Advice on Long Term Lagering over some Yeast Cake

[Tippsy-Turvy]

I'm starting the 6 months' lagering of my Chimay clone after transferring the beer from primary to 2 secondary glass carboys.

Unfortunately, I was clumsy at the end of the transfer and disturbed a lot of the yeast cake/trub and now there's a ~0.5 inch layer of stuff at the bottom of the second carboy.

Any advice? Use the siphon to "vacuum" as much yeast as possible? Leave as is, so long as the temperature is low enough?

Thanks everyone.

 

[friarsmith]

I would leave it alone. With a long lager period, you'd get that much settling out anyway regardless of how clean the transfer went...

You may want to consider bottling the beer with some yeast in 30-60 days then continuing w/ your cold storage. This would be added insurance against staling/oxidation.

 

[Tippsy-Turvy]

Much appreciated.

 

[kh54s10]

I have never done a lagering phase that long but I have done a 2 week fermentation, 2 day rest, and 2 week drop to lager temp then another two weeks before kegging. So it was over month and a half all the time on the entire yeast cake. Not an ideal practice but the beer was great.

 

[Tippsy-Turvy]

Yup, if i'm lagering for a couple of weeks then I wouldn't worry. Six months is the longest for me too but I'm determined to see it through. With that much delayed gratification I want to do everything possible now to not get a nasty surprise at Christmas!