t-shirt and a fan to blow on it, good enough.

 

[Willy]

Or just jam two of these in one and pressure ferment while you're at it. Built in floating dip tubes. Just saying. Link to the cheap spunding valves I love from Kegland.

View attachment 880011

I do that with a large 6.5 g corny keg. Looking at tricking out a 16g SS milk container. I just want enough pressure to do transfers.

 

[Halfakneecap]

Ive used old fridges i've gotten for free,or close to it with an STC1000 for 20yrs. Every few years they die ( current one is hanging on, can ferment at 15c in summer lol ), but i just look around til i find one.

I would like to just get a base model kegerator, to use as a fermenting chamber, but i already have a temp controller, so i will probably just look for an old beer fridge when summer rolls around. Last summer, i had great success with lagers at 15c ( S189 and S23 ), though i do like to use liquid strains around 10c, so i'll start looking soon.

My beer fridges are always the same, usually when i upgrade the inside fridge, it becomes my beer fridge, then that can sometimes become my fermenting fridge. Circle of life

 

[fluketamer]

hey willy . great post. gelatin really does speed up the lagering time. i have got clear "lagered beer" beer in 2 weeks instead of 6 . but i stopped using it once i built up my pipeline enough to not care how long my lager needs to sit.

Or just jam two of these in one and pressure ferment while you're at it. Built in floating dip tubes. Just saying. Link to the cheap spunding valves I love from Kegland.

View attachment 880011

you too with the oxebars. eventually we will all conform. i love mine. 10 lbs lighter see through and like you said floating dip.


everytime i google this fridge its always on sale:
https://www.target.com/p/midea-4-4-...AGJiwEV9QBHBDUOAMMBoCXYAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

its 129 right now !!!

plus inkbird and you can ferment and serve out of there with the oxy. with out cutting or drilling anything.

two fridges and two oxys and you have a pipeline ferment in one serve in the other.

 

[Willy]

hey willy . great post. gelatin really does speed up the lagering time. i have got clear "lagered beer" beer in 2 weeks instead of 6 . but i stopped using it once i built up my pipeline enough to not care how long my lager needs to sit.


you too with the oxebars. eventually we will all conform. i love mine. 10 lbs lighter see through and like you said floating dip.


everytime i google this fridge its always on sale:
https://www.target.com/p/midea-4-4-...AGJiwEV9QBHBDUOAMMBoCXYAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

its 129 right now !!!

plus inkbird and you can ferment and serve out of there with the oxy. with out cutting or drilling anything.

two fridges and two oxys and you have a pipeline ferment in one serve in the other.

Thanks! Great helpful reply posts too. Still haven't gotten an Oxybar keg since I bought a ton of cornys for $35 each. I have (12) 5 gal, (2) 6 gal, and (2) gal corny kegs. Someday I will check them out - probably sooner than later.

Yup... The pipeline is key. Currently have 8 gallons of pilsner on hand and doing another 5 gal batch in the next few days. Followed by a marzen after that in time for October.