Lager yeast or Ale....that is the question?

vanwagmj · October 3, 2011, 5:34pm

I was hoping some of you could weigh in on this query.

I plan on brewing up a pumpkin beer this weekend and right now my ‘brewery’ (basement) is holding pretty steady in the 61 – 59 degree range.

I have Danish lager yeast (Wyeast) and a pack on Nottingham dry ale yeast. Should I go low end ale temperature or high end lager temperature? In about a month the 50 degree range will be no problem but I did not want to wait that long for my pumpkin beer. I would prefer not to use any temperature altering tools. Any thoughts??

davegy · October 3, 2011, 7:02pm

I would use the notty

spunky · October 3, 2011, 8:40pm

Sorry never brewed that style. I’d save the good lager yeast for another brew though :cheers:

brwrboy69 · October 3, 2011, 8:55pm

If the ambient temp is 60, your beer will probably be 63-65, which is too warm for a lager. I’d go with the nottingham.

vanwagmj · October 4, 2011, 12:48am

That is the way I was leaning as well, but I thought I would throw it out there. My understanding is that there really is not too much of an ill effect fermenting at the low end of an ale yeast; it will just take a little longer to ferment. AKA I should leave it in primary no lessthan two weeks. My plan was a rack to secondary after 17 days.

shadetree · October 4, 2011, 2:23am

Rack when you’ve reached your desired FG, not on an arbitrary schedule. Take a gravity reading after 10-14 days, wait a couple days, take another, and if they match you’ll know that primary is about done. Let it sit at least a few more days, then rack with confidence.