Filtering vs Cold Lagering

[SonomaBrewer]

How many of you filter their beers in lieu of cold lagering?

Let's assume fermentation and warm maturation are 100% complete. As I understand, cold lagering is performed primarily for beer clarity and not for beer flavor. During cold storage, residual suspended yeast and haze compounds (especially polyphenols) drop out. There are changes in beer flavor, but these are the result of having less yeast and green-tasting polyphenols in the beer.

But I think we all have had the experience where the second half of a keg tastes even better than the first half (especially for lagers).

If fining, cold crashing and filtering remove the suspended yeast and polyphenols, does the resulting beer really taste as good as truly cold lagered beer? Or is there any additional cold maturation chemistry that is going on?

 

[cactusgarrett]

does the resulting beer really taste as good as truly cold lagered beer?

If it did, I suspect all the big boys or anyone who could get away with it wouldn't do any lagering at all, then.

 

[Genuine]

I'm for keeping my cold side process as simple as possible. I usually let time and temp do what it's best at...plus a little gelatine doesn't hurt whatsoever to help clear things up. I think we've all notice the change that beer goes through as time goes on....IPA's become less hoppy and tend to become more malty...and I'm sure the same is with lagers. The more time it sits, the more the flavors mellow out and become smoother. You could do an experiment where one beer is aged vs fresh and see what you think about the differences (I understand there would be a lot of variables in that sort of situation however it may give you an idea).

 

[cactusgarrett]

N=1, but:
https://brulosophy.com/2018/12/17/the-lager-effect-exbeeriment-results/

 

[SonomaBrewer]

If it did, I suspect all the big boys or anyone who could get away with it wouldn't do any lagering at all, then.

I was under the impression that most of the big boys filter (or even centrifuge). Minimum production time is king for most of them. True cold lagering takes time, and time = $$$!