First go at lagering need some advice please

[Gloveski]

Well I bit the bullet and just purchased a grainfather after about 6 KK brews that turned out quite well after a few initial troubles hear and there

The first kit I recieved with my grainfather is the tasty as helles lager.

I have a fermentation fridge set up which will be ideal for the lagering side but ideally I dont want to leave in my fridge for the 4 weeks to lager as I am then unable to have any more brews on the go.
Will it have any effect if I lager for say a week in fermentation fridge and then rack to a keg and place in my kegerator , purge oxygen and let it lager for the next 3 weeks then carbonate for a few weeks after that before drinking?

Also I have been using gelatine to clear up my beers so far with great success should I skip this step with the lagering process as I am mindfull of dropping out the yeast to early as all my other brews have only used ale yeast

Thanks in advance

 

[themonkeysback]

Racking to a keg and putting it in your kegerator will work fine. There will still be enough yeast in suspension to offer the beneficial effects of lagering. It is would be beneficial to drop from fermentation (or d-rest) temp down to lagering temp slowly. MHB generally recommends dropping it by around 1 degree a day.

So my suggestion would be - ferment (with a diacetyl rest if desired/required) then drop temp by 1 degree per day until you reach whatever lager temp you desire, then as soon as it is at temp rack to a keg and lager it in your kegerator as long as you wish.

Generally if I do this I just start carbing it from the day it goes in the kegerator. To be honest I am not sure if this significantly affects the lagering process, but I don't find any issues with it.

I wouldn't add gelatine.

Adam.

 

[Gloveski]

Racking to a keg and putting it in your kegerator will work fine. There will still be enough yeast in suspension to offer the beneficial effects of lagering. It is would be beneficial to drop from fermentation (or d-rest) temp down to lagering temp slowly. MHB generally recommends dropping it by around 1 degree a day.

So my suggestion would be - ferment (with a diacetyl rest if desired/required) then drop temp by 1 degree per day until you reach whatever lager temp you desire, then as soon as it is at temp rack to a keg and lager it in your kegerator as long as you wish.

Generally if I do this I just start carbing it from the day it goes in the kegerator. To be honest I am not sure if this significantly affects the lagering process, but I don't find any issues with it.

I wouldn't add gelatine.

Adam.

Thanks Adam :beer: