Lager Process advice

[Turbogator]

Hey Y'all

I need some process advice. This weekend the temperature is going to hit 60 so we are planning a rare winter brew. I am planning on making my first lager. Ive been brewing for years but I still consider myself a beginner. Over the summer I acquired a 14 gallon SS Brewtech Chronical Brew master edition conical fermenter and a glycol chiller to go with it. It has really taken my ales to a new level and now I want to try my first lager. So here is my question, Do I do the entire fermentation, diacetyl rest and lagering all in the Chronical. Or would it be better to rack the beer to a carboy and lager it in my old fermentation chamber which is a stand up freezer with a temperature controller? If I do the whole process in the Chronical is there a point at which I ought to dump the yeast and trub? I really want to knock my first lager out of the park, any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
JMG

 

[McKnuckle]

One of the most important things with any beer, but especially with lager, is to prevent oxidation. It really messes with the delicate malt character of most lager styles. So I would always opt to keep fermenting beer in the same vessel rather than transferring it, even if you transfer carefully. The only exception would be if you can transfer in a closed system with no O2 exposure. But a carboy pretty much precludes that.

If you plan to keg it eventually, you can take it through primary and D-rest in the Chronical, then rack it to the serving keg and lager it in place while you carbonate it. If you plan to bottle, that's another story, and I defer to others who are more familiar with doing that from a large conical fermenter.

Dumping trub is okay, but I wouldn't take the yeast away for at least the first 2 weeks of fermentation, and at that point I'd be wanting to package it anyway.

 

[Jag75]

I'll give you my schedule on lagers . I ferment at 53 , of course this depends on your yeast but I monitor until it's at 75% done . Once it's at 75% I ramp up the temp 3 degrees a day until it hits 66f . I hold for 3 days then i drop the temp 3 degrees a day until its mid to high 30's. I then close transfer to my keg and Lager for how long I desire . I've lagered for a month all the way to 5.5 months . Dont rack your beer into a secondary. Leave it in your conical. If you keg just transfer it like I mentioned. If your wanting to carb and bottle then once your beer gets back down to the 30's after diacetyl rest dump your yeast and trub then hook up your carb stone or what ever you use to carb it . Then bottle when you want .

 

[Pappers_]

I would consider leaving it in your conical through primary and lagering, dumping the yeast out between the two.