1st Lager - Warm it up?

[user 43212]

Folks-

Doing my first stout with a cold secondary fermentation. It is a written Oatmeal Stout recipe that I pulled from a book. I did warm primary fermentation. It's been cold in the secondary fermenter around 30F for 4+ weeks. I'm going straight to a keg, do I need to warm the beer up first? Or am I OK to go straight to a keg and force carbonate right away?

Thanks

 

[Scut_Monkey]

How long did you have it at the "warm temp" and what temp was it?

 

[z987k]

Did you use lager yeast... because a stout is traditionally not a lager. The act of lagering is only a small piece of what makes a lager.

However as to your temperature question, you can put it in the keg at 30 and force carb, yes.

 

[user 43212]

The primary fermentation was at room temperature, probably a little under 70F. It was for 8 days.

 

[z987k]

And I'm assuming you used ale yeast to, so.. this is a stout - ale and not a lager.

 

[user 43212]

I used an American Ale type yeast that the recipe called for. It was Uckleduckfay Oatmeal Stout, from Papazian's Joy of Home Breweing Vol. 3, page 229.

Good to hear I can keg at that temp, thank!

 

[z987k]

you almost have to keg at that temp... or at least a colder than room temp. If you look at a temperature vs pressure co2 volume chart, you would have to have some really high pressure to force carb at 70F.

 

[user 43212]

Yup, you are spot on. I've corrected the post. So basically what you are saying is you can use the lagering technique for most any beers, but this doesn't make it a true lager? What distinguishes a lager?

 

[user 43212]

you almost have to keg at that temp... or at least a colder than room temp. If you look at a temperature vs pressure co2 volume chart, you would have to have some really high pressure to force carb at 70F.

Where can I find this chart?

This recipe called for conditioning for a week at room temperature before chilling. I could see this apply if you were bottling, but I was confused if it applied to kegging.

 

[z987k]

Yup, you are spot on. I've corrected the post. So basically what you are saying is you can use the lagering technique for most any beers, but this doesn't make it a true lager? What distinguishes a lager?

Yes, you can "lager", which really means storing at a cold temperature, or you also may see people on here say "cold crash", any beer. It ususally does wonders for clarity.

To make a lager, you must use a lager yeast. Both while labs and wyest have many strains availible, and fermentis makes a couple of strains in dry forms.
Part of using a lager yeast is fermenting cold - depending on the strain but say 48-55F for primary fermentation, then when fermentation is wrapping up or all but over(2-4weeks, but can be more), you bring the temperature up into the ale temp ranges - I like 68F, and hold it there for a few days for the yeast to be able to metabolize diacytl. Then you bring it back down to about 32F and hold it there for a few months.
This all makes for a distinctly cleaner and less fruity beer among other things.

 

[z987k]

Where can I find this chart?

This recipe called for conditioning for a week at room temperature before chilling. I could see this apply if you were bottling, but I was confused if it applied to kegging.

a quick google returned this:
http://ebrew.com/primarynews/ct_carbonation_chart.htm

The reason you need to chill the keg before carbonating is because it would be very hard to get the proper volumes of co2 at room temp.