So I brewed my first ever lager (Oktoberfest) just over a week ago and it is currently sitting in the primary fermenter. I plan on letting it age until October and was wondering if I should rack it to a secondary fermenter for a few weeks and then transfer it to a keg, or if I should just transfer it to a keg straight out of the primary. What do you think? What are the pros/cons of both techniques?
when to keg a lager?
- Thread starter NYrunner
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You definitely want to get it off of the trub before lagering. Once it's finished, you can raise the temperature for a diacetyl rest (assuming you're fermenting at about 50 degrees, you can raise to 60-68 for the diacetyl rest) and after the diacetyl rest, you can rack to the keg and begin lagering. You can lager in a secondary first, of course, but if you're racking to a keg anyway for serving it's just easier to rack to the keg. I like to lager a week for each 8-10 points of OG. So, for a 1.060 lager, I lager about 6-8 weeks at a minimum.
^^^^ What she said. Except when keg use is an issue. I have an Oktoberfest lagering in a carboy because I don't have enough kegs to keep my pipeline going.
