I was looking to try a Mexican beer recipe to change things up a bit. Anyone have any suggestions for a 5 gallon recipe. I would need to use a ale yeast because I don’t have a chamber. I have a basement that works for now.
I happen to be brewing a mexican style vienna lager for the first time on Friday. I think most Mexican beers are likely corn adjunct lagers but I could very well be wrong. I hate to be that guy (trust me, people used to tell me the same thing) but it’s going to be very tough to duplicate one with ale yeast. Maybe go down the cream ale path with some noble hops instead or try a cali lager yeast?
I figured I would be side-stepping a bit with the use of an ale yeast, but that’s the reason I’m asking. I saw a IAH recipe using ale yeast and it sparked my interest.
How cold can you keep the ferment? I would use W34/70 as high as 60F before I’d use an ale yeast to brew a lager-style beer.
Yeah, that strain (2124/34-70/830) is pretty forgiving. Maintaining temps in a tub of cold water with frozen water bottles is do-able. Been there , done it. Actually I chilled and held at actual lager temps doing that in the day. The real trick is being able to cool enough in the first place (and of course swapping out bottles often enough).
Wyeast 1007 can get pretty lager-like if you can get in the low 60’sF, but you need to fine it out.
WYeast1056/WLP001 can also be very clean when fermented cool, as is Nottingham.
Finally, WYeast2112 is an option, too, if you can get to 58F.
Basement temp is ~65. The water bath is an option but I don’t have a lot of time to babysit it.
34/70 may be able to handle that, but I don’t know if I’d willingly push it that high as peak fermentation may get neat 70F. Chico (001/1056/US-05) is probably the best way to go. I like the Cream Ale recommendation. I don’t think you can get that super-clean Mexican lager character without fermenting a clean lager yeast down in the low 50’s.
Many people seem to question this, but have you read exBEERiment | Fermentation Temperature: Fermentis Saflager W-34/70 In A German Helles Exportbier | Brülosophy
It would seem that 34/70 works as good at 70F as it does at 50F. He also did something similar with WLP800. You can easily find all the commentary against/criticizing this, but I’m in a similar situation as you (basement 64F, no desire to pay for a freezer and electricity to ferment beer with) and I’m going for it to see for myself. Four lagers in the next two months at 64F. I will cold-crash in ice water and fine with gelatin, but no “real” lagering.
Good luck!
Also, I’ve used 029 (kolsch) at that temp, then “lagered” bottles in my garage in the winter to get the yeast to drop out, and it turned out very lager-y. I’m pretty sure that fining would produce similar results faster.
I recently brewed a beer using 34/70 at 64F myself. I disagree that it makes the same beer as lower temperatures but closer to a lager flavor than US-05 at 60F.
Interesting. Sulfur production at all?
Put your fermenter in a water bath and put an old T-shirt over it that wicks water up from the bath. Point a fan at it and I’d bet you can get 60F without much babysitting.
I agree with Philbrew - also toss some bleach in the water to keep anything nasty from growing in it. Doesn’t affect the beer, but it keeps the container from getting moldy or gunky.
Good advice here. I was able to do my first couple of lagers in a tub filled with water where I switched out frozen water bottles. I think my ferment temperature was about 55F. It did require quite a bit of babysitting though…
That might be doable.