Home Brew Forum

On Saturday, I brewed up a Brupaks Munich Dunkel kit with a couple of pounds of added grains + White Labs South German lager yeast.
This project raised some questions about the wisdom of brewing a lager in a house in the UK in March/April.

* Pitching temperature -- The White Labs label says to pitch at 70 to 75F. By cooling my wort in the sink, then dumping into some cold water in the fermenter, the coldest I could get was 90F! To my suprise, the yeast took off really well overnight, the best lager krausen I have seen. However, I suspect that off-flavours may have been introduced. I must try to get the wort colder, maybe use some ice?

* Fermenting temperature -- The label recommends 50 to 55F. I have placed the fermenter near the back door, where temps. are 55 to 60F. Luckily, a colder snap is forecast so this area of the house will be coolish. However, the temp is still a little on hte high side.

* Secondary -- I was thinking of either sticking it in the fridge, or wrapping in cardoard boxes and placing at the back of the garage.

Question: Is it possible to brew a decent lager without temperature control? I suspect pitching at 90 may have done more harm than good

Thanks
Mike

I would say no. The beer will be good to drink, but it won't have the lager characteristics you're looking for. Unless you can manage to keep the temps down.