Lager and carbonate at the same time?

[ejf063]

Hi,
I just brewed a Kolsch and I'm about to keg it. But I wanted it to age a bit before I tapped into it. When you lager, do you lager in a keg or a secondary? I gave up on secondaries years ago, btw and have no intention on doing this. I don't have an empty fermentor. But I would like to know if it is the correct practice.
The way I see it, (since I will not transfer to a secondary), there are 2 options: If you lager in the keg, you hook the gas and let it sit for a few months; Or you let it sit for a few months and then set it to gas.
Curious how people do this and what the best answer is.
My thought was to keg, hook to the gas, let it age for a while then drink.

 

[pvtpublic]

I lager in my keg, with a floating dip tube. That way I'm always getting the clearest beer off of the top. Most everyone carbs their kegs right away, but I prefer waiting until a week before serving, in case I have a leak somewhere, I wouldn't want to waste my CO2.

 

[Blackdirt_cowboy]

I carbonate and lager at the same time. Never had an issue doing it this way.

 

[McMullan]

I'm far from a well versed lager brewer, but I pressure ferment most of my lagers therefore carbonate and ferment at the same time. A corny keg works a treat, if you don't mind doing half batches. Kegmenters are fine for full batches. Don't forget a spunding valve. I don't know, but my preference is to lager carbonated beer under pressure.

 

[Beermeister32]

I usually carbonate naturally using 4-4.3 oz corn sugar in the keg. This will help scavenge any residual O2 in the keg. Also I purge the headspace with 15 cycles using CO2 after filling.

I usually let the keg condition at a cooler spot in the house for a week or two before returning to the refrigerator for lagering at 34F. I like to lager 90 days for most styles (your Kolsch is an ale, but is traditionally lagered.) You can put the keg on gas and sample it periodically to see how it improves.

 

[pvtpublic]

I usually carbonate naturally using 4-4.3 oz corn sugar in the keg. This will help scavenge any residual O2 in the keg. Also I purge the headspace with 15 cycles using CO2 after filling.

That's not a bad idea, especially for ales. Not so sure about for lagers though. I suppose with a hybrid ale like alts and kölshes it would work great too. But with the purging, I like to purge the keg before filling, that way there's no way I'm oxidizing during filling.

I usually let the keg condition at a cooler spot in the house for a week or two before returning to the refrigerator for lagering at 34F. I like to lager 90 days for most styles (your Kolsch is an ale, but is traditionally lagered.) You can put the keg on gas and sample it periodically to see how it improves.

At least 90 days for sure!

 

[Beermeister32]

Here’s some interesting purging info:

 

[pvtpublic]

Here’s some interesting purging info:

This is pretty cool, but it raises a question; how much headspace? If it's calculated out for, say X amount, then you would have to be fairly precise with knowing your volume of beer in the keg. Where did you come across this chart and graph?

 

[Beermeister32]

Here you go...

https://www.**********************/...rging-transferring-stabilizing-finished-beer/

 

[Beermeister32]

Well that's blocking. Put beer keg purging chart into your internet search bar

 

[pvtpublic]

I couldn't find it that way, but I did see this:
www.themodern brewhouse.com/kegging-care-guide-purging-transferring-stabilizing-finished-beer/
It has a pretty simple calculation so long as you know your elevation and adjust accordingly.

Edit: HBT seems intimidated by other brew sites, what crap.
Just take out the spaces in that URL