Lager in primary for 3 months?

CornyKegs 728
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macabra11

macabra11

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I am going to be brewing an Oktoberfest lager, and was wondering if it would be OK to just leave it in the primary until Oct (starting now)? After fermentation is complete at 50º, I planned to do a short diacetyl rest, add gelatin, then drop the temp in the lager fridge 5º/day down to 35º where I will leave until bottling.

Do I need to transfer to a secondary or not?
 
macabra11 said:
I am going to be brewing an Oktoberfest lager, and was wondering if it would be OK to just leave it in the primary until Oct (starting now)? After fermentation is complete at 50º, I planned to do a short diacetyl rest, add gelatin, then drop the temp in the lager fridge 5º/day down to 35º where I will leave until bottling.

Do I need to transfer to a secondary or not?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't do that. I'd definitely transfer to a secondary when primary is finished, and get it off of the spent yeast/trub after the diacetyl rest.

I usually primary for about 10 days to 2 weeks, raise for a diacetyl rest if doing one, then rack to the new carboy and begin lagering. I wouldn't even bother with gelatin- the lagering should clear the beer up just fine.
 
Cool. I will get it off the yeast. You are probably right about not needing the gelatin. A couple months at 35º SHOULD do the trick!
 
if you used whirfloc or irish moss then you DEFINITELY don't need gelatin.

just to play devil's advocate in case anyone else finds this later and has no option (lack of carboys?) you probably could leave it on the yeast. the worst that could happen is autolysis and yeasty death flavours. but that isn't guaranteed, so it's possible.

That said, I always secondary my lagers even for 4 weeks of lagering. I would certainly secondary for 3 months.
 

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