My first Lager, temps and krausening and in what order?

I am a total newbie when it comes to doing a Lager so please keep this in mind! :fro: and thanks for reading!

My question is after the initial 10 days of fermentation should I lager first then carbonate or carbonate first then lager? I am using Saflager W-34/70 yeast, and I have save 1/6 of the yeast and wort to krausen with.

I am wondering also how many days do I need at (some temp?) to get the carbonation needed.

I will be bottling the entire 1/2 gallon batch in a 1/2 gallon jug.

You're not bottling in a growler are you?

d3track said:

You're not bottling in a growler are you?

Click to expand...

Well I have some with swing tops and I have some with polyseal caps. So yeah I think these are called growlers.

To answer your first question, since you're bottling - you can bottle, give it 3-4 weeks to carb, then lager in your fridge for 4-6 weeks.

Onto those growlers - be careful. I don't know if there are any that are meant to go through the carbonation process, I think there was even a post in the last couple weeks of someone loosing large parts of a batch when they burst from the pressure.

Well I could bottle and cap to be safe; I guess I am wondering if carbonation can take place at 35 degrees? Or is there a process after the lager process when I need to raise the temps to 55 degrees in order to let fermentation do the carbonation?

My favorite choice is to cold crash until clear (3 days-ish), bottle, wait 2 weeks, then lager.

Best of all worlds. Fully carbed, but only a tiny layer of dense sediment at the bottom - easily poured without "murk".

Also, you can always lager the whole batch, and the last beers will have longer "lagering time" in the cold... and you can decide if you want to lager longer or shorter from there.

.

well I rather brew a 1/2 gallon then not brew at all I suppose.......

RMS said:

well I rather brew a 1/2 gallon then not brew at all I suppose.......

Click to expand...

The reason I asked was that after I posted I realized the small batch. This will mean that taking gravity readings won't really be feasible owing to the small volume of available beer.

Too great a % being lost each time.

I've not seen anyone doing a batch smaller than a gallon so was a bit surprised. It's a lot of work for 4-5 beers especially a lager

Its nothing more than an experiment, fall weather is here and I thought why not give it a try. The carbonation by natural means though had me asking these specific questions.