Truncated Lagering...Bottle Lagering?

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Evan!

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On 12/26, I brewed a Smoked Winter Lager. All went well, it's been in secondary for a few weeks now and I'd like some advice on short bulk lagering periods. My lagerator is a chest freezer (one-carboy capacity) with a regulator, and I'm lagering at about 40ºf. I'd like to brew another lager, though, so what do you guys think the min bulk aging time is before I can go ahead and bottle it? My basement was a brisk 52º this morning, and my digital thermo says that it hasn't gotten above 58f in at least a week. I'm thinking I'd bottle it sometime soon and "bottle-lager" them in my cold basement. So where's the cutoff? I've always bulk-lagered for at least a month in the past, but this stuff tastes great right now and I'm thinking it might be fine to bottle it in a week to free up the lagerator. Alternately, I could put the bottles in my shed, which is even colder---but at what temp would a bottle freeze? It was 17º when I woke up today.

Thoughts?
 
I'd say bottle and keep it in the basement. 17F is too low. The beer would freeze and crack the bottles.
 
I don't think there is any required amount of time for bulk lagering. You can go ahead and bottle, if you like. The trick is that true "lagering" needs to occur in the mid-30s, rather at the cellar temperatures.


TL
 
i asked this same question before christmas. I lagered it bulk for awhile and then bottled it and stuck them in a fridge. best lager i've made
 
17F is definitely too cold for beer.

one thing i'm not clear on here, if you go with bottle lagering, is what to do about carbonation - wouldn't you need to have the bottles at 65F-70F or whatever to get carbonation before you chill for the lagering phase?
 
cd2448 said:
17F is definitely too cold for beer.

one thing i'm not clear on here, if you go with bottle lagering, is what to do about carbonation - wouldn't you need to have the bottles at 65F-70F or whatever to get carbonation before you chill for the lagering phase?

Lager yeast ferments at lower temps, but yeah, I'd need to hold it in the upper 50's for maybe a couple weeks.
 
the bottles would crack, so you never freeze the bottles. whats meant here is that when we lager it needs to be done in the mid 30's. then when we bottle we allow the beer to carbonate at a slightly higher temperature, around 50 degrees, and after about 2 to 3 weeks in the bottle its ready to drink.
 
Ok I get it but what if you do lagering in the bottle?..
Would you bottle after fermenting than allow to carbonate at room
Temp than drop bottles it fridge at mid 30s to lager?
 
what you would do is let it ferment at around 55 degrees, then when fermentation is complete allow the beer to warm to room temp for 1-2 days for the diacetyl rest. you would then bottle normally, store the bottles at a fermentation temps (55 degrees) for 1-2 weeks to allow carbonation. then drop the temp to about 35-40 degrees for 6 weeks or more for the lagering process. I like to have one or two clear bottles so i can see how it progresses. after that your ready to start downing some delicious beer.
 
That makes sence, thanks for reply..
One more question :)
Someone mentioned doing a secondary to clear the beer up
before bottling?
Is a secondary just putting into another fermenter?
Also could you use finings, if so would I put
Finings in after diacetyl rest than leave for another 1-2 days before
Bottling?..
 
I prefer doing a secondary fermentation in another fermenter, which is the lagering stage of the beer making process. if you lager in the bottles then this is your secondary fermentation and the beer will clarify while in the bottle. I prefer to do this step in a carboy so when I rack and bottle the sediment that falls out of the now crystal clear beer stays in the bottom of the carboy and doesnt go into the bottles. If you bottle lager your beer will still get very clear beer, you will just end up with a bit more sediment in the bottom of each bottle.

As far as finings go, I like irish moss and thats what I would suggest. It is put in at the last 15 minutes of the boil and will remove the unwanted proteins prior to primary fermentation. finings used in the secondary fermentation are usd to remove additional yeast, and gravity takes care of that during the lagering stage.
 
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