Lagering...

I like my pale lagers crystal clear, so I always use a secondary to add finings, then lager for 2-3 months.In case a lager shows chill haze after the lager period I add silica-gel , sometimes I can get rid of it and sometimes I can not.I always keg lagers.

 

After 5 days of D-rest I just keg mine and put them in the fridge. After a couple of weeks I may or may not rack them to clean kegs and put them back in the fridge for another month, depending on whether I have spare kegs or not. After a month I'll hook up the gas and start carbonating them so they're ready when I am.

 

I don't keg but I like to give my lagers a long time. I've certainly heard of people lagering in the keg or bottle, it saves a step in either case. The one I have ready now, an Oktoberfest, probably could have gone a few degrees colder, it's mildly hazy for about the first five minutes in the glass then it's amber and clear, funny b/c I turned the fridge temp up between lagering and putting bottles in it to serve.

 

My usual routine has been pretty straightforward: ferment at 48-50, and then push it up to 62-65 for the last few gravity points. After a couple days, check gravity again and taste for diacetyl, and if everything checks out OK I'll bring the temperature down to about 40 and rack to secondary.

I usually drop the temperature at a rate of 3-5F per day, even though I understand you can can do it much more quickly is you want. (I actually emailed White Labs about this, and they said that even if you cold crash quickly, there will be plenty of yeast in suspension for clean up during layering.) I dunno why, I guess I just don't see a need to rush and I don't like the idea of shocking the yeast.

Then it's time to lager, anywhere from 5 weeks to three months depending on the beer style, and keg. I usually lager one week per .010 or so, then keg. I've never bottle conditioned a lager. If it's a light lager, I'll usually check clarity with a week or two to go and if it's not super clear, I'll add some gelatin and let it clear up for a week before kegging.

With my most recent lager, a german pils, I changed things up somewhat. Rather than racking to a carboy, I transferred to a cornie keg and I'm lagering in there. Mainly this is intended to cut down exposure to oxygen. It's one less transfer to have to worry about, and I'm more confident in my ability to thoroughly purge a cornie than a carboy. The only potential downside is with lighter lagers like this one, I won't want to use finings, or if I do it'll be harder to clean out the gunk they can produce, so we'll see how this pils fares as far as clarity. Normally, even my ales are pretty clear after the first couple pours from a keg, so hopefully this won't be an issue.

 

After the D rest I just go to a keg. It sits until it can go in the keezer or it goes directly in the keezer if I have room. It's just like any ale. I just keep my hands off it if it's not ready. The lagering period will always take place in the keezer since I don't have an extra fridge for this process.

 

I ferment at 48-50℉, bump up the temp a few degrees each week, after 5 weeks drop it over a few days, let it sit at 40 for a week, then transfer to my keg. Put keg in fridge and carb up right away. I leave it there and pull a pint or so each week, I'm too impatient to wait for them to hit there prime before getting in em.

 

Probably not. I think lots of people do that. But I apply just enough gas to keep the keg sealed until I'm ready to fully carbonate it. There's debate about the residual yeast's role during lagering, but I figure that since CO2 supresses yeast activity, I just play it safest.