Lagering - how exactly?

[chesl73]

Hi

I'm looking to do a Kolsch this weekend (all grain). My Gordon Strong recipe says to lager the brew for 4 weeks. Now I don't use kegs, I bottle. So how do you suggest I actually do the lagering?
It seems to me I have two options:
1. Rack the beer off the primary fermenter into another fermenter, chill it to ~ 5C and leave for 4 weeks. Then bottle as usual.
2. Rack the beer off the primary fermenter directly into bottles as normal. This has the advantage that after the four weeks the beer is carbonated and ready to drink whereas option 1 I have to then wait another ~3 weeks to drink it whilst it carbonates.
If I do option 2, would I bottle and leave at room temp for a few days to get the carbonation going and then drop the temperature? Or something else? If the temperature is 5C then I can't see the yeast working away to carbonate the beer?

Thanks.

 

[Rocker1986]

You could do either method but if you bottle it first, you will want to leave them at room temp for a couple of weeks to ensure carbonation has happened, then chill them down for the 4 weeks. If you do the transfer to another fermenter it might be worth adding some sugar to it to create a bit of CO2 in the headspace before cooling it down for the lagering period.
If it was me I'd probably bottle it first and lager it in the bottles, assuming space was available.