Bottle Conditioning Lagers

[Oktober]

Hey All,

I have a lager in secondary at the moment and in the next week, I'll need to bottle it. As I started getting ready for it, a couple questions popped up, as this would be the first lager I have done.

1. Because of the long lager period, will there be enough yeast in the beer in order to bottle condition the beer?

2. Do I need to bottle condition the lagers at ~50 degrees to keep the yeast from thowing off strange flavors when it ferments the bottling sugar?

3. Most of my ales are carbonated and ready to drink ~2 weeks after bottling. Because lager yeast is usually slower, should I let them bottle condition longer before drinking?

Thanks!

-Okt

[Nyakavt]

1) How long have you lagered? I've heard other brewers say it takes several months to drop out enough yeast to be of concern. I'll usually go a week of cold crash near freezing before bottling and it will take about 2 weeks to carbonate. Even when fining with gelatin it takes about 2.5 weeks. If you want to carb faster, add a small amount (1/4 tube/smack pack of liquid, or 1/8 pack of dry) clean flocculating yeast to the bottling bucket, this will cut the time down to about a week. I try not to rush carbonation, since it forces me to age it a bit before consuming.

2) There's a very small amount of sugar in priming, I doubt you'll notice anything funky by leaving them at room temp to carbonate, or at least I never have. Just don't go crazy and leave them at 90° or something, beer stales faster at warm temperatures.

3) You can bottle one beer in a small soda bottle and feel the sides to see if its ready. Otherwise, just wait 2 weeks before trying one. Depending on style and OG, the beer will improve with a little bit of age, so try not to rush if you can avoid it.