First lager, should I rest now and then rack?

OK I've only used ale yeasts till now.

My brew has gone down to 1012 and I dont' expect it to drop much more. Its been in primary for 12 days.

Should I bring it inside to warm up and rest for 36 hours then rack to secondary and cold crash now?

The plan is to cc it for a few days and then keg the nice clear lager to age more in the cold keezer

I really expected it to take a lot longer to ferment down to what it is as its sat at the lower temp for the s23 yeast the whole time and was pitched cold.

Anyone? ..........

You can bring it inside to warm up now as it won't matter to the yeast making esters.
Let it finish completly before racking to lagering secondary.

If, by warming it up, you're trying to achieve a diacetyl rest, it's a bit too late for that. So, there's no need to warm it up.
It's best to cool slowly to lagering temps (~5°F per day).

I've got no way to drop it to lager temps that slowly. Its cold enough here to be ferementing at lager temps in my garage and it will be lagered by putting the fermenter in my keezer where I have room to store it alongside my kegs. It would take a while to drop to lager temps though with 21L of beer but still quicker than what you say.

Is it best to put the primary in there now or rack it and then put it in to cc?

I shouldn't have too much diacetyl though as its fermented out at the bottom range of temps and thats why I'm surprised its dropped this far the quickly.

You can crash cool it if you have to. It's not ideal, but it's not that big of a deal either. It's better to get it colder while in primary before racking because it will preserve some of the CO2 in solution, which is better to have more during lagering/conditioning.

Cool thanks for answering. For further uses why am i too late to do a rest? I take it the rest should take place with the ferementation 80% complete or something like that?

jaja said:

Cool thanks for answering. For further uses why am i too late to do a rest? I take it the rest should take place with the ferementation 80% complete or something like that?

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The yeast must be active to reduce diacetyl levels. 80% complete is pretty close, but for an average 1.050 beer, 85% is more accurate... but it doesn't have to be exact and with all the variables in play (e.g., time to warm up), I think eyeballing it is perfectly fine. The important thing is to catch the yeast while they're still active. I raise my temp for D-rest when the krausen is about 2/3 fallen.