My first pilsner.

Well, ‘back in the day’ the German brewers would store their beers in ice caves and lager them for an extended period of time. Lagering was done this way for a loooong time (i.e., hundreds of years).

Below is something that Michael Jackson wrote:

“The rivers that flow from the Bavarian Alps form broad, fertile valleys winding around small hills. The abbeys favored the isolation of hilltops, and carved beer cellars into the rock beneath. These could be packed with ice from the rivers, lakes and mountains. Some Munich brewers took their beer to ice-cold Alpine caves to store it during the summer for later use as needed. When stored (in German, lagered) in such cold temperatures during the summer months, the beer became inherently more stable. The yeast sank out of harm's way; empirically, the brewers were breeding bottom-fermenting cultures. It has been argued that the lagering of beer is mentioned in statutes of the city of Munich as long ago as 1420. This suggestion derives not from direct, dated evidence but from a book written almost four centuries later by Lorenz Westenrieder. The same book implies that yeast especially suited to this treatment came to Bavaria in the 1500s, from Bohemia. At the time, there was no clear distinction between brewers' and bakers' yeasts.”

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000255.html

Refrigeration was invented in the later 1800’s and at that point breweries had an option beyond ice caves to lager their beers.

I took note that you keg your lagers (and lager your beers in the keg?).

You have the opportunity to do just as @csurowiec and see how best you enjoy your lager beers over your lagering time. Maybe 4 weeks is the ‘sweet spot’ for you?

Cheers!

 

@yes I keg all beers including lagers and the difference that this was my first time using my spunding valve. It was nice to not have to transfer and possibly allow unintended oxygen to enter the beer. Also nice that beer is already carbonated.

 

Yup, minimizing oxygen during packaging is a good thing.

Cheers!

 

The lagering time can be shortened by lagering at cooler temperatures. At as the temp goes down the yeast and proteins form larger clumps, and Stokes Law states that the larger the particle the faster it will drop out of a liquid.

I have been in a few traditional Kellers in Germany, those were at best 3.5C, so about 38F. These days the modern breweries will lager at -1C, or about 30F for a shorter lagering phase.

If you can’t get the beer that cold, just wait longer.