What defines lagering?

I think this is the right section, I was between posting in here of brew science. I've always been an ale guy and have just started playing with lagers. I've got a rough concept of how it goes and my most recent should be done near mid-june. So my question is if it takes at least 6 weeks to make a lager, and at least 4 weeks of that is the lagering time, then how can the big breweries that make beer in 2-3 weeks call them lagers? At 3 weeks I might have been at lagering temps for a couple days, and the big breweries might have been there a week by then.

Beacuse they care about money. Not quality.

25518 said:

Beacuse they care about money. Not quality.

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I'm not sure that's fair. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish with lagering. Some of the things that homebrewers strive for, like crystal clear beer, are accomplished with filtration in a commercial setting. Removing diacetyl happens relatively quickly.

Remember breweries have expensive laboratories, so they can accurately measure when each step is done, they can control their processes with great accuracy. To a homebrewer, a few percent here or there don't really matter. For a large craft, a few percent is huge, so they study process and literally turn the process into a science.

Brewers use an enzyme called Mature-X to get rid of diacetyl. The enzyme shortens the aging process greatly, by removing precursors that form pentanedione and diacetyl VDK. And no, it's not a porn site.