Lager questions

[LazyDogBrewing]

I do not have a keg setup yet. Still bottling by beer. Here's my though. Because I bottle, it is my understanding that if I lager for the correct amount of time, I will have to re-pitch yeast when it comes time to bottle for carbonation.

Thats fine... if I had a local homebrew shop that sold yeast. Cost of yeast + shipping is an added cost I don't really want. Now, I've been on the internet reading. Apparently, I can ferment, bottle the beer, do a Diacetal rest for a week or two to allow the beer to carbonate, then lager for 4 - 6 weeks.

If that is the case, then that will save me the cost of re pitching more yeast for carbonation. Is this method sound? And are there any drawbacks to brewing lagers this way?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

That's how I was going to do it on my last lager but then I freed up one of the kegs so I used that.
But yes I would bottle at your diacetyl rest give it a few weeks to carb then lager for your conditioning time.

 

[jrodskreet]

So you are going to lager in the bottles? After the carbonation happens?

 

[ThickHead]

You don't "have" to re-pitch yeast to bottle condition a lager. Some brewers do but it may not be necessary (unless you are also filtering your beer). Before I went to kegs I bottle conditioned all my lagers without any re-pitching of yeast. I always pulled a little yeast off the bottom of my secondary when racking to my bottling bucket and gave the bottling bucket a gentle stir before adding my dextrose solution.

 

[gometz]

For my last lager I did the following:
- primary and diacetyl rest in carboy (~12 days)
- transfer to secondary carboy (~4 weeks)
- bottling bucket with priming sugar (no filter, careful siphoning to avoid as much yeast as possible)
- bottled for 4 weeks before drinking

Came out with almost perfect carbonation, pretty clear (I attribute the haze to an unnecessary protein rest I did), no trub.

So from what I have done and read: you only need to repitch the yeast if you are filtering. Even then a coarse filter would allow enough yeast through (just allow for enough conditioning time).

 

[LazyDogBrewing]

So you are going to lager in the bottles? After the carbonation happens?

Thats what my plan was. What kind of temps are required for lagering? This takes a little planning for me. I have 2 freezers for brewing, but I have only one temp control unit at the moment.