First time bottle conditioning a lager

[brownni5]

As the title would suggest, I'm now thinking of how to bottle condition my first lager - a German Pils fermented with Bootleg's wild lager strain. Primary fermentation is done and I plan to bulk lager in a carboy in the 30's (not hard to accomplish in a MN garage in January) then bottle condition at warmer temps, then lager again before enjoying. Sound reasonable? I've seen many who bottle then lager, but others who lager then bottle. This way would just work a little better for me.

Any problems with the stated process? I'm not in a hurry at all here.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

My only suggestion would be that after the long lager that you add yeast right before bottling. The yeast that you started with will be so sluggish that they wont be able to prime the beer. This is from experience. I think i lagered an Oktoberfest for 60 days.

 

[Antonio Martinez]

My only suggestion would be that after the long lager that you add yeast right before bottling. The yeast that you started with will be so sluggish that they wont be able to prime the beer. This is from experience. I think i lagered an Oktoberfest for 60 days.

I have this same question. I'm bottling my first lager, a märzen, this week. It seems me that after the diacetyl rest it makes sense to bottle condition then versus after we put the yeast through another temp adjustment to get it down to lager temp and then back up to a point where they will consume the priming sugar and carbonate the beer. Just seems more efficient and perhaps less stressful on the yeast. Thoughts anyone?

 

[Jag75]

I have this same question. I'm bottling my first lager, a märzen, this week. It seems me that after the diacetyl rest it makes sense to bottle condition then versus after we put the yeast through another temp adjustment to get it down to lager temp and then back up to a point where they will consume the priming sugar and carbonate the beer. Just seems more efficient and perhaps less stressful on the yeast. Thoughts anyone?

I kegged my Mexican Lager . After I kegged I had enough in the fermenter for 3 12 oz beers. So I added sugar and capped em left em at room temp for about a week . Then I put em in the fridge . They carbed up fine . I also ramped down the temp after diacetyl rest .

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

I kegged my Mexican Lager . After I kegged I had enough in the fermenter for 3 12 oz beers. So I added sugar and capped em left em at room temp for about a week . Then I put em in the fridge . They carbed up fine . I also ramped down the temp after diacetyl rest .

How Long did you lager for?

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

I have this same question. I'm bottling my first lager, a märzen, this week. It seems me that after the diacetyl rest it makes sense to bottle condition then versus after we put the yeast through another temp adjustment to get it down to lager temp and then back up to a point where they will consume the priming sugar and carbonate the beer. Just seems more efficient and perhaps less stressful on the yeast. Thoughts anyone?

My process was ferment, diacetyl rest, cold crash, transfer off yeast cake to secondary then lager for allotted time. transfer to bottling bucket add priming sugar and yeast then bottle.

I keg now so I do a closed transfer from the yeast cake right to the keg after the diacetyl rest and cold crash. I lager in the keg then transfer to the keezer and carb there

 

[Jag75]

How Long did you lager for?

They only lasted a little over 2 weeks . When the keg kicked we went to those. I have an Oktoberfest that's been lagering since April 2nd . Gonna tap it end of Sept .

 

[Antonio Martinez]

They only lasted a little over 2 weeks . When the keg kicked we went to those. I have an Oktoberfest that's been lagering since April 2nd . Gonna tap it end of Sept .

I used the brulosophy fast lager method and am going to give bottling prior cold crashing & lagering and will report back. I got the idea from the How to Brew book. I'll report back after and let you guys know how it goes. I'll also be running a second batch of the same recipe next weekend with a traditional lager schedule for comparison.

 

[Antonio Martinez]

Ok so I decided to sample a bit of my Oktoberfest as it lagers, I bottle conditioned first, and even though it hadn't been lagering very long it's already pretty good. Which is a huge relief because it was pretty green based on the sample I tried after two weeks of bottle conditioning. How long do you guys normally lager before consuming?