With moderate temperatures coming, I am thinking of making some ales for summer fare. I have a blonde going right now at about 52F in my garage. It is in a tub with insulation and a wool blanket and the garage heater set very low, so it kicks on late at night and early morning. The fermenting wort is at about 56F. I’m hoping for a lagerish result. Normally I have used my lager chest for these ales, but I have lagers in there right now…how many others of you have tried US-05 at its lower range (54.6F per the package)?
I am thinking that I will move it to warmer temperatures inside the house when it is closer to the finishing gravity.
I made a version of Jamil’s classic american pils with S-05, fermented at 58, then raised to 65 after about 5 days with GREAT results. Used gelatin and cold conditioned in the keg for about a week, but it was delicious from the start.
I did it because I hadn’t had a CAP before, and wanted to have a ‘lower maintenance’ version with less of a lagering time commitment. I can really see how this style would benefit from a slightly sulfury lager yeast and the subtleties that only lagering can create!
Keep in mind you need almost a lager-sized pitch (you can probably use the ‘hybrid’ option on the web yeast calculators).
Good luck!
I just rehydrated a pack and it ramped up with little lag…I will probably bring it indoors tonight. It might get up to 60 during the day today, so I’ll leave it in the garage for the day.