Fake lagering a fake lager

[Nicks90]

So my latest experimental brew is a fake lager - but I need some advice

Brewed as follows:
Wilko's mexican cerveza kit
1kg brew sugar and 300gm mixed light and dark sugar
50gm magnum hops in a hop tea at the beginning
Cml California common yeast
50gm saaz hops dry hopped for 1 week at end of fermentation

It's now all finished and I've just bunged the fv in to my cellar , which sits at a constant 8c whilst I decide if I need to do anything else.

I want a very easy drinking pleasant lager-y type drink. Is 8c cold enough to be considered 'lagering' if I left it for a few weeks? Would it be lovely and clear?
Also planning to bottle instead of keg, so would leaving it that long in the 'cold' cause issues with carbing up?
Or should I just admit this is going to be a really pale ale and just bloody bottle it and do my usual 2weeks in the warm and back in my cellar to condition?

Gelatin worth bothering with at any stage???

 

[MyQul]

It need to be at around 1C for it to be lagering.

If you leave it long enough it'll be clear due to gravity

You need to be leaving it for about 2.5 months before you'll have issues with carbing up

I've never used gelatine as I'm pescatarian.

 

[aamcle]

8 is high for lagering it would probably work if you could leave it long enough BUT at this stage it's very vulnerable to Oxygen. What you could do is bottle it, carbonate it and put it back in the cellar and see it it lagers.

aamcle

 

[Nicks90]

Screw it, I'll bottle and carb it up now as per normal - then stick it back in the cellar to mature. Which incidentally is where all my beer lives, so even my dark drown ales get a bit of 'faux lagering'!!!

 

[terrym]

If its clear or nearly clear after a few days at 8*C bottle, leave for 10-14 days to carb up in a warm place, and unless you have a spare fridge, put bottles back into your cellar for a few weeks. In my view you have then done the best you can do with the facilities at your disposal. Time and the cold place will clear your beer. You don't need finings more so if the beer is nearly clear at bottling.

 

[MyQul]

If its clear or nearly clear after a few days at 8*C bottle, leave for 10-14 days to carb up in a warm place, and unless you have a spare fridge, put bottles back into your cellar for a few weeks. In my view you have then done the best you can do with the facilities at your disposal. Time and the cold place will clear your beer. You don't need finings more so if the beer is nearly clear at bottling.

You dont even need a cold place, just time. I dont have anywhere cold to store my beer and it always eventually clears if I leave it long enough. I normally use pretty flocculant yeasts most of the time which clears my beer quickly anyway

 

[terrym]

You dont even need a cold place, just time. I dont have anywhere cold to store my beer and it always eventually clears if I leave it long enough. I normally use pretty flocculant yeasts most of the time which clears my beer quickly anyway

You are right. :thumb:
Cold place only optional but it helps

 

[chthon]

I've never used gelatine as I'm pescatarian.

You use isinglass then ;-) ?

 

[Honk]

It need to be at around 1C for it to be lagering.

Really? From what I've read 1c is optimum but traditionally lagering took place in caves and I'm not sure they always used Ice. I understood lagering just meant cool storage, correct me if I'm wrong though.

I've had good results just leaving in the garage over winter and I think you should get good results at 8c it will just take longer than at a cooler temperature.

 

[Bigcol49]

. . . my dark drown ales . . .

Hi!
I've had a few of those in my time! The only problem I encountered was when I surfaced next morning

 

[MyQul]

You use isinglass then ;-) ?

I could do but Im too tight to buy it. But like I mentioned using very flocculant yeast (Gales strain,CML real ale,notty) works almost as well

 

[ITMA]

For my fake lagers, I do two weeks in the warm (room temp) for carbing and then two weeks cold supposedly for clearing. But my clear plastic test bottles are showing they're clearing well even during the warm period. I'm using the saflager yeasts and they flocculate really well.

I don't really have cold either - just my 7 degree ish loft. I really can't be bothered with the hard work of cold crashing, and I can't get a fridge into the loft so I'm working under constraints - but I've got really drinkable beer. Everyone's tastes are different but to my taste better than any / most lagers I can buy. I'm sure they're Ales really but I'm the CEO of the brewery and the only customer, and Camra aren't allowed to visit.

Does all of the lagering and cold crashing etc have an effect? I'm slightly (just slightly) sceptical.

It's my first year of serious brewing through, and I don't know what I'll do when the temperatures start rising from the Spring. Maybe I'll try putting ice in trugs, maybe I'll just not bother and go with what comes out.

My inexpert feeling is that it's the yeast that has by far the biggest bearing on the taste. My Pilsner currently listed in the conditioning list had a **** up with the thermostat and ran at 20degrees which I thought would ruin it, but even with that it's tasting promising (some way to go yet mind). I think all the cold crashing and 1degree lagering etc probably adds a polish but my taste buds aren't refined enough to notice.

 

[aamcle]

I'm sure they're Ales really but I'm the CEO of the brewery and the only customer, and Camra aren't allowed to visit.

Ok so it's ale, so what it's GOOD Ale!

Traditionally lagering in caves was at about 5°C but dropping it to 1°C speeds it up, I think there is a post by Aleman on the subject.

ATB. aamcle

 

[terrym]

Does all of the lagering and cold crashing etc have an effect? I'm slightly (just slightly) sceptical.

In some ways I have to agree. For two days just before packaging I place FV in the coldest place I have, usually the garage, in summer probably the fridge, and without doubt this helps clear the beer, although, in most cases, is already clearing due to the time its been in the FV. As far as 'lagering' on a home brew scale I have my doubts whether it will make much difference. It would be interesting to hear if someone has split a brew and lagered one half and just left the other half to its own devices, and then compared the two, better in a blind test.

 

[Covrich]

Does all of the lagering and cold crashing etc have an effect? I'm slightly (just slightly) sceptical.
.

With fake lagers I find if I keep them cold in the fridge for 4 weeks they are crisper and a little cleaner but nice either way.

 

[Covrich]

In some ways I have to agree. For two days just before packaging I place FV in the coldest place I have, usually the garage, in summer probably the fridge, and without doubt this helps clear the beer, although, in most cases, is already clearing due to the time its been in the FV. As far as 'lagering' on a home brew scale I have my doubts whether it will make much difference. It would be interesting to hear if someone has split a brew and lagered one half and just left the other half to its own devices, and then compared the two, better in a blind test.

Like I have said in the above I have done with fake lagers left a load in a cold fridge and had the otehr half at just normal consumption cool not given an extensive lagering.. they are all nice but I certainly thought the ones given an extended period of time benefitted from a crisper finish.

 

[terrym]

Like I have said in the above I have done with fake lagers left a load in a cold fridge and had the otehr half at just normal consumption cool not given an extensive lagering.. they are all nice but I certainly thought the ones given an extended period of time benefitted from a crisper finish.

So if you have a fridge it helps , but don't get too concerned if you don't.

 

[serum]

Traditional lagering was bunging them in a cave at whatever temperature that is but nowadays it's storing them at freezing or just under.

In reality you just need to do the best you can. If 8C is the best you can get then do that. One thing I did that worked well was get a load of demijohns and rack into those leaving little or no headroom. This should prevent oxidation.

Last time I did this it didn't completely fill 4 of them so one had headspace and after 4 weeks in a cold loft it was a lot darker than the others and had a musty sherry off taste so it is an issue.

Bottling will also have the same effect but people say it's best to "bulk age" than to have it all in individual bottles. I've never compared so I don't know if it's true.

 

[LarryF]

Whilst I have the shed for "cold" conditioning, in the summer it never gets cold enough and for that period of the year I do have cloudy beers. I don't use finings or gelatine, as already mentioned I believe gravity, cold (when you have it) and time will clear my beer for me.

 

[Covrich]

So if you have a fridge it helps , but don't get too concerned if you don't.

Pretty much yeah, like @serum says just do what you can.. this time of year can lend itself with lofts sheds or garages giving a bit of shield to the out door temp..

Tbh I don't even know how cold my fridge gets whether it stays at 5 or 7c or what but like I say leaving them there for a good extended period seemed to just give it that extra crisp which was nice.. But if you cannot do it don't get hung up IMO.

What I always used to do with the fake lagers was to start drinking the first half (amongst other HBs) whilst not touching the ones in the beer fridge