Secondary Vessel for Lagering

Hey folks, simple lagering question here.

Over the last few years, I've done away with a secondary vessel for lagering. I simply transfer the beer to a keg after the diacetyl rest and proceed to lagering temps. When the lagering is done, I simply serve from the keg. No secondary. I find this works well for me, but wonder it I'm missing out on better beer by not using a secondary for lagering and then transferring to a serving vessel.

I'm not even sure I want to change my procedure.....just wondering what you think.

I think that is a common way of doing it and matches the traditional method (with an itty bitty steel keg as opposed to a huge wooden barrel)

That's the way I do it too. Some will argue that it is wrong but I think it matters how long you take to drink it. If it takes over 6 months then maybe a secondary might be beneficial. A lot of heavy beers are aged a long time and there is yeast in there. If yeast were going to ruin beer then there would be more evidence in beer that is aged a long time and I don't see that so far.

I think that method is pretty standard. I don't lager much but when I do I typically do so in a carboy in my garage in the winter because I do not have a temp control device.

Normally I use a glass carboy for secondary. I transfered my lager last night into a corny since all my carboys were full.

The best thing about that is now I have an empty carboy.

I think I might be brewing another batch this weekend.

I have another question. If you are using the corney for the secondary/lager then serving isnt the first glass straight yeast. From the residual yeast that falls out during secondary/lagering

tdavisii said:

I have another question. If you are using the corney for the secondary/lager then serving isnt the first glass straight yeast. From the residual yeast that falls out during secondary/lagering

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I've done away with secondaries on all types of beer at this point in my brewing career. The first 3/4 pint or so from each new tapped keg gets tossed usually as it's hazy with particulate junk. Of course, if it's not too hazy with junk, I'll drink it. I'm not afraid.:rockin:

Yeah im not a huge fan of straight yeast in my mouth. There was this one time in thailand J/K i was just curious if the first glass was bad. I agree i would still probably drink it though.

tdavisii said:

Yeah im not a huge fan of straight yeast in my mouth. There was this one time in thailand J/K i was just curious if the first glass was bad. I agree i would still probably drink it though.

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Well, in my experience there is no more yeast sediment in the first couple of pints in a lager than in an ale. I still usually lager in the carboy- because I have room in my "yooper lagerator" in my basement, but only room in my fridge for two kegs and I have those tapped. If I had a big Keezer, though, I'd primary longer (to maximize the time the yeast have to drop out) before going into the keg, and then lager it right in the keg.

You could bend your dip tube a little so the bottom of the tube sits about 1/4 inch higher off of the bottom of the keg.

I cut 1/4 inch off of my dip tube with a tubing cutter and I never get yeast on the first pint.

Greg Noonan says it's OK (lagering under pressure in a vessel that can handle the pressure)... that's good enough for me! (But not bottle-conditioned lagers.)