lagering question

ok- first lager -boil and primary went well. racked into secondary at 50F. sitting on it now 2 weeks total into fermentation....the questions are- am i ready to bottle? do i carbonate at room temp for a week or 2, or do i take it down to 35F after bottling?. any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.. my thoughts are to bottle. let sit off refrigeration for beer to finish up foro a few days, then back down to refrigerator temps........

im doing two lagers right now. im lagering them in the secondary. then bottle.

urbagurba said:

ok- first lager -boil and primary went well. racked into secondary at 50F. sitting on it now 2 weeks total into fermentation....the questions are- am i ready to bottle? do i carbonate at room temp for a week or 2, or do i take it down to 35F after bottling?. any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.. my thoughts are to bottle. let sit off refrigeration for beer to finish up foro a few days, then back down to refrigerator temps........

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Well...can you post your recipe including yeast you use. What tempature did you ferment at? Did you check gravity before racking to a secondary?

Typically lagers are left on the yeast (primary) For at least 3 weeks. Then transfered to a secondary (or keg) to lager for 4 weeks or longer. 50 degrees is proper primary fermentation temp....but is too high for the lagering process. You should lager the beer at between 35-45 degees. The colder being the better.

You cannot be in a hurry with lagers. They just simply take more time to ferment/mature/condition. Also pitching rates/yeast oxygenation/ferm. temps have to be watched closely if you want a good lager.

bottled a week ago. beer is clearing nicely will sit on 35-40 in bottle to finish up...wyeast 2124 starter, 6 lbs pilsner, 2lbs six row,1 lb each carapils cara malt and flaked rice (for clarity). saaz at 60 min and hersbrucker at 15. gravity steady at racking looking right at 5.5 %abv. beer was fermented 8 days at 50, 8 days at 50 in secondary.probaqbly will crack 1 in a week knowing that its still at least 2 weeks till its properly lagered.. it tasted amazing befor priming- even had a little carbonation, so i backed off a bit on priming sugar....

Most people will lager bulk lager their beer. ! week for every gravity point. Example 1.040 would lager for 4 weeks in the lower 30s. Then bottle and let carb for 3 weeks at 70. Then cool back down and enjoy.

Here's my basic lagering procedure:

1) Primary at 50-55F until you reach 75% of expected FG. So if OG was 1.040, and expected FG was 1.010, 75% would be 1.022.
2) At 75% expected OG, diaceytl rest at room temp (about 70F) for 48 hours
3) After diacetyl rest, transfer to secondary and lager at 36F for 6-8 weeks.

That's what I do!

I have done "bottle" lagering (and on my last batch), "batch" lagering. The Batch lagering turned out much better. With basicaly the same recipe. Much less sedement on the bottem of the bottle and not even one finning used!!