Conventional wisdom these days seems to be that racking beer to a secondary fermenter isn't necessary because modern yeast aren't at risk of autolysis for a very long time and so oxidation is the bigger concern. For most of my beers, I leave them in the primary vessel for 3ish weeks, cold crash for a few days, and bottle, which works fine.
I've currently got a high gravity lager which has been in primary for 3 weeks, has hit FG, but still tastes pretty"green" or "rough". I'd like to give this one a longer conditioning time- maybe another week at ambient then 1-2 months cold. But at 2-3 months total on the yeast cake, I worry about the possibility of autolysis. On the other hand, this is an intense "special occasion" beer that I plan to drink only occasionally over a period of a year or more, so reducing oxygen exposure seems even more important than normal.
I have three possible courses I'm considering:
I've currently got a high gravity lager which has been in primary for 3 weeks, has hit FG, but still tastes pretty"green" or "rough". I'd like to give this one a longer conditioning time- maybe another week at ambient then 1-2 months cold. But at 2-3 months total on the yeast cake, I worry about the possibility of autolysis. On the other hand, this is an intense "special occasion" beer that I plan to drink only occasionally over a period of a year or more, so reducing oxygen exposure seems even more important than normal.
I have three possible courses I'm considering:
- leave it in the same fermenter for the whole 2-3 months, and don't worry about autolysis.
- rack to secondary in a week and cold crash off the yeast cake, trying as hard as possible not to splash or introduce oxygen during transfer.
- leave in the primary fermenter but do a faster timeline- maybe a few more days at ambient, then 2-3 weeks cold- and make up for it by conditioning longer in the bottles.
- Yeast is Saflager 34/70, pitched around 50, held below 60 for the first week and then allowed to rise to room temperature for 2 week D rest. So, colder than an ale but warmer than a typical lager.
- Wort was poured directly onto a fresh yeast cake from a lower-gravity lager. This ensured a high cell count, but I had a longer than average lag time which makes me worried they may have started fermentation under a bit of stress.
- I don't have an empty carboy I could use for a secondary vessel, so if I rack it will be into a bunch of 1-gallon glass jars. This seems like it would even further increase oxidation risk, both because I'd have to do a bunch of small siphons to transfer and because the jars have plastic lids which may be oxygen permeable