Waste of time or not?

[Guest]

Hiya guys.

 

I'm about to put down a totally new brew (for me) & the advice given so far by more experienced home brewers on this forum have suggested certain temperature conditions.

 

My final recipe is as follows taking into consideration much of the advice given in the "Anyone for a Knappstein Enterprise Lager" thread. . .

 

Final recipe:

 

Thomas Coopers Pilsner 1.7kg

Light Dry Malt Powder 500gms

Dried Wheat Malt Powder 250gms

Honey 375gms (substituted for 300gms Dextrose)

Saaz hops 15gms @ 40mins

Nelson Sauvin hops 15gms @ 15mins

Nelson Sauvin hops 10gms @ 5mins

Kit yeast 7gms + Saflager-23 yeast 11.5gms, & pitch @ somewhere close to 12\xb0C.

 

Currently I have no way of maintaining the 12\xb0C for the primary ferment via refrigeration. It is most likely to rise to somewhere nearing 18\xb0-19\xb0C over the following 2-3 days by my estimations & maintain a temperature near that for the remainder of the 2 week brew cycle.

 

Is it worth brewing given these definite temperature fluctuations?

 

Beer.

[ChrisF9]

I've nothing to input to the yeast/temp question but can you get the temp lower? I've managed to get as much as ten degrees C below ambient temperature by wrapping the FV in a towel wet with chilled water and sitting a block of ice (2 or 4 kg) on top to drip feed chilled water around the FV?

[Muddy Waters]

I'd be sticking to ales until you can get better control of your temps. It just isn't worth it in my opinion.

[Hairy]

Sorry Lusty, I agree with Mudz.

 

You won't achieve the beer you are after brewing at those temps.

 

If you are really keen to still use the recipe then ferment it with US-05 at 16-17 degrees.

 

But my opinion is to shelve it until you have temperature control or perhaps winter.

[MARKP18]

Never used it but could try California Lager Yeast

 

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=131

[Hairy]

Good idea Mark.

 

Another option is a Kolsch yeast:

 

Wyeast 2565

 

They will both work but the beer will be different to the beer Lusty planned. Still better than fermenting S-23 at 20 degrees though.

[Guest]

Thanks for all the input & advice once again guys.

 

The yeast options thrown up, were quite clever, but Hairy & Muddy seem to understand what I am looking for out of this recipe, & based on their views, I'll just have to shelve it until I can get my hands on a wine cooler/fridge to house my FV & maintain those lower temps. (I have my scouts scouring the Earth as we speak!)

 

In the meantime, I'll just have to stick with the Ales, & a variant of Weggl's "Amber Yak" recipe is looking highly likely to be my brew for this weekend. [biggrin]

 

Thanks again guys.

 

Beer.

 

 

[Guest]

Yes, I agree. If you can't maintain correct temperatures then best to brew something at a correct temp you can maintain. Temperature is one of the most important things to achieve the desired outcome.