Laggering - delaying it or pausing in the middle - question

[propush]

Greetings!

I have limited number of temp controlled chambers, and a desire to brew gazillion liters of beer regardless.

I do not want to skip on lagers though, as that is the whole reason I got another temp controlled chamber. However, soon, I will have more buckets of new lager batches which needs to be lagerd - so I will have to use both chambers, and halt all further brews until the lagering is done.

However, if I could stop the process for a week, or delay this new batch for a week or two and keep it at room temp (19-22C, 66-72F) - then I can keep making ales, letting the lager warm for one week / delay the lagering start, then placing it back.

Apart from making the whole process longer, due to the 1 week 'off', is there a problem doing something like this?

If you choose to answer please state if and why there is a difference between delaying the start of the lagering process, and stopping in the middle then resuming a week / few days later.

Thanks in advance!

 

[propush]

Update:
Finaly managed to find some info.
Found mixed info.

Not many have tried it. The concerned ones stated that the idea is to condition cold, and if you warm up - you condition warm, which will not make it taste like ale, but will have adverse effect on flavor.

Others say they did it and it was fine.

Others say that their procedure is to primary ferment, secondary ferment in the bottle, then keg - which can be a month or even 6 weeks after brew day (good for me).

Does anyone have experience with this, which can be shared? Thanks!

 

[shtoive87]

There are two philosophies on lagering. The first is that the yeast work at cold temps and continue to clean up fermentation byproducts. The second is that the lagering process is used to let yeast and phenols drop out along with other fermentation byproducts. I personally subscribe to the second philosophy, and would advise that letting the beer warm between lagering periods would not be detrimental to the beer. However, I would probably just wait on lagering and keep the beer at a warm temp until you're ready to lager continuously. This will ensure the temp swings don't let oxygen in the beer causing off-flavors down the road.

 

[ol-hazza]

Depending on yeast strain you could possibly ferment an ale while a lager was getting a D rest........

 

[propush]

Thanks for the answers guys - I plan to brew 3 batches after the lager's primary, which will take "two cycles" - two weeks. That will start on the d-rest of the lager. I will leave it at d-rest temp (a bit higher) for these two weeks, until the primary of the second ale is done - then start lagering, and halt further brewing for a month and a half.

Thanks guys!