Lager at room temperature

[lazuara]

Hello newbie here.I started first with a light lager recipe and didnt know it needed to be kept at low temps. What would happen if I leave it in the primary at room temp? did i just ruin it and start from scratch? or is it still drinkable?The guy at the brew supply game me a german yeast and said to use that,but i went back and bougt and used 2035.did i screw it up?It is making CO2 after 24 hours by the way.

 

[Kaz]

Can you clarify room temp? What makes a lager special is that it is fermented with a lager yeast at cool temps 50-55F and then conditioned near freezing for a couple of weeks. This is what gives lager that clean crisp taste with no fruitiness or any other off flavors. Fermenting it warm near 70F will give it some more fruity esters and phenolic flavors and if you fermented way warm, closer to 80F it could come out with a lot of fusel alcohols and just taste like hot turpentine.

 

[lazuara]

Room temp would be around 75F. I have no extra fridge to keep it at that low temp. I can only store batches at 75f.Should i used ale yeasts from now on? I should have used the german ale yeast right?

 

[3PegBrew]

Lagering between 65-70f makes a steam beer. A pseudo lager that was made back in the day without means of rapidly chilling the wort with the yeast. Anchor Steam beer is awesome. Steam beer was the second beer I made. Turned out amazing.

 

[lazuara]

So do I start over again with a new recipe or do I let it finish? will this make a fusel alcohol taste and will it go away?

 

[Kaz]

Let it finish, taste it and see how it turns out. You will want to find some way to get your temps down. 75F room temp is too warm for most ales. Search on the forum for swamp cooler, wet t-shirt method etc for some cheap options.

 

[lazuara]

Thanks everyone.

 

[3PegBrew]

Do you have a basement?

 

[lazuara]

no basement .i live in south texas.

 

[3PegBrew]

Invest in a fermentation chamber with thermostat controls. Either a chest freezer (buy a johnson controls that doesn't require rewiring or another controller that requires rewiring) or a fridge. Well worth it and you can even use it for kegging!

 

[Kaz]

Invest in a fermentation chamber with thermostat controls. Either a chest freezer (buy a johnson controls that doesn't require rewiring or another controller that requires rewiring) or a fridge. Well worth it and you can even use it for kegging!

+1 You won't find any one thing that can improve your homebrews than getting fermentation temperatures under control.

 

[tesilential]

Invest in a fermentation chamber with thermostat controls. Either a chest freezer (buy a johnson controls that doesn't require rewiring or another controller that requires rewiring) or a fridge. Well worth it and you can even use it for kegging!

This. There are only a handful of yeast strains that won't taste like crap above 75*. And if room temp is 75* the wort is gonna be 80*+