BeerBorg

Can anyone suggest a lager dry yeast or ale dry yeast to use to ferment a pilsner at room temperature using the malt extract method of brewing? I currently do not have a refrigerator to use to ferment the Pilsner at a temperature in the range of 48 to 56 degrees. Many thanks to anyone who responds to this question.

Welcome.

I've never brewed a lager, so I don't know much about lager yeasts, but if you're brewing at room temperature, you may want to use an ale yeast instead. If you brew at room temperature with a lager yeast, you'll be brewing a California common (sometimes called steam beer, but that term is trademarked by Anchor).

So if you want to brew a steam beer, you can use a lager yeast, but if you're looking for a beer that will taste closer to a lager, you probably want to use a clean fermenting ale yeast, like US-05 or Nottingham.

SWBrewDog wrote:Can anyone suggest a specific lager dry yeast to use to ferment a Pilsner at room temperature using the malt extract method of brewing? I currently do not have a refrigerator to use to ferment the Pilsner at a temperature in the range of 48 to 56 degrees. Many thanks to anyone who responds to this question.

What do you mean by room temperature? That varies by location. You probably don't really want to ferment anything at room temperature to avoid off flavors. Have you been brewing at room temperature? I don't think you will end up with a true pilsner no matter what kind of yeast you use. Good luck and welcome to the forum

Welcome aboard!
There are brewers that have had success brewing lagers at warm temperatures. I've read that Saflager w-34/70 works well, but I haven't tried it myself. I'm going to wait until winter and ferment in the basement at 58.

Whamolagan wrote:

SWBrewDog wrote:Can anyone suggest a specific lager dry yeast to use to ferment a Pilsner at room temperature using the malt extract method of brewing? I currently do not have a refrigerator to use to ferment the Pilsner at a temperature in the range of 48 to 56 degrees. Many thanks to anyone who responds to this question.

What do you mean by room temperature? That varies by location. You probably don't really want to ferment anything at room temperature to avoid off flavors. Have you been brewing at room temperature? I don't think you will end up with a true pilsner no matter what kind of yeast you use. Good luck and welcome to the forum

You have a good point. In the winter, I set my thermostat at 57. But only during the day. I turn it down to 50 at night. In the summer, I set it to 78, but turn the air off when I travel (I don't brew when I travel). My basement (where my fermenters sit) doesn't fluctuate as much as other areas, but it's probably in the mid 50s in the winter and mid 60s in summer (when I don't travel).

But I know people who keep their homes in the 70s year round.

John Sand wrote:....I've read that Saflager w-34/70 works well....

I've used Saflager 34/70 at 60-65 for an olde style steam beer. It did have a bit of diacetyl. Very tasty beer.

The room temperature in most of the rooms at home is 74 degrees with air conditioning this summer. I was thinking of putting the two gallon fermenter in a small bathroom and close the door so that the air conditioning might make the room cooler for fermenting the pilsner. Many thanks to all of you who responded to my yeast question.

The only yeasts you can use at that temperature without making off flavors are for making Saison or Belgian style beers. Which taste nothing at all like Pilsner.

Depending on your humidity a "swamp cooler" made with a towel or t-shirt and a shallow container of water your fermenter can sit on top of might get your temps down into "real ale" range, but still not cool enough to make clean American style or Pilsner beers.

If you really want to try it as a "cheap option", I would suggest a large cooler or a zip up picnic type "cooler bag" that the fermenter fits in, and using some frozen 2L water bottles as "ice" to keep it cool in there. Just swap out bottles every so often. Remember that you can put a cooler sideways with the fermenter in it - since the water is in 2L bottles which are sealed, it's not going to leak. So you don't need as huge of a cooler as it sounds like for it to fit "height wise".

Personally, I would just brew some Saison because I like them, but some folks consider that whole style to be an "off flavor" so it depends on if you like them or not.