lager brewing

[MCHB]

Hi everyone
Can I use an ale yeast for fermentation a lager? I have a safale 04 and i want to brewing a lager, is it possible?

 

[Vale71]

Definitely not. You can brew an ale and call it a "lager" if you find that that makes your beer more appealing to you but there is no way you can get a true lager profile without the proper yeast and fermentation process.

 

[Dland]

This is true, but if you want to make a beer with some of the qualities of a lager, you can with US-04.

Use a lager like recipee and then let finished beer cold crash a couple of weeks, and you can get clear refreshing beer.

 

[h22lude]

If someone can cold crash, why not just use an actual lager strain and ferment cold like you should with a lager?

 

[Dland]

Maybe OP only has US-04 on hand. Also, it depends on ones set up, I rack from fermenter and cold crash kegs after spunding.

Before I made my chiller, I only could crash after racking, which is still what I usually do since my conical can't take the pressure of full carbonation spunding.

 

[MCHB]

If someone can cold crash, why not just use an actual lager strain and ferment cold like you should with a lager?

because my lager yeast will arrive 20 days later, but with explanation of all guys i decided to brew this batch an ale and waiting for my lager yeast for next batch thanks everyone

 

[Taket_al_Tauro]

You can definitely brew lager-like beers using ale yeast, but it takes the right ale yeast and right fermention schedule. Specificallly, a very clean ale yeast (not S-04) and cool fermentation temperatures.
With S-04 you are surely way better off brewing an ale and calling it an ale

 

[dmtaylor]

I just did a 3-way split batch of a cream ale using S-04, BRY-97, and London ESB yeasts, all fermented low to mid 60s. I was shocked to discover that the London ESB yeast came out exceptionally clean and lager like after a couple months of age. I don't think I could replicate this experiment if I tried. You might try it but YMMV. The S-04 beer on the other hand turned out mildly fruity and quite delicious, almost Belgian-like, but certainly not anything like a lager.