Then, instead of mopping up water all over your floor, you can put the bags into a freezer and reuse them. Finding a bin large enough to contain your carboy and all that water and ice can be a challenge. Some options include. Instead of leaving your beer in secondary for weeks, siphon it directly into the keg or bottle once it has finished fermentation.
Let the beer carbonate before you lager it if you choose this method. When the beer is done carbonating, squeeze as many bottles as you can into your fridge and let them lager for three to four weeks.
Repeat until you managed to lager all of them. This method works if you have enough space in a fridge or temp-controlled freezer for 50 beer bottles, which might fit more easily than a keg.
There are some big disadvantages to lagering after the bottling or kegging stage, however, like:. Temp controllers are popular aides for converting chest freezers into keezers, but you can also use temp control devices to cool or heat your wort.
There are also innovative brewing tools like electric fermenters, cooling jackets, and even temp-control airlocks. You could even get a glycol-chilled conical fermenter. The most ideal way to control your fermentation and lagering temperature is to get a small, used mini-fridge for as cheap as you can find and combine that with a digital temp controller.
When nothing listed above is an option, though, consider a psuedo lager. Blonde ales, cream ales, kolschs, and lagers fermented with ale yeast can be serviceable imitations of a true lager. The difference between ale yeasts and lager yeasts is that ale yeasts ferment from the top where lager yeasts ferment from the bottom. This means that a lager yeast consumes more of the fermentable sugars in the wort, so an ale yeast will never perfectly replicate a lager flavor. Popular ale yeasts for pseudo lager are the nottingham yeast, kolsch yeast, and US at the lowest end of its temperature range.
If neither of those yeasts are available to you, some brewers believe you can use lager yeast at higher temperatures without off-flavors. The trick is to keep the wort cold for the first two or three days, and then finish fermentation at ale temperature. You can ferment lager yeast at ale temperatures, but you risk creating off-flavors in your beer. Lager yeasts work best within their preferred temperature range.
Great lager in 6 weeks or so. Same as above except build a small box out of styrofoam insulation. Connect the controller to a small window AC unit that blows into the box. You'' need more space and a way for the AC condensate to drain. Sign up to join this community.
The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How do you cool a lager on a budget? Ask Question. Asked 11 years ago. Active 4 years, 9 months ago. Viewed 15k times.
Improve this question. Fishtoaster Fishtoaster 2, 6 6 gold badges 23 23 silver badges 36 36 bronze badges. No-ones touched on the required stability of lagering temps yet. I'm curious how sensitive it is. Bury the carboy in snow! The snow should keep the beer at C — arnefm. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Jeff L Jeff L 4, 3 3 gold badges 32 32 silver badges 41 41 bronze badges. I'd recommend getting a minifridge without a freezer compartment.
A carboy probably wont fit in a cu. Fermentation may take longer than usual, as long as three weeks. This is normal.
Then follow the above procedures to finish the beer out. This is a basic Czech Pilsner recipe, with lots of spicy Saaz hops on the back end.
Picture it as a Pilsner Urquell on hop steroids. Remove from heat then add the crushed malt in a muslin bag Steep just like a tea bag for 30 minutes. Remove the grain bag, and then bring to a boil. Take the pot off the heat and add ONE can of malt extract. Save the second can for a later addition. Dissolve extract completely, and then bring back to a boil.
Most hopheads dismiss lagers since virtually most of the ones on the market have much hop presence. This beer is hopped up just like your favorite IPA, but is missing one component. The fruity aroma and flavor from an ale yeast. Lager yeast benefits greatly from wort aeration. Consider investing in an oxygenation or aeration system.
For further information see the Advanced Brewing column in the December issue. Additional aeration can be provided after pitching the yeast, up to the point where there is noticeable fermentation activity. Wort chilling is also more important in lager brewing. If you use an immersion or counterflow wort chiller, the temperature of the chilling water becomes a factor. Those who have relatively warm tap water may have to employ an ice-water bath pre-chiller for the water or post-chiller for the wort.
Obviously, controlling the fermentation temperature is also important. Some lager yeast strains produce sulfur compounds — particularly hydrogen sulfide H2S — during fermentation, resulting in somewhat unpleasant odors that are disturbing to the unsuspecting.
With time and proper conditioning, these will dissipate and disappear entirely from the finished beer. Recall the rule of thumb about the lager time frame being double of that for ales. If your ales typically finish fermenting in 7—10 days, 2—3 weeks is a good estimate for a lager.
But, as with all fermentations, let the hydrometer or refractometer be the deciding factor rather than the calendar. In general, consider fermentation nearly finished when the reading is within a point or two of the target final specific gravity.
Another source of confusion for inexperienced lager brewers is the so-called diacetyl rest. Some lager yeast strains are known for their production of diacetyl 2,3 butanedione , a chemical compound often described as being like butter or butterscotch. Diacetyl has a very low flavor and aroma threshold, about parts per billion ppb for most people.
In very small amounts it can contribute a buttery smoothness, but it quickly gets out of hand. In most lager styles diacetyl is considered a flaw. The solution is to raise the temperature for a brief period 24—72 hours after the yeast has nearly finished fermenting the beer. For homebrewers this typically means letting the fermenter warm to room temperature for a couple of days. Not all lager strains produce significant amounts of diacetyl, but unless you have previous experience with the yeast you are using, it is best to perform the rest anyway, as it does no harm.
Conduct the rest in the primary fermenter in order to maximize the yeast population and quickly reduce the diacetyl. Once fermentation and the diacetyl rest have been completed, it is time to rack to a secondary fermenter and lager the beer. Removed from the primary yeast sediment and allowed to chill and age, the beer should clear and sulfury and other various extraneous aromas and flavors dissipate until it achieves that clean character for which lagers are known.
As the saying goes, time heals many wounds. A number of the haze problems sometimes associated with ales are conspicuously absent from most lagers, mainly due to the time spent lagering. However, many homebrewers ignore this advice and achieve excellent results.
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