Ambient temperature

[gnasher]

Hi all,

Due to this miserable weather, my cellar is still holding at around 14.5C. Even if summer does arrive soon, I wouldn't expect the cellar temp to rise too much over the next month (it's pretty stable over a 24hr period and just rises gradually during summer).

So, my question: If I were to brew a pale ale/pilsener wannabe, using lager yeast and let it do its thing in the cellar, what would the effect be of this higher than ideal temerature? I'm not interested in being a true to type lager/pilsener, just in getting a summery beer.

Cheers,
Nick

[dean_wales]

Would you be better off using a lager grainbill / hopbill and using a clean ale yeast like SO5 at the cooler end of its range rather than using a true lager strain at the top of its range?

If you just want a summery beer..

Dean.

[gnasher]

It's a last-minute decision to brew and we only have lager yeast available.

Typical poor planning!

[worldsbestbrewer]

Phone a shop up and get em to stick a couple of sachets of SO5 in the post 1st class:-) - or got one sachet here you can have or u can scrape the top of my present brew which is O5 - nr Ashbourne Derbyshire. Never used lager yeasts as prefer beer that taste of summat:-)

[gregorach]

Yeah, 14.5 is a little too warm for a proper lager, even before you take the heat of fermentation into account.

[roonikins]

just chuck it in and let us know how it goes

[gnasher]

Thanks for your comments guys.

For reasons I won't go into, we only had 2 vials of White Labs lager yeast available, which were at their expiry date, so I just pitched and have stuck it in the cellar.

4kg Pilsner malt
250g Caramalt
500g Munich malt
250g Wheat Malt.

22g Saaz @ 60mins
56g Saaz @ 15 mins (but forgot the Irish Moss )
22g Saaz @ flameout.

OG 1048

I'll let you know how it goes.