Priming before or after ?!

Hi there ,

I'm going to brew lager for the first time , but I can not cold condition the whole batch , so I've decided to prime and bottle , using the "Speise" after the fermentation has finished and keep the bottles at room temperature for 1 Week and then keep them in the Refrigerator for 6 Weeks .

I know that there will be a layer of sediment at the bottom of each bottle , but I'd like to know if this procedure would affect the quality of the Beer negatively .

Hector

I've done three lagers so far, and I bottle-lagered the first, and bulk lagered the second two before priming and bottling.

The first two I don't like so much because I used the terrible S-23 yeast so they taste really fruity, but aside from that the bottle-lagered version seems to have worked out just fine.

I haven't been able to find and solid data comparing the two approaches. I bottle lagered the first because I was low on fermenter space, and bulk lagered the second and third as I was short on bottles. For my current batch I may bottle half and bulk age half, for a side-by-side comparison.

I have noticed that bottles from the bulk-aged batch, which I lagered for 3 weeks, have continued to improve with more bottle lagering.

I bottle lagered a Pils, didn't think it too flavorful at the time, let it just sit since I wasn't too excited about drinking it up.

Just popped open a bottle a month ago, it had transformed into a very very clean, nicely hoppy lager.

So I wouldn't worry about bottle lagering.

Cyclman said:

So I wouldn't worry about bottle lagering.

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How did you prime your Pils ?

Hector

Primed it with corn sugar, as usual, since it had cold lagered for 2+ months, I added 1/2 pack of dry lager yeast.

Cyclman said:

since it had cold lagered for 2+ months, I added 1/2 pack of dry lager yeast.

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Did you cold lagered your Beer for 2 months before bottling ?!

If yes , that's not what I've decided to do .

My Plan :

1- Fermentation in the Primary ( 3 Weeks ) .

2- Priming with "Speise" .

3- Bottling

4- Keeping the bottles at room temperature for 1 Week .

5- Cold conditioning in the Refrigerator for 6 Weeks .

Hector

That sounds like a good plan. I just checked my notes, and I bulk lagered one batch for 20 days, and another for a full month before bottling, and I didn't have any problems with carbonation. I did lager in the primary, however, and likely picked up some yeast in the transfer.

I don't think you need to lager in primary, bottle lagering would be fine, as per your outlined plan. I was (poorly) trying to make the point that bottle lagering was as or more effective than carboy lagering was, or maybe it was the combined lagering times. It should carb either way.

I agree completely. One downside to bottle lagering is that you have all those nice cold bottles in your fridge, saying "drink me!!!" every time you look in there. If you bulk lager, you can't just crack one open any time you want.

QuercusMax said:

One downside to bottle lagering is that you have all those nice cold bottles in your fridge, saying "drink me!!!" every time you look in there.

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Don't worry !

I'm used to waiting that long .

My Ale batches take always 5-6 Weeks to carb .

Hector