Lagering advice please

[Keruso]

I have never made a lager before, I have just ordered the all-grain ingredients for a DoppelBock and have a question about lagering. I mainly keg but use bottles occasionally so I'll ask for your views on both. I'm using Lalbrew Novalager yeast which recommends a fermentation temperature in the 10c-20c range. With IPAs I would normally cold crash once I hit FG then transfer beer to keg or bottle, add sugar to the bottles, connect CO2 to the keg, carbonate, condition then serve.

When adding in a lagering phase, here's what I think I should do:-

Bottles - At FG, rack to secondary, batch prime and bottle, let the bottles sit at fermentation temperature (10c-20c for a week to carbonate) then drop temperature to 1c, for lagering for several weeks.
Keg - At FG, transfer to keg, attach CO2 (10c for a week to carbonate) then drop temperature to 1c, for lagering for several weeks.

Put simply, do you lager before or after carbonating ?

 

[nickjdavis]

Me...I lager first but that is simply because in my garage it is easier to bulk lager 23litres in a single carboy than it is to lager 46 half litre bottles.

Either method is valid.

 

[Keruso]

Me...I lager first but that is simply because in my garage it is easier to bulk lager 23litres in a single carboy than it is to lager 46 half litre bottles.

Either method is valid.

Yes that makes sense, after lagering do you have to raise the temperature back up to allow the beer to carbonate ?

 

[tigertim]

Keg - At FG, transfer to keg, attach CO2 (10c for a week to carbonate) then drop temperature to 1c, for lagering for several weeks.

This is what I'll do the next time I brew a lager, now that I have a brewing fridge.

I didn't have a fridge until recently, so at FG I've been dumping the trub and lagering in the fermenter for several weeks with chilled water before transferring to keg and then force-carbonating. This works, but is far more "expensive" in energy because the fermenter and chilled water pipework simply isn't as well insulated as a fridge.

I'd want to make sure there was at least some reasonable carbonation before lagering in the keg because Cornelius kegs don't always 100% seal unless they're under pressure.

 

[nickjdavis]

Yes that makes sense, after lagering do you have to raise the temperature back up to allow the beer to carbonate ?

Yes....lagered in bulk, then racked to a separate vessel, bulk primed and bottled. Move bottles to a warm location for a couple of weeks.

 

[Deadhead]

I do both methods, mostly depends on when I need my fermenter next