Lagering in the keg

I'm not partial to working harder than I have too, hence I no longer secondary (and I've had great success with 10+ beers since stopping). When it comes to lagers/pilsners, has anyone had success starting fermentation in their primary, then transferring straight to their serving keg and letting it lager there?

I am no expert by any means, but my last 4 lagers I did exactly as you suggest....fermented in primary at desired temp for about 3 weeks or until estimated FG was nearly reached, diacytle rest, then kegged and stashed in keg fridge at 42F to lager in the keg. Carb up after lagering and it's good to go.

Not sure it's the best way, but it is easier and it does work.

Alan

That's how I do it.

_

that's exactly what i do as well.

Same as me.

I've never made a lager before, but doing it this way seems like something I might try.

A couple questions:
Do you bleed off your kegs at any point during the lagering? Is there any pressure build-up at all?

Do you pressurize the keg at all when you first fill it to make sure the seals all seal?

I carb and lager at the same time. That way I don't need to wait the extra time to carbonate post lagering. I have not noticed any ill effects from doing this.

Nohup said:

I've never made a lager before, but doing it this way seems like something I might try.

A couple questions:
Do you bleed off your kegs at any point during the lagering? Is there any pressure build-up at all?
No need to
Do you pressurize the keg at all when you first fill it to make sure the seals all seal?
Yes, you need to purge and seal them, you can carb immediately as well..

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....

I ferment in my carboys and then transfer to a keg. After the lagering time is over I force tranfer the beer to another keg to get it off the yeast that has dropped out while lagering. Sometimes I carb while lagering, and sometimes afterwards. Really depends on how much room/beer I'm dealing with.

If you keg, you always secondary - the keg is it!

ArcaneXor said:

If you keg, you always secondary - the keg is it!

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From the primary to the keg. Also, when I transfer to a keg, I drop the temp slowly until I reach 32, about 4 degrees a day...Then I let it sit for as long as I can. Usually between 6-12 weeks. My first few lagers, I tapped after 4 weeks, but I've found with a little more time, they come out very very nice..Crisp and clean.

I've fermented lagers at 48F for 3-4 weeks when they hit final gravity I transferred to secondaries that I put in the refrigerator at 36F for a few weeks before kegging and force carbonating.

Nohup said:

I've never made a lager before, but doing it this way seems like something I might try.

A couple questions:
Do you bleed off your kegs at any point during the lagering? Is there any pressure build-up at all?

Do you pressurize the keg at all when you first fill it to make sure the seals all seal?

Click to expand...

You don't bleed it off, as you don't rack it until fermentation is finished and the diacetyl rest is over.

I do pressurize the keg before putting it in the kegerator, and squirt star-san over it to make sure it's sealed.

You can carb up the keg while it's lagering.

I do that all the time. Do the primary, then the diacetyl rest, and then rack to the keg. Let it sit for 8-12 weeks at 34 degrees and put the gas on it during that time. It's carbed up nicely when I'm ready to tap it.

Last winter was great, as we were gone to Texas for 8 weeks. Put the beer in the kegerator, set the gas on it, and left. I came home to a wonderful BoPils!

This is great stuff!! Thanks people, I'm looking forward to brewing up a nice Ofest here soon

Bulls Beers said:

From the primary to the keg. Also, when I transfer to a keg, I drop the temp slowly until I reach 32, about 4 degrees a day...

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I've heard that dropping slowly as you do is the way to go. But would anything suffer if i went straight from diacetyl rest temps (in the mid-50's) down to 34 degrees for lagering?

The reason i ask is that i use my keezer to lager, and i don't really want to turn it up to 55 and then slowly down to 34 while i'm serving beers out of it.

jaginger said:

I've heard that dropping slowly as you do is the way to go. But would anything suffer if i went straight from diacetyl rest temps (in the mid-50's) down to 34 degrees for lagering?

The reason i ask is that i use my keezer to lager, and i don't really want to turn it up to 55 and then slowly down to 34 while i'm serving beers out of it.

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It should be ok. If you've done a thorough diacetyl rest, and the yeast have done all their work, you can drop faster than 5 degrees per day. It takes a pretty long time for 5 gallons of beer to get to 34 degrees anyway, so it really won't matter.

When I lager in the keg, I carb while lagering but I still use a secondary before kegging

So what would the effect be of only lagering in the keg for a month?

1Mainebrew said:

So what would the effect be of only lagering in the keg for a month?

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The longer, the better BUT that doesn't mean a 4 week lager will taste bad