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In serious need of help!

FriarTuck

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I am in the process of brewing my first batch of beer from a kit. I feel like I was somewhat misled in making my kit selection, but that is neither here nor there. My problem is, the kit I purchased was for a Lager, and I have no ability to control the temperature, basically, it's being brewed at room temp. I have reached the point where it is time to transfer my wort from the primary fermentor to the secondary. The instructions then stated I need to "lower the temperature 1 to 2 degrees per gallon and allow to ferment additional 2 to 4 weeks". As I stated earlier, I have no ability to control the temperature that low. My question is this, is my brew ruined, or is there something I can do at this point to modify the time, recipe, or anything else to reneder this brew drinkable, or is it all wasted now? I certainly hope not. Any input or guidance would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance for any help on this matter.
 
First off, welcome to homebrewing!

Second off, please don't pour it down the drain!!

It won't be a lager, but it will still be a drinkable beer.  You've basically made a steam beer.  Steam beers are basically lager yeasts fermented at ale temperatures.

It could even turn out to be the best beer you'll make for a while.  It won't be a bad beer and it is not ruined.

I would not use a secondary on it.  Raise the temperature up to about 72F right now, as best as you can.  Put it in the warmest place in your home to accomplish this.  This is called a diacetyl rest.  It will allow the yeast to be even more active and reduce diacetyl, fusel alcohols and a few other things.  You'll get a much cleaner flavor profile if you can get it up above 70F.  Hold it there for about two days.

Then drop the temperature back down as best you can.  You can accomplish this by placing your fermenter in some kind of a container that can hold about 4 inches of water.  Put an old t-shirt over it, with the bottom hanging down into the water.  I dampen the t-shirt first, but it will eventually wick water up until the entire t-shirt is damp.  Put a fan on it blowing air gently across the t shirt.  This will keep the temperature down about 4-6F below the ambient temperature in the room. 

Since you used a lager yeast, you can't get it too cold using the t-shirt fan method.

Let it sit like that for about three weeks.  This will allow the yeast time to flocculate out, which will make your beer as clear as possible.

You can bottle anytime after the gravity has not dropped for three consecutive days. 

Don't worry about too much yeast dropping out of suspension.  Even after three weeks you'll still have plenty to carbonate your beer.

Use either corn sugar or DME as the sugar to bottle with.  When you do bottle, bring 2 cups of water up to a boil, turn off the heat, stir in the bottling sugar and bring back up to a boil.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Pour the bottling sugar solution into the bottom of your bottling bucket and rack your beer on top of it.

The actual amount of corn sugar or DME depends on the style of beer that you were trying to make and the amount of beer that you're bottling.

If you give us the recipe for the beer you made and the probably bottling volume, we'll be able to tell you how much corn sugar or DME to use for bottling.

Bottom line...Rest easy, you're going to have a great beer.  Since you made it, you'll think it was the best beer that you ever made!!

Congrats!!
 
I couldn't agree more. Scott is correct. Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew.
 
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