Aged lager?

[mschoeffler]

Sorry, should of said Pacific Northwest. Oly, Rainier, Heidelberg, Blitz Weinhard.

Aaaah Henry Weinhard’s!

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

Speaking of old beer, check out my vintage beer collection. A real electricity waster if there ever was one! Beers of my mis-spent youth. Makes me happy just gazing at it!

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That is amazing. Personally need to add some Genny, Genny Cream Ale, Ortlieb's

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

Watch how often and how much you taste along the way or you won't have any left to compare at the 6 month time.

That has been my experience.

 

[Chorgey]

Lager them cold, mine lager at 34F. 90 days for most lagers, 180 days for Oktoberfests. The great thing is you can hook the keg up and test them along the way!

I have a Märzen in the fermenter now. Once a Diacetyl rest and cold crash are complete, I was going to transfer to a keg for the lager phase.

My question is, do I lager (lets say 38f) for 6 months and then carbonate at the end of the lager part or do I carb first, remove the gas and lager?

 

[Dland]

I transfer to kegs with a little fermentation left to go, as is needed for proper D rest. That way the beer naturally carbonates, aka spunding, at same time as D rest. When that is finished, I crash the kegs at around 30F.

While 6 months is sort of traditional for a Marzen, it will be good some time before that. If you are going to age it that long, try to resist taking too many samples. Full kegs age better, I've found.

If I was doing it your way, I'd carbonate before lagering.

 

[Oleson M.D.]

We transfer to the keg, then immediately carbonate. The beer is ready to drink very quick, within a week. Sure, you can age as long as you like. But the flavor of the beer may not improve after a month or so, and might actually start to deteriorate.

If a Marzen is desired for the fall season, why not wait and brew it in late summer? And enjoy fresh beer!

Imperial Stouts and Barleywines (10.5% ABV) will withstand the aging much better than most lighter lagers.

 

[Beermeister32]

I have a Märzen in the fermenter now. Once a Diacetyl rest and cold crash are complete, I was going to transfer to a keg for the lager phase.

My question is, do I lager (lets say 38f) for 6 months and then carbonate at the end of the lager part or do I carb first, remove the gas and lager?

Unless you have a way to control for air suck-back, I would transfer to the keg at ambient and forget the cold crash. Not needed, and if done without suck back provisions will expose the beer to O2.

I typically would add a full charge of corn sugar (in boiled solution) at kegging time and then let the keg naturally carbonate in a cooler floor area or room for a few weeks. Make sure to purge the headspace 15 cycles and then set the top o-ring at about 60 psi. The conditioning sugar will uptake additional oxygen in the beer. You can also add some ascorbic acid at this time, but that’s another thread and I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole here.

Move onto lagering afterwards. Once the keg is cold, I use a keg injector to add clarifying gelatin, can be done anytime along the way.

I’ve done any number or pilsners, Marzens and other lagers. In my preference, they improve greatly after 90 days. The Marzens are unreal after 180 days. They shouldn’t degrade if done carefully, they will improve. Taste them along the way!

Prost!

 

[Chorgey]

Unless you have a way to control for air suck-back, I would transfer to the keg at ambient and forget the cold crash. Not needed, and if done without suck back provisions will expose the beer to O2.

Thanks for the detailed response.
I have a Cold Crash Guardian from @Bobby_M (Brewhardware.com) that does a great job against air suck back.