homebrewandbeer.com

Ok, so I've read all the posts on when to lager and it seems there are varying opinions. I'm just 1/2 way through doing one with saflager and all is going well. Brew is sitting at about 14C and bubling away, so happy enough with that. My question is, how much differnce is there if I bottle before lagering compared to racking and then lagering? If bottling first and then lagering is comparable, I'd go with that. Opinions appreciated.
Cheers, Ed

Ed,

I may not be the right person for this as I am not anal over my lagers. The lagering though should be done in the secondary to allow the yeast to clean things up and develop th enice sharp flavours. If you can't do that then go the bottle route.

Dogger

Again.some questions...
To lager is to store
I guess what you are asking is it better to just bottle then wait or rack, wait and then bottle.
I agree with Dogger Dan, go the bottle route.

Kurtz

Hi DD & Kurtz,
Sounds like it's a matter of what's convenient then. Seems easier to bottle and then lager, but maybe not developing the true lager characteristics by doing so. I think DD is probably right, I'm being a bit anal.
Cheers, Ed

Nope, Don't mean it that you are being anal Ed,

There are some who take lagers very serious and they brew some nice ones. I think lagers may actually be the most difficult beer to brew really well. They take lots of time and need some real special conditions, some which I can't afford and others that I don't care about.

If you want to brew and cold condition please do. My reference to anal is they fussiness that is required to make a nice lager, I don't have the patience. As someone once said "Life is to short for lagers".

Dogger

You guys are right, did some further research last night and seems it's as fussy as Dogger reckons. Apparently long lagering after racking could rid the yeasts so there may not be enough available for bottle conditioning and then there's the danger of infection while racking. I'll go the bottle route and see how it turns out.
Cheers for the opinions Dogger & kurtz.
Ed

I'm not the greatest expert on the subject but I have experimented with some lagers over the winter.

I found that you can massively improve a lager by simply leaving the bottles for at least 3 weeks in the fridge before drinking (this is after giving them 2-3 weeks secondary fermentation in the bottle).

Considering the results I got from doing this I couldn't be bothered stuffing around with any other techniques.

Cheers,
Jay.

Hi Jay,
Massive improvement sounds good enough to me
Another vote for the bottle lagering. Whatever is easiest suits me just fine.
Good to hear the opinions and thanks all.
Cheers,
Ed

i find the easiest way is to bottle into stubbies after 10 days in secondary, stick the stubbies in the box/slab/carton they came in, tape it up and stick in the fridge for 3/4 weeks at least.

to quote Jay, 'massive'.

yardy

Yardglass, thanks for that. I'm going to do the same. Transferred to a seconday today and will see how it all goes. I was happy to see the activity pick up again after transfer, so at least I know I didn't wait too long before racking. I've upped the temp a couple of degrees to about 16 for the clean-up. Sneaked a taste, seems to be coming along just fine.
Cheers, Ed