Lagering Steps

[schooldude]

Hello all, I am ready to start lagering and have been reading all i can for the last month. Here is what I still am not sure of, #1, after the dialectal rest do I keep it in the primary and go straight to the lagering phase or transfer to a secondary for lagering. (have read transferring removes the yeast needed for carbonating). #2 after lagering, do I let beer get to room temp before bottling or bottle at whatever the temp is is after moving to the bottling bucket. Just a couple things I never could find a definite answer on.

Thanks

 

[Double_D]

I usually lager in primary after a d-rest.

I keg, but if I was going to bottle, I'd bottle after the d-rest, condition at room temp, and then lager in the fridge for a couple weeks.

 

[pepindavid]

I only did one lager so far (an Oktoberfest), and it turned out really good. My best effort so far. I followed Brulosphy's schedule: http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/. I bottled about 2.5 weeks after brewday, and it had no problem carbonating (perfect carbonation in two weeks).

It was pretty good right after carbonation (less than 5 weeks grain to glass is pretty quick for a bottle-carbonated lager, I guess), but I must say an additional 2-3 weeks of conditioning turned a pretty good beer into an awesome beer.

So in a nutshell:
- Pitch close to target temp (55F in my case)
- Leave at 55F until about 50% attenuation is achieved
- Ramp up (gradually) to 65-68F, and leave there for a week or so
- When diacetyl is not detectable, ramp down to 32F (if you can)
- "Lager" for 3-5 days
- Fine with gelatin.
- Wait until it drops clear, prime and bottle (I did it while the beer was under 40F, without any problems)
- Bottle condition the beer at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.
- Enjoy (if you can, once carbed, "lager" the bottles again).

I was impressed with the result, to be honest.