I brewed a 10-gal batch of CAP a week ago and decided not to put it in the fridge for primary fermentation ‘lagering.’ How will this affect the beer? Once fermentation is finished I plan on transferring them to secondaries and keeping them cold, ~40 deg f or so, to do lagering in that way. The ambient temp in the cellar is about 60 deg F. I haven’t measured the fermenter temp yet, but honestly I’m not worried about it, I just want to know what I’m in for. Will I be brewing undrinkable beer this way? My guess is most likely no, although I know it probably won’t have the same characteristics as a regular lager. The yeast are probably producing lots of weird things given that they’re fermenting so warm (it’s Wyeast 2035 Am Lager) but won’t that disappate with time in the lager fridge?
You could always call it a Classic American Cream Ale (CACA) if it produces too much estery character. Same as a CAP, only fermented warmer using an ale yeast.
Caca? That won’t make anyone want to drink the beer 
Esters I can handle, though. Last time I did the CAP it turned out great, but there was a bit of banana ester that faded out over the life of the keg.
Esters really won’t go away per se, they might mellow into less aggressive flavors but once they are produced they will affect the beer’s taste. Whenever you run a yeast above its sweet spot for temp, you’ll get more of these flavors. With lagers its all about clean and crisp and fruity isn’t part of that picture. Not syaing it won’t be good beer, but you’d probably be better off using a clean-fermenting ale yeast if you’re fermenting at 60F. Or a steam beer lager yeast.
+1
The lager yeast you pitched isn’t accustomed to the warmer environment and may be a little stressed. The warmer than usual environment will cause the yeast to produce esters that they normally wouldn’t had they been pitched at a lower temp. So yes…an ale version of a CAP. Maybe a little fruity or ale-like characteristics present in the finished beer.
Should be an interesting experiment. I haven’t yet convinced the wife to let me get a lagering freezer (our existing lagering fridge only holds one keg) but who knows. I’ll be sure to report back on how it tastes.
My one attempt at this using WLP833 fermented at 62°F produced a very fruity beer. I mean very fruity. I will not do that again.
I don’t know about WY2035. It might be worth making a starter with it at 60°F, then taste the starter liquid to see how fruity it is after it ferments out.
I sorta kinda did this already with my first batch of CAP. I had some extra wort so I racked it into the erlenmeyer that had my starter. Tasted it after a bit, not too bad. The beer’s about done in the primary so I’ll give it a taste tonight to see how it is.