Homebrewing gets interesting when the brewing doesn’t go as planned but the results are still great. That’s what happened with my most recent lager brew. A somewhat unconventional warm temperature lager.

I have this beer labelled as “Red Lager” on my kegorator. John however has redubbed it Resurrection lager. The first attempt at a springtime red lager was a disaster. I let a mash sit overnight in my garage but it was too cold out there and the mash settled in at a pleasant 100F. A perfect temp for all the bacteria and stuff present in the grain to have a real party with the converted mash. I have done overnight mashes in the past with ill effect but they usually only lose enough temp to get down to the 140F-ish ballpark.

Not wanting to be defeated (and having all this lager yeast ready to go) I scrounged around for ingredients. Finding what I had available and mainly relying on some Carafa Special III for color I made a kitchen sink lager of sorts.

Still being somewhat defeated and not really focused on the outcome, I pitched a good larger pitch of WLP833 Bock Lager Yeast, shook it really well and set it in my 60F basement. A far cry from my normal 48F pitching temp for a lager brew. Over the month plus that the beer sat in the basement we would occasionally bump up the temp in m basement for the kids playroom. This would occasionally take the basement up to 65F. And if we weren’t paying attention we’d leave the heat on all night. Then we’d lower it back down. So my lager ferment was also on a roller coaster ride.

In the end, I let it be and didn’t think much of it. Did some other brews with more care and finesse. Once spring really broke, I went into spring cleaning mode and prepped several kegs for incoming beers. The Red Lager went to keg along with a couple other brews ready at the time.

In the end I am super surprised and please with the results. This beer is very clean, very crisp and its also pretty clear. At the time of the video and our initial tastings of the beer it was still a bit hazey. At the time of this post it pours from the keg a brilliantly crystal clear beer.

My lessoned learned here is that at the end of the day brewing is still an art. As much as we want to apply science and technical aspects to it, art (and maybe luck) still play a big role. Secondary to all that is that brewing really good beer isn’t that hard. Beer is pretty forgiving.

If you don’t have dedicated temp control for doing a lager, don’t worry about it. Get yourself a big tub of water and rotate three to four frozen soda bottles in and out of it to keep it cooler than you would your ales. It’ll still be beer!

BREW ON!