Not quite lagering

Well kept my lager between 50-55 for primary and after 3 weeks it finally finished out and now its been in my garage in an ice bath(ice bottles rotated 3 times daily)and temps ranging from 40-50 for around 3 weeks.

Should I just continue as I am? Will it just take longer since my temps arent low enough? Should I just give up on the lagering part and bottle now?

Temps are dropping outside but it'll still be a month before I have natures help in keeping this lager colder than 40 degrees.

I used Saflager 34/70 if that helps at all.

Thanks for the input

Beer ages faster at warmer temperatures, but the really "clean" crisp flavor comes from colder lagering.

I'd probably just soldier on with the way you're doing it- I prefer bulk lagering over lagering in the bottle, but if you have fridge space for bottles, you could bottle now. Then, allow the beer to carb up at room temperature, then lager it in the fridge for 5-6 weeks.

I know people say lagers have to be done X-Y-Z, or that you need to get the beer as close to freezing as possible or it isn't really a lager. I've secondaried "lagers" at fermenting temps before. Some purists may balk and say that's not really a lager, but the beer was great and, in my mind, that's the ultimate goal. I've also heard on more than one occasion that lagering is actually best done at 10-15 degrees cooler than fermenting temps.

Anyway, like Yooper said (she replied while I was typing my long-winded reply ) I think you're doing just fine the way you are.

Sweet. I'll keep on with my repetitious bottle swapping. My SWMBO thinks i'm absolutely crazy for taking care of my precious beer the way I do but I know the final product will be well worth it. 6 weeks of bottle swapping 3 times daily does get a bit old though. A lagering fridge is definitely in the works.

Its my first lager and my own recipe ta boot and if the final taste is anything like my samples I will be very very happy.

Thanks for the reassurance as always

I have two lagers going now with W-34/70... are you doing a diacetyl rest?

Did you taste any diacetyl in your samples?

I pitched two packets, and pitched cold.

The Pol said:

I have two lagers going now with W-34/70... are you doing a diacetyl rest?

Did you taste any diacetyl in your samples?

I pitched two packets, and pitched cold.

Click to expand...

I did a rest just before racking to secondary for 24 hours but it had pretty much finished and I didn't taste any diacetyl type flavors thoughout my testing so I wasn't too worried.

I pitched one packet and pitched warm(68 F)

But it finished spot on. OG- 1.070 FG- 1.019 Estimated FG was 1.017. Within a week it dropped to 1.030 and then took another 2 weeks to drop to 1.019.

Sounds like yours should finish out much faster with the 2 packets and your pitching temps.

Even pitching cold, I had fermentation in 16 hours, each have spent 1-2 weeks pretty actively bubbling at 53F, which did surprise me.

We will see in a week or so when I warm them up, where they are at!