Just wondering what percentage of lagers vs ales you all brew. I do mostly ale since my lagering fridge doubles as my lager fermentation chamber. Trying to figure out how to do more I really enjoy them. I can do more in the winter when the basement is in the fifties.
Same deal here. I typically now do 2:1 ales to lagers because of primary/lagering conflicts otherwise.
I have to bottle my Ofest this weekend to be able to do a DA rest with a Helles.
Funny, I’m also brewing about 2 ales per lager. Some time in the winter I set the fermentation chamber to the right temperature for lager yeasts and focus on those for a few months.
I have yet to brew a lager since I don’t really have the setup yet. I’m hoping in the fall/winter months I can use my garage since it gets into the 50’s and cooler. I really need to just buckle down and get a fridge/freezer with a temp controller. :cheers:
Used to do lagers but they tied up the fridge and I finally realized I just like ales better anyway. All ales for me now.
For while when only doing 5 gallons I used a large cooler on it’s side with a carboy in it. Put plastic soda bottles of water from the freezer in with the carboy before work, after work and at bed time. Couldn’t accurately control the temps but it worked better than ale temps. Labor intensive though.
I was trying to keep my fermenter warm in my 50 deg basement when the light bulb went on. Why not just use lager yeast. Works great. I think this winter I will make only lagers and build up a supply because I like to drink lagers when it’s hot. Flavorful ales when it’s cold. I lagered a keg in a snow bank and it worked out well. When I throw the snow off my deck I end up with a huge pile of snow in the yard. This winter I plan on making a snow cave and fill it with kegs to lager.
I am all ale. I will be calling out for help and do a lager or two this winter! Brew cat, you are crafty with the snow cave thinking…. I have to try that too! I enjoy the wonderful world of flavors from ales and haven’t found lagers quite as intense as ales. Then, like I said in a post a while ago, maybe my palate is hosed up from hoppy brews, and yes, I have been cutting back…. Sneezles61 :cheers:
PS I told my wife about the snow cave, and she is half eskimo, so we will call it an igloo! :lol:
Out of the maybe 15 batches per year, 3 are lagers. I do them back-to-back-to back in December-January. Start with a 1.045 making a 2 liter, stepped-up starter for that one, then reuse the yeast in a 1.050, and finish with a 1.060-1.065. After lagering until March, I have enough lagers to enjoy the rest of the year. Previous have been Vienna/Oktoberfest/Bock or Dopplebock. This year I think I’ll start with a Sammy clone, then Vienna and either a high gravity Oktoberfest or a Bock.
I have only done 1 lager but plan to do more come winter time. I brew 10 gallon batches so I will likely split a batch 1/2 ale yeast 1/2 lager. The only lager I have done I split and did a pilsner and a sasion. I’d like to do a IPA/IPL , a lightly hopped lager with american hops/APA maybe switch up the dry hops and probably another pils/sasion. So many beers so little time.
I’ve brewed 13 lagers of 21 batches so far this year, so about 61%. Planning to brew a Belgian blond tomorrow, so 13 of 22… either way, I brew more lagers than ales and the only ales I typically brew are hefeweizen and maybe stout or porter. I’ve started using lager yeast for my IPA’s and black IPA’s now; so that’d make them hoppy pale lager and hoppy black lager…there ain’t nothin’ to do with India in them.
I like lagers more. Cleaner and showcase the malts more.
Not a huge lager fan…but I do enjoy a good marzen once in awhile…would like to brew one just for the experience…now that I have capability to lager 
The last year has probably been about 2-1 ales to lagers for me also. I’ve really been enjoying the lagers but my lagering fridge only holds 3 kegs so that puts a bit of a bottleneck in the works. I ferment them in igloo cube coolers with frozen water bottles which as someone said above is a bit labor intensive but it gets the job done. I freed up some space in the basement for a bigger chest freezer for fermenting so i’m on the lookout for one now.
I probably do 5x more lagers to ales. But it does suck to tie up so much space lagering.
99% lagers 1% ale.
How do you calculate this? Even 20 lagers out of 21 beers brewed, that’s still 95% only. You’d have to brew 100 times to get 99%. :mrgreen:
Still, I plan to brew more and more lagers as time goes on. I still brew hefeweizen a few times a year and use lager yeast for almost every other style. I’ve brewed my first Belgian beers ever this year, a Belgian wheat and a Blond, with a Dubbel in the plans for sometime in October. Other than that, lager yeast works great for IPA and black IPA styles fermented in the mid 50’s.
How do you calculate this? Even 20 lagers out of 21 beers brewed, that’s still 95% only. You’d have to brew 100 times to get 99%. :mrgreen:
Still, I plan to brew more and more lagers as time goes on. I still brew hefeweizen a few times a year and use lager yeast for almost every other style. I’ve brewed my first Belgian beers ever this year, a Belgian wheat and a Blond, with a Dubbel in the plans for sometime in October. Other than that, lager yeast works great for IPA and black IPA styles fermented in the mid 50’s.[/quote]
You’re right, its more like 98%. :mrgreen:
Just set up a lagering freezer, but my wife is also a brewer and it is kind of for her. She is on a German beer/ decoction mashing run and she already has it full. I am thinking of getting some cheap pin lock kegs to use as lager fermenters. I can fit 4 kegs, but only two carboys. once I do that more lagers will be made.
I only brew ales, but I have been thinking about not hoarding hops this year, so I can turn my hop freezer into a fermentation chamber that would be suitable for lagers.
Who am I kidding? I’m going to hoard hops.
[quote=“kcbeersnob”]I only brew ales, but I have been thinking about not hoarding hops this year, so I can turn my hop freezer into a fermentation chamber that would be suitable for lagers.
Who am I kidding? I’m going to hoard hops.[/quote]
This is something I used to do…it’s ridiculous…having pounds and pounds of hops I just cannot possibly use. Pretty much all I need is 1 or 2 American varieties and a couple German varieties.
Magnum or nugget for bittering, chinook for multi use, amerillo and cascade for ales, hersbrucker and saaz for lagers. So I would need six.
