lagers

[DaksBrew]

Does anyone know a way to lager without having a fridge to do it in? I know you can keep it outside in winter but that just passed..

 

[wolfboy]

assuming that you may not have a cold basement, cellar or a beer cave, a laborious method would be to do put the entire carboy containing your premature beer in a cold water bath refilled with ice 2-3 times a day.

I did this for a week in summer a year ago, my primary was in a 5 gallon beer bucket, and I used a rubbermaid clothes storage container (plastic) filled with cold water. i used two 5 litre jugs of mineral water container and put that in the freezer for ice. And changed ice twice a day. As for the secondary, I had no option but to bottle all my beer and cold condition the bottles in my fridge.

Today, I have a secondary lagering on my balcony. Its 42F or 5.6C outside.

Good luck

 

[h22lude]

Buy one of those big round plastic tub buckets with the rope handles. Those work perfectly and are cheap. Fill it with water, ice and your fermenter. Use a thermometer to keep track of the temp so you know when to refill with ice.

 

[billf2112]

I am doing what h22lude suggested right now. Got a cool spot in my basement (a closet that stays 10-20 degrees cooler then the rest of the basement).

I have one of those big tubs (walmart purchase), and put 3 2 liter bottles filled with frozen water. I have a second set of bottles ands switch them out twice a day.

Been at a steady 40-42 for almost 4 weeks now. It's a pain in the butt, but soon I will have a lager to drink.

 

[pjj2ba]

Another option is a big brewing pipeline so one can wait. I've successfully made many lagers that were "lagered" at 50 F. It works just fine, it just takes longer. I also will try and use restraint when I first tap a lager and let it set for 2 weeks in the kegerator before I start hitting it hard (I have 4 taps so that makes the waiting easier.

 

[Malticulous]

I've been using a large plastic tub of water out in my brew shed. It holds two fermenters. It had been 48-50F from late November to mid February. Now it's getting a little too warm. I'll be adding ice if I brew soon. Next month it will be in ale temps.

Here it is with some frozen 2L bottles in it.

 

[BryceL]

I'm in the process of getting the parts to make the "son of a fermentation chiller". I don't have the room for a fridge right now, so this looked pretty good. The parts come to about $70 and supposedly the chiller gets temps down about 30 degrees below the ambient temp outside the box. Being in SoCal, I figure I need some kind of cooling to ferment during the summer months even for ales. I figure I can attempt some lagers during the winter months when it gets a bit cooler in the garage. You should check it out...

http://web.archive.org/web/20070206150821/http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

I'm in the process of getting the parts to make the "son of a fermentation chiller". I don't have the room for a fridge right now, so this looked pretty good. The parts come to about $70 and supposedly the chiller gets temps down about 30 degrees below the ambient temp outside the box. Being in SoCal, I figure I need some kind of cooling to ferment during the summer months even for ales. I figure I can attempt some lagers during the winter months when it gets a bit cooler in the garage. You should check it out...

http://web.archive.org/web/20070206150821/http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

For $70 you can buy a nice used chest freezer off of craigslist. Then you just need a temp controller and you're all set. Trust me, it beats swapping out ice bottles.

 

[BryceL]

Yeah, I just don't have room for another fridge right now. Plus I don't want to spend the extra money on a temperature controller right now. At some point I will definitely make the switch, but right now I'm limited by funds/space. I figure that the fermentation chiller will be easy enough to move wherever I want. I'll have the option of putting it in a closet inside my house, or out in the garage. I've heard the ice jugs need replacing every 2-3 days depending on the temps, which sounds reasonable. We'll see how long before that gets old