[Kid Moxie]

Every lager batch I brew I push my temps a bit higher, desperately seeking "the line" where the lager has obviously gone off the rails. To that end, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to evaluate the extreme case of lager fermentation temps and what would happen if I pitched cold and then completely removed temperature controls. My hypothesis is that if most off-flavors are generated during the lag and reproduction phases, then cold pitching a large, heathy batch of yeast–ensuring those phases are sufficiently cool–means that later stages do not require rigorous temperature control.

I shared the two versions with the members of the Society of Barley Engineers. I did not have the capacity to do a triangle test, but to be honest, I consider myself to be more of a Brew Engineer than a Brew Scientist and I am more interested in preference over statistical significance. Blind to the nature of the experiment, I had everyone fill out a simple online survey asking: "Which Schwarzbier did you prefer?" and some optional comments about what they thought the difference is. Here's a summary of the results.



I hope this result encourages folks to try their hand at brewing a lager even if they do not have sophisticated refrigeration and temperature control. I would wager that if you pitched cold and were able to keep max temps within the mid 60’s–easily obtainable with swamp coolers and the like–no one would be able to tell the difference!

Full writeup available here:
https://www.fivebladesbrewing.com/schwarz-2-0-split-batch-temperature-experiment/