Want to do a pilsner but I’m not set up for lagering. Any suggestions on an ale yeast that would still turn out close to what I want?
Thanks
Last year in June I did a German Pilsner using California lager yeast in the low 60’s. turned out surprisingly well. It was a hit with members of my Homebrew club.
You could also use wy1007 German ale yeast in the low 60’s. That has always been a great yeast for me.
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I’ve used 1007 with vienna and marzen recipes and they turned out great. I think you could get something similar to a bohemian pils with it in the low/mid 60s.
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Brulusophy did a lager at ale temps and it was not reliably different than the cold fermented one. 34/70 yeast, which as I understand is a hybrid type. You still want to ferment in the mid sixties no matter which you choose. Sneezles61
I did side by side marzens. wy2633 Ofest yeast vs 1007. They both got cold conditioned for about 4 weeks before we tried them. Not many people could tell the difference.
If you have the palate you could tell it’s an ale but some people liked it more because of that. The malts really popped. If I did it again I’d bitter the ale version a little more for better balance. It was a tad bit sweeter.
If I were going to do a pils with it I’d probably push the bittering to the top end of the style with a late charge of some noble hops for aroma. You won’t get that lager aroma from the yeast.
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Thats good input Danny Boy! Sneezles61
Ok, soapbox warning!
As a community, we’re kind of using the terms lager and ale wrong. Ale refers to a specific category of beer as brewed in England, Belgium, and some other areas. The other category (in this particular brewing culture) to compare it against is beer. If it’s not an ale, it’s a beer. Lines are blurred, but ale vs. lager really shouldn’t be a thing.
Lager is a type of beer brewed in Germany, and it can be brewed with either a top-fermenting (what we usually call an ale yeast) or a bottom-fermenting (what we call a lager) yeast. Ale does not have to mean top-fermenting yeast, and lager does not have to mean bottom-fermenting yeast. According to the Deutsch (to whom I would defer in this matter), there are top-fermented lagers and bottom-fermented lagers. Top fermented lagers would include Koelsch and Alt, and bottom-fermented lagers would be the pilsners, marzen, etc. The important part of making a lager is the cold conditioning period, which you can do in the fridge 6 bottles at a time if you don’t have the space to lager the whole batch.
So you can absolutely make a lager with a top-fermenting yeast! Just go with some of the low-ester strains as some of the folks above mentioned. Keep the temperatures down to minimize ester formation, bottle, and then throw some in the back of the fridge for cold conditioning once it’s carbonated. And although some of the style gestapo might raise an eyebrow at you, I think you can rightfully call it a lager.
Soapbox rant over, brew on! 
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So the oxes moron to the story? Warm or cold fermented and not aged cold, ale? Warm or cold fermented, THEN cold aged, lager? Sneezles61
Well historically an ale is really a malt liquor with no or relatively small amounts of hops. So an India pale ale isn’t an ale, it’s a beer.
But a German-style beer that was top fermented and not lagered would have been classified as a Bitterbier. Leave it to the Germans to have a category for everything.
But honestly, I’d just call it a delicious sounding homebrew. I think us 'Muricans worry too much about fitting things into categories, and not enough about whether it just tastes good! A pilsner-based beer with noble hops and clean top-fermenting yeast sounds awesome.
Now this classification business can get very funky… I wouldn’t want to go there, yet, one small piece that possibly someone has the answer to. Why is Mich. Amber bock labeled Ale in Texas… Its in small print on the box, yes, many years ago I did drink lots of it… Sneezles61
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I think it has something to do with TX laws regarding the alcohol content or something like that.
You all have convinced me. APA is already in the works for Saturday, but I’ll do my first “faux pils” next week.
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At the end of the day, I don’t care what you call your beer. As long as it’s awesome. My pet peeve, though, is when some brewers’ association grand poombah declares your beer is flawed based on some style category that has no historic basis and therefore sucks… go ahead and make your lager with an “ale” yeast. Because at the end of the day, just because most people are wrong (based on historical context), doesn’t make it right.
So make the best beer you can, and heck with what some association says. If it tastes good, then who cares! Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
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Thanks all for the input. It sounds like I have a lot of options as long as I keep the temperature as low as possible.
Haha same thing plan for a beer type. And me not happy with out come. On the planned beer. But the poeple. Why drink it liked it. So on the end success. Like i did make a wit beer. Color did come out bit darker. So different name. A donkel weisen the new name
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Pork Chop, I send the first motion as you, for the Grand Poohbah, For this forum, sir! And someone want to second, or do we have a debate ? Sneezles61
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While I appreciate the thought, “Grand Windbag” would probably be more appropriate.
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Staff contrarian, Pedant in chief… these are the badges this forum needs.
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I agree… 
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