ObsidianJester
Well-Known Member
So, I did the searching and poking about and its plausible I've missed it but here goes..
So it is winter time, and I have a unheated back porch area that has had a carboy doing the primary fermentation at temperatures between 48 and 54. I don't quite know how cold this back porch area will get (Its enclosed but unheated) but I suspect it will never get below 45 or so degrees.
What my question is has anyone had experience with lagering with out temperature controls? It seems that the way to lager is to drop it in to the 30s which I would in theory have access to for the secondary transfer (I have a unheated garage that is available, and somewhere one of those electric heating mats for growing seedlings if it were to be too bitterly cold.)
I'm in Minnesota so it will be at least in the 20s and 30s pretty consistently,
and yes I know that they in the old days used to lager in the wintertime before temperature controls. Or in caves.
I want to know if any of you have done this and has the quality of the beer been impacted. It would be great if anyone's done it with the temperature controlled fermentation and cold crashes as well as the natural old fashioned way providing some insight. While this was what was done before refrigeration came about, and made beer there is not a lot of info that this beer was better/worse than the change after refrigeration came about.
I'm not overly willing to invest in the equipment to lager if I don't have to due to a preference for ales but with the winter being here and the availability of free cold weather to try to lager I figured I would spin up a hand full of batches to enjoy come spring/summer time. Is this a pipe dream to the tune that I Should stick to ales in a back room or is this feasible at least from the fermentation/cold crash aspects?
So it is winter time, and I have a unheated back porch area that has had a carboy doing the primary fermentation at temperatures between 48 and 54. I don't quite know how cold this back porch area will get (Its enclosed but unheated) but I suspect it will never get below 45 or so degrees.
What my question is has anyone had experience with lagering with out temperature controls? It seems that the way to lager is to drop it in to the 30s which I would in theory have access to for the secondary transfer (I have a unheated garage that is available, and somewhere one of those electric heating mats for growing seedlings if it were to be too bitterly cold.)
I'm in Minnesota so it will be at least in the 20s and 30s pretty consistently,
and yes I know that they in the old days used to lager in the wintertime before temperature controls. Or in caves.
I want to know if any of you have done this and has the quality of the beer been impacted. It would be great if anyone's done it with the temperature controlled fermentation and cold crashes as well as the natural old fashioned way providing some insight. While this was what was done before refrigeration came about, and made beer there is not a lot of info that this beer was better/worse than the change after refrigeration came about.
I'm not overly willing to invest in the equipment to lager if I don't have to due to a preference for ales but with the winter being here and the availability of free cold weather to try to lager I figured I would spin up a hand full of batches to enjoy come spring/summer time. Is this a pipe dream to the tune that I Should stick to ales in a back room or is this feasible at least from the fermentation/cold crash aspects?
