What do you use for your lagering vessel and why?

It's hard to beat a corny keg for lagering. Easy to keep airtight, and if you use a floating dip tube, you can do a closed transfer of crystal clear beer to a second keg (for serving), or serve from the lagering keg. When doing the latter, I prefer to crash first in the fermenter, to reduce the amount of yeast that reaches the keg.

Of course, you can also serve from the original lagering keg with a traditional dip tube, but the beer won't be as clear. That said, the first couple of pours will take care of most of the sediment.

The worst place to lager is in a bottle, because some of what dropped out of the beer (yeast, proteins, polyphenols) will be agitated right back into the beer when pouring. Sure, you can "pour really carefully" and leave the last ounce or so in the bottle, but you'll still get some of the sediment in the pour. It's just physics. There's a reason commercial breweries don't bottle condition lagers.

 

Kegs

 

I ferment, spund and cold crash in primary then closed transfer to a dedicated keg with floating dip tube and keep it in a fridge for lagering. Then another closed transfer to my serving keg that I move to my keezer.

 

I use a plastic bubbler to ferment, and either lager it in there, or in the corny after transferring. Either way, closed transfers to a purged keg is the way to go

 

The beer will be clear either way, serving from the top with a floating dip tube. The idea in this case is to get the beer off of the settled yeast. I'll add though that lots of people serve from their lagering kegs with a floating dip tube and are quite happy. And if you crash before going from fermenter to a (one and only) keg, that will result in less yeast to worry about.