Bottling a lager help

You probably know all this, and it's not tricky at all. Assuming the standard fermenter that requires siphoning the beer into a bottling bucket, and the bucket has a spigot and you have a filling wand.

1. Wash/sanitize 52-54 bottles and caps for 5 gallons and let them drain. You'll probably have extras at the end, but better safe than sorry.
2. Add the boiled/cooled sugar solution (table sugar, corn sugar, etc. - there are charts on the internet for how much per a 5-gallon batch for your beer style) so that the flow of the beer from the siphon hose will help to dissipate it into the beer. I use a pint to a quart of water to make the solution thinner, thus mixing easier into the beer, but the amount depends on how much I want to water down the beer. (Did the brewing process produce the full 5 gallons?)
3. Siphon the beer from the fermenter but leave as much trub behind as you can. Have the end of the hose in the bottling bucket laying on the bottom and directed at the sugar solution. No splashing.
4. Hook the hose to the spigot and the bottling wand and set up your point of bottling slightly lower than the bottom of the bucket. I use a cereal bowl there to place the empty bottle because there's always a little spillage.
5. Open the spigot to start. The bottling want opens when you push it against the bottom of the bottle, and the volume of the wand inside leaves the perfect headspace when you withdraw it. I place a cap over the filled bottle when I place it on the table to prevent any bugs getting in.
6. Cap and wash the bottles from the spillage and you're done. I gently stir the beer in the bottling bucket when starting to insure the sugar solution is well mixed, and then 3-4 times during the process to keep it mixed. (No splashing.) I use a bottom-to-top stirring motion to pull the sugar from the bottom.
7. Keep the bottles at room temp for 10-14 days and they should be carbonated by then. Test one at 10 days. I don't think the temp matters now, regardless that you have a lager.

Good luck.

 

“I choose to bottle my lagers and a question that often comes up is whether there is enough yeast in the beer for bottle conditioning to occur. I can report that for my homebrewing practice there is always a sufficient amount of yeast in the lagered beer to permit bottle conditioning to take place. One thing I do is permit additional time in the bottle for a total of three weeks of bottle conditioning at room temperature. For folks who are a bit nervous in this regard, you could choose to add some additional yeast into the bottling bucket with any neutral ale yeast strain being an acceptable choice here; this is especially a good idea for higher gravity lagers (e.g., Doppelbocks). I would also suggest that additional time in the bottle would be beneficial for higher gravity lagers.”

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Lager_Beer

Cheers!

P.S. As a point of further clarification I choose to bottle my beers since I typically have a lot of batches of beer around, stored in my basement. Right now, I have bottles from 14 different batches. I do not have the resources to be able to serve 14 batches via draft. Also, I am a fan of the mouthfeel of bottle conditioned beers (which I suppose could be ‘replicated’ in the keg via keg conditioning?).

 

Yes, that is correct.

Well, that has indeed been my consistent experience (about 80-ish batches of lager) but I should emphasize these are moderate gravity lagers (e.g., 1.050 - 1.055).

If you feel nervous here you could add some dry yeast to the bottling bucket.

Cheers!

 

Like Jack said, you should have plenty of yeast unless it’s a high gravity beer. I’ve never had issues with carbonation on anything but barrel aged beers myself but I do add some bottling yeast to doppelbocks just to be safe.

 

I’m curious… you have an kegging setup, right? Rather than fight with sugar amounts and hope it carbonates to your desired level, and then deal with the sediment in each bottle, what’s stopping you from using a counter pressure filler? Or for that matter, if it is going to be consumed right away and isn’t going to be kept around long term, just filling gently from the tap? In that way you can carbonate in the keg, giving you a lot more control, and you will have a clean product in the bottles with no yeast sediment.
Perhaps I’m missing something, which is why I phrased the above as a question.