Minimum Lagering Time

I have a Maibock and a Celebrator clone lagering right now.Is four weeks at 35* long enough? Would six or eight make much of a difference? At what point do I need to worry about not having enough yeast left for bottle conditioning?

I have only bottled 2 lagers so far, the rest have been kegged. All 2 have been lagered for 4 weeks at 34f and then bottled without any extra yeast added. They carbonated slow but really nice. Took about 4 weeks to get a lot of very small co2 bubbles.

boo boo said:

I have only bottled 2 lagers so far, the rest have been kegged. All 2 have been lagered for 4 weeks at 34f and then bottled without any extra yeast added. They carbonated slow but really nice. Took about 4 weeks to get a lot of very small co2 bubbles.

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Did you leave the bottles at room temp for the full 4 wks? Just curious. I've got my second lager going which I will keg but I might bottle part of it. It's a Maibock as well.

Regards,
Al

When I make a lager (only my technique, may/may not be 'correct'), I ferment in primary for about 2 weeks around 45-50, bring up to room temp for a diacetyl rest for about 3 days, rack, then cool slowly (2-3 degrees/day) to around 30-35. Depending on the strength of the beer, I will lager anywhere from a minimum of 2 months to upwards of over a year (I made a Samichlaus that I lagered for 1.5 years and is it great!). For your Maibock, I would lager no less than 2 months, for the Celebrator, I would go for as long as you can. For packaging, I keep the bottles at around 60 for conditioning; the carbonation process takes a bit longer, but I don't pitch any additional yeast.