Lager @ 18 Degrees

[Deja_vu]

Had to try a lager before the winter's end, and it has been chilly in sydney until the last few days that is. So I had this w34/70 lager yeast and thought i'd give it go. I've put the fermenter in the coldest room in the house, and its bubbling away at 18 degrees.

Has anyone brewed lager at these temperatures, and if so how did they come out?

 

[devo]

Lagers @ 18 c is not ideal.

Ales yes, lagers no.

 

[Deja_vu]

well it's a first attempt, see my last Ale fermented at 15 degrees. i was hoping for 15 degrees this time round for a 'steam style' beer what ever that is - john palmer rates it.

 

[devo]

yeah i did the very same thing when I first started some years back. It is now getting a tad warm again for lagering at room temp.

 

[mxcj]

Lagers brewed at higher temps tend to be a have the 'fruity' characteristics of ales from what I understand.
You can wrap a wet towel around the fermenter and get a fan onto it to try and drop it a few degrees but seeing the forecast for Sydney for the next few days is in the low 20s you might struggle.
Also top the lid of the fermenter up with cold water regularly, this helped to keep my last two down by about 4 degrees less than room temp.

 

[Enerjex]

try and commandeer a fridge for a couple of weeks, it will help greatly. at 18 degrees you are likely to get a few not so desirable yeast flavours in the beer.

 

[brettprevans]

get yourself a 100 can cooler and use ice or iceblocks (ie froz milk containers). works a treat. yes a fridge/freezer is your best option but if you dont have one, the cooler is a great stop gap.

see link1, link2 or search for "100 can cooler" on the site.

The coolers are good for standard fermentors (ie 30L or less). My 60L just fits in the cooler but I cant close the lid or put any iceblocks in.

 

[jendres]

Had to try a lager before the winter's end, and it has been chilly in sydney until the last few days that is. So I had this w34/70 lager yeast and thought i'd give it go. I've put the fermenter in the coldest room in the house, and its bubbling away at 18 degrees.

Has anyone brewed lager at these temperatures, and if so how did they come out?

From experience NO! I tried a MSB lager that got up to those temperatures. It ended up tasting like a bad fruity Chardonnay.

 

[RobboMC]

well it's a first attempt, see my last Ale fermented at 15 degrees. i was hoping for 15 degrees this time round for a 'steam style' beer what ever that is - john palmer rates it.

This link

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/s...s/2_1style.html

tells you all about steam beer. I made one last winter in Sydney
at 16 deg and it was good beer, though quite strong.

Basically steam beer is ale ingredients brewed with a lager yeast at 15-16 deg C.

I try and do the more highly flavoured lagers in winter, last year a steam beer and a light lager, but the lager didn't turn out great.
This winter I've have made Boch and a german dark lager (Schwarzbier). Boch turned out great at 15 deg . It's hard to keep the brew down to 12 deg C without a fridge, Sydney has such nice warm weather this time of year.

The Schwarzbier is sitting at 15 deg C in the garage and last night I had to run the fridge for an hour
or two to keep it down there as it's starting to get warmer.

 

[wildschwein]

Yeah, just call it a steam

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

If you don't have temperature contol to ferment at lager temps, why not make the jump into liquid yeasts.
Try Wyeast California lager or Whitelabs San Francisco, both the same, these are lager yeasts that will still give lager characteristics at warmer temps up to 18c. Then to actually lager or cold condition you can use a standard fridge.
These are the yeasts used in Steam beer mentioned earlier.

 

[Deja_vu]

From experience NO! I tried a MSB lager that got up to those temperatures. It ended up tasting like a bad fruity Chardonnay. sad.gif

That's okay then, my Girlfriend loves a bad fruity chardonnay.

 

[raoul]

Hi guys, Im keen on having a go at a steam beer before it gets too warm here. I was thinking of getting the california lager yeast liquid and propagating it. Do you know if this works well with other European lager styles too when fermented a bit cooler?

Cheers