Can I just lager in my kegerator at 36 degrees?

[Hwk-I-St8]

I am thinking about doing an Octoberfest. My wife loves them. I don't want to tie up my fermentation chamber for a long lagering phase. Can I primary in my chamber, transfer to a corny with a spunding valve, and secondary/lager in my kegerator at serving temp or is that too cold?

 

[jwelch1103]

Sure, why not? From reading on several Brewing forums I see there are many folks that do just what you are proposing. Of course there are many opinions and I'm sure other folks will disagree.

 

[Morrey]

I am thinking about doing an Octoberfest. My wife loves them. I don't want to tie up my fermentation chamber for a long lagering phase. Can I primary in my chamber, transfer to a corny with a spunding valve, and secondary/lager in my kegerator at serving temp or is that too cold?

To be sure, there are lots of ways to accomplish your lagering/conditioning goal.

I have 2 freezers outfitted with Inkbird ATC's for lagering at 35F. I will rack to keg after fermentation, then store the keg on gas until I feel it is ready to move inside into my kegerator. It is set and forget carbing at the same time it is smoothing out during cold storage. This is my go-to method, and I suspect many others do something similar.

Another example is Sierra Nevada. They rack from fermenter into a brite tank and carb the beer, then can or bottle the beers and cold condition them in the can or bottle before shipping out.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

To be sure, there are lots of ways to accomplish your lagering/conditioning goal.

I have 2 freezers outfitted with Inkbird ATC's for lagering at 35F. I will rack to keg after fermentation, then store the keg on gas until I feel it is ready to move inside into my kegerator. It is set and forget carbing at the same time it is smoothing out during cold storage. This is my go-to method, and I suspect many others do something similar.

Another example is Sierra Nevada. They rack from fermenter into a brite tank and carb the beer, then can or bottle the beers and cold condition them in the can or bottle before shipping out.

I have a freezer with an inkbird that I do my fermenting in, but I don't want to tie it up lagering a beer for months. It seems simple to transfer to a keg, put it into the kegerator for a month or so, then hook up CO2 to carb it. Then I can just connect the beer out and serve when I think it's ready.

 

[d3track]

The colder the better for lagering, so it is not too cold. All in all, I'd say you have a great plan of action.

 

[Morrey]

I have a freezer with an inkbird that I do my fermenting in, but I don't want to tie it up lagering a beer for months. It seems simple to transfer to a keg, put it into the kegerator for a month or so, then hook up CO2 to carb it. Then I can just connect the beer out and serve when I think it's ready.

Absolutely. I typically use a freezer but the kegerator is ideal provided you have that space available.

You can apply gas at your serving pressure while it is lagering and save time in the process. I have done this multiple times and used to keep a log book (tasting notes) handy and tasted the beer frequently as it lagered. This will be a good reference in that you may find you like the way a certain beer tastes after condition for {X} months or weeks. Kegging is ideal for this since you don't have to pop a cap to sample.

 

[csurowiec]

Yes definitely lager in the kegerator. This is how I do it with great results. My kegerator is 2 faucet but I put in a 4-way manifold on the gas so I can carb/cold condition/lager 2 kegs while serving 2 other kegs.
Any lagers get cold crashed in the fermentation chamber then kegged and placed in the kegerator to carb while lagering so that a month or so later when I want to serve it, it's ready to drink.