Too warm in Wales for fermenting lager/pilsner?

[Goughy]

Good Morning from Wales,

I'm pretty new to home-brewing. So far, I've managed to create 3 pretty good ales which I'm testing on some friends later over a few hands of poker.

I've been considering doing a lager / pilsner type beer next, but it's summertime here in the UK and although it's not particularly hot, the ambient room temperature where I ferment my beers is approx 22C / 72F. Ive read that lagers & pilsners should be fermented at lower temps, so is my fermenting room too warm? If so, I'll have to keep brewing ales and wait until autumn / winter to brew a lager.

Best regards,
Goughy
Wales (UK)

 

[scorpien222]

Hi there I am also pretty new to brewing I am from Nottingham England so I know what you mean about the temperature as far as I have read it should still ferment the temperature just isn't the optimum for the yeast to be at their best I have been reading a book by John palmer at www.howtobrew.com you might want to have a look if you haven't already.
I could be wrong though as I said I am new to the hobby myself.

Justin.

 

[Quaker]

Welcome to the hobby. And yep, you'll be doing only ales for a few months longer. For a lager yeast, you'll want to ferment closer to 10C. And then you'll ideally want a way to lager/store it even colder for several weeks after fermentation closer to freezing temp. With that basic a question, I suspect you haven't studied up much yet. I'm not sure what books you can find in print in the UK, but in the states How To Brew by John Palmer is one of the best primers. You can read his original version online here. www.howtobrew.com. I highly recommend a bit of reading to avoid getting frustrated early on in with the practice. But again, welcome and enjoy.

Cheers

 

[Canadabrew]

Hi there
There are lots of ways to get fermentation temps down. You can look up a swamp cooler on this forum or go as far as building a temperature controlled fridge or freezer.

However assuming you want to keep it simple for now I would go with the seasons a bit more. Do ales in the summer and wait for the winters for a larger. You could do a pale ale or kolsch style ale which are fairly close to some largers

Also not only do largers need to be brewed cooler but also fermentation takes much longer.

Good luck!