Lagering in a keg?

[captianoats]

I've decided to try my hand at lagers after several years of only making ales. and I'm gathering info. From what I gather, I ferment at 50ish degrees for a couple of weeks, bring up to room temperature for a few days, then bring it down to the 30s for a month or so to lager. I have a couple of questions regarding this.



1. What exactly happens during the lager phase?
2. Can I perform the lagering phase in a keg? I can hold fermentation temps for a couple of weeks, but I want to lager in my kegerator, and I can't get a carboy in there without removing everything else.

 

[hunter_le five]

I'm still fairly new to lagering, but I've been doing all my lagering in the keg.

I ferment @ 50 degrees for 12-14 days, 2 day D-rest, gradually bring the fermenter down to 35 degrees over a couple days, transfer to the keg, and then put it in either my kegerator or lager chamber until its ready. Not sure if that's the best method, but it seems to work for me so far.

 

[biestie]

1. Basically, during the lager phase, various compounds drop out of your beer. Traditional lagering practices would have you start slowly dropping the temp while there is still fermentation occurring. I'm pretty sure they actually cap the fermenters toward the end to carbonate as well. With those methods, it's actually unclear to me where the fermentation phase stops and the lagering phase starts. In a homebrewing setting where we will generally ferment, then lager in two discrete steps (with perhaps a diacetyl rest in between if you need it), only one thing is really happening, and that's what I said above, "stuff" is dropping out of solution.

And oh by the way, I think the traditional method is what leads many homebrewers to "slowly drop the temp of their beer". That is really not necessary since, as I said above, our beers are done fermenting before we start lagering. It is perfectly fine to lower the temp as fast as your system will allow. Lowering it slowly is fine as well, there's just no benefit from doing so that I'm aware of.

2. Yes, you can absolutely lager in the keg.

 

[Bulls Beers]

I've decided to try my hand at lagers after several years of only making ales. and I'm gathering info. From what I gather, I ferment at 50ish degrees for a couple of weeks, bring up to room temperature for a few days, then bring it down to the 30s for a month or so to lager. I have a couple of questions regarding this.



1. What exactly happens during the lager phase?
2. Can I perform the lagering phase in a keg? I can hold fermentation temps for a couple of weeks, but I want to lager in my kegerator, and I can't get a carboy in there without removing everything else.

I mostly keg lagers. When I do, I'll ferment for about 7-9 days at 48 degrees. I might bump it up to 50ish to get it started if it's a little slow. when it's about 75% done. I'll do a D-rest for 2 days, then rack to a keg. I'll drop the temp about 3 degrees a day until I hit 32 and lager for 4-6 weeks.

 

[BigFloyd]

After I do the d-rest, I cold crash to 35*F for 3-5 days then rack to the keg for the weeks of cold lager (at the same 35*F).

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

I've decided to try my hand at lagers after several years of only making ales. and I'm gathering info. From what I gather, I ferment at 50ish degrees for a couple of weeks, bring up to room temperature for a few days, then bring it down to the 30s for a month or so to lager. I have a couple of questions regarding this.

1. What exactly happens during the lager phase?
2. Can I perform the lagering phase in a keg? I can hold fermentation temps for a couple of weeks, but I want to lager in my kegerator, and I can't get a carboy in there without removing everything else.

#1: Magic
#2: Yes