is my brew screwed?

[gingerhammer]

Help,I have allready done a coopers LME english bitter which is secondary fermenting in bottles in my garage.All seems well with this.I have now started on a coopers lager LME which I have done exactly the same except I have added some DME aswell.The thing that worries me is its in a warm boiler room,which worked great for the bitter.But I just read that lager needs only 10 degrees to ferment.But someone else has said not to worry as its not a real lager.I dont use a airlock but I can see it is still fermenting away great.Oh what to do?

 

[duboman]

If the kit is not using a true lager strain of yeast and only simulating a lager with an ale strain then the temperature is not the issue you think. That being said, ales do prefer to be in the mid 60sF which if I remember is around 18C?

 

[gingerhammer]

Thank you friend,Ill keep my fingers crossed!

 

[ssult1]

If the yeast is a dry yeast it would not be a real lager yeast. Most likely a clean fermenting ale yeast. That being said, fermenting with ale yeast at a little cooler temperature will yield a cleaner tasting beer. Yeast tend to contribute more flavors to a beer at warmer temps. Those flavors are considered out of place in a lager. However, I personally don't worry to much about being withing style guidelines. As long as the beer tastes good it's good beer. The only time to worry about meeting style guidelines is if you intend to enter the beer in competition.

 

[gingerhammer]

Cheers for the info,its all trial and error at the minute.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Depends on the yeast strain. If you want lageresque clean taste and are worried about tempsm get some mauribrew ale yeast. That stuff stays clean into the mid to high 20's (celcius). Ferments bloody fast too.

 

[stratslinger]

If the yeast is a dry yeast it would not be a real lager yeast. Most likely a clean fermenting ale yeast. That being said, fermenting with ale yeast at a little cooler temperature will yield a cleaner tasting beer. Yeast tend to contribute more flavors to a beer at warmer temps. Those flavors are considered out of place in a lager. However, I personally don't worry to much about being withing style guidelines. As long as the beer tastes good it's good beer. The only time to worry about meeting style guidelines is if you intend to enter the beer in competition.

Not a safe assumption to make! Fermentis makes a couple dry lager yeast strains under the Saflager brand name. Lots of people use Saflager S-23, for instance (it was the first Lager strain I ever used), and it is indeed both a dry yeast and a true lager yeast.

That said, from what I understand, the Cooper's lager kits do indeed ship with ale yeasts.

 

[unionrdr]

There are dry lager yeasts. Cooper's international series & thomas cooper's selects have dry lager yeasts in the lager kits. BUT the Original Series lager uses an ale yeast. It's the beer kit usually given with their fermenter kits.
Using some DME was a good choice,but an ounce or two of hops as flavor additions really help in this senario. See my recipes for ideas on how it's done.