Naturally Carbing a lager in keg

[shoreman]

So I have a lager that I was to naturally carb in the keg by adding priming sugar (didn't save any wort). I fermented this thing around 56 degrees in my basement. Should I carb the beer in the keg at the same temp or bring it up closer to 68 degrees and carb at that temp?

I've only done this in bottles with a lager and went warmer for a few weeks and the taste was certainly different than the force carbed beer.

 

[Bassman2003]

The yeast will be a little more active at a slightly warmer temp. Is this a fresh ferment? If the yeast is still active then add the sugar and keep it at 56f or raise it to 60f. After they are carbed you can lager at a colder temp. Since it is lager yeast, some activity will continue at low temps as well.

 

[McKnuckle]

Normal instinct would be to treat the keg as a big bottle, and raise temp when you carbonate with priming sugar. Please explain a bit more about how the taste was different in your prior experience. If primary fermentation was conducted at an appropriate temperature with an adequate yeast pitch, I wouldn't expect a post-primary warming period to affect the flavor.

 

[shoreman]

The yeast will be a little more active at a slightly warmer temp. Is this a fresh ferment? If the yeast is still active then add the sugar and keep it at 56f or raise it to 60f. After they are carbed you can lager at a colder temp. Since it is lager yeast, some activity will continue at low temps as well.

Yeah the yeast is fresh - it just finished fermenting with 34/70 and no need for a diacetyl rest.

 

[shoreman]

Please explain a bit more about how the taste was different in your prior experience.

It was a czech pils and I bottled a 6 pack with 1 carb drop in each bottle, let that sit at about 68 for a few weeks then moved to cellar temps, eventually to a fridge. It had good carbonation but certainly lacked the crispness to the lager in the keg - might have been age, might have been oxidation, don't know but it certainly wasn't as great as the kegged version. That's my only experience with bottling a lager. My thoughts were that the lager fermented the carb drop at a higher temp and thus threw some off-flavors thus the question above.