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Hey everyone

I'm a newbie with a quick question.

Do I need to ferment the FestaBrew Ccerveza (or any lager) in a fridge, or would a basement that stays at a steady 17C be okay?

What happens if you brew a lager (from kit, so I 'm assuming with the appropriate yeast) at that temp? Does it just take longer, or create off flavours?

I plan on carbonating on a keg.

Thanks

hard to say what off flavors might be present if any. my guess is the yeast that comes with the kit is pretty versatile and the designers take into consideration that most people who are making the kits do not have a dedicated lagering chamber. you should be fine. You could also use a swamp cooler. Place the fermentor in a rubbermaid container, fill it with water and wrap the carboy in towelshanging in the watter, a fan helps with the evaporation and lowers the temp.

Thanks. That's what I was curious about, if the kits take in to account that if I'm a guy buying a kit, I probably don't have an advanced enough setup to ferment at a constant low temperature.

I'm not sure I can pull a swamp off. It's a conical, although garbage can might do it.

Maybe switch yeast. Make a starter with some San Fran lager yeast. It will stay cleaner at 17 than the yeast that comes with the kit IMO

The lager is S23 and it’s ok...I’ve used 34/70 and it was very good. Try to ferment within the recommended ranges with those yeasts and it’ll be great beer.

The Brulosophy folks have done a lot experiments with W-34/70 and mentioned that the strain (supposedly) can tolerate fermenting into 60's (F) provided you have some method to cold crash the method following fermentation. I've used 34/70 a few times before but haven't yet fermented above 60F, this might be next lager experiment.

http://brulosophy.com/2016/02/08/fermen ... t-results/

I find 34/70 gave me apples the few times I lagered with it

So I pitched last Tuesday, and by Friday it was a very active fermentation afoot. It's my first batch brewing under pressure in a fermentasaurus, and the spunding valve is set to around 4psi.

My concern is that by Monday, it was very quiet. All the yeast settled out and aside from a few C02 bubbles, it looks fairly dormant. I opened up the butterfly valve and let the yeast cake fall in to the trube collect to stimulate it a bit, but it's very quiet.

Also, because it's under pressure I don't think I'll get krausen. Aside from a few bubble rising from the cake, on the surface it doesn't have much to show.

Is there a chance the pressure killed the yeast, or does this all sound normal?

depends at what temp you fermented it at but sounds normal. check your gravity over a couple of days. just because its not going crazy doesn't mean its not an active ferment, or the yeast already ate through most or all of the sugars

I'm fermenting at about 17C room temp. I don't have a fridge so it lives in the basement