Lager process questions.

[zanemoseley]

I'm in the process of doing my first lager attempt, an American Lager. Its been in the fermentation chamber for a week with the Ranco set to stay between 50-55 degrees. I was thinking of starting a diacetyl rest on Friday night and racking to a secondary on Sunday.

My question is this, I usually rack straight from my primaries into corny kegs where they age, carbonate and then are served. There is a bit of sediment that is released when I first tap the keg but not a big deal. So I'd like to do the same with the lagers and just lager for a month in the corny kegs. Is there anything wrong with this approach. I try to keep my process simply and would prefer to not have to go with a 3 vessel approach (primary, secondary, corny).

 

[Yooper]

I'm in the process of doing my first lager attempt, an American Lager. Its been in the fermentation chamber for a week with the Ranco set to stay between 50-55 degrees. I was thinking of starting a diacetyl rest on Friday night and racking to a secondary on Sunday.

My question is this, I usually rack straight from my primaries into corny kegs where they age, carbonate and then are served. There is a bit of sediment that is released when I first tap the keg but not a big deal. So I'd like to do the same with the lagers and just lager for a month in the corny kegs. Is there anything wrong with this approach. I try to keep my process simply and would prefer to not have to go with a 3 vessel approach (primary, secondary, corny).

Check the SG before you do the diacetyl rest- you want to be about 75% or so of the way to FG. You can't really go by time with that- but you can sort of guestimate it when the airlock activity slows but doesn't stop and then check the SG.

You can definitely rack to the corny from primary after the diacetyl rest. Lagering in the keg is perfectly ok. You may want to lager longer than a month, though- depending on the beer. 6-8 weeks at 34 degrees would give you the "cleanest" and smoothest flavor, assuming the OG was in the 1.040-1.060 range.

 

[zanemoseley]

I'll probably do a longer lager, 6 weeks at least. I've been in the habit with ales of not really checking SG's after I pitch as they always ferment out fine.

I did try and check my FG with my last brew and noticed I had a hard time of getting enough beer in the thief to properly test the gravity as the hydrometer was bottoming out in the thief. I'll make it work though.