Your lager process

[Evan B]

I've currently got a lager in primary, and am trying to nail down exactly how I want to send it through the rest of the process. I've heard various methods that other guys use, but am curious what other BNers recommend. I've brewed 100+ ales at home, but no lagers (only done lagers in a professional setting).

What's your timeline? Do you rack to secondary for lagering? Is it okay to lager in the primary? If you bottle condition (I don't have room for a kegerator in my apt), what yeast do you prime with and how much? Anyone ever bottled after D-rest and lagered in the bottles?

My current plan:
Primary at 52 degrees
D rest
?rack to secondary?
lager at 33 for for 4-6wks
prime with champagne yeast and bottle condition

[hotrod38]

I pitch a good healthy starter at 44F let it rise to 48F and let it ferment for 3-4 weeks. No D rest, or secondary for me. I will keg it and lager it at 36F for 4-6 weeks.
I would advise against using Champagne yeast at bottling. This will dry the beer out to much, and give you the wrong flavor profile.Your beer will have a sufficient amount of yeast to carbonate when adding dry malt extract, or priming sugar.

[Crackin]

Listen to the latest brew strong, on ... lagering. It covers bottle conditioning.

[Nyakavt]

My process is similar to hotrod, except that I raise the temperature near the end of fermentation as suggested on the BN to aid attenuation and maturation. This step is not strictly necessary, I just like to do it because it makes my fermentation fridge available more quickly After maturation, I bring it down as cold as the fridge will take it (36°), fine with gelatin for a couple of days, then bottle as normal. I keep the bottles at room temp until carbonated, usually around 2 weeks, then keep in the fridge until serving. Lagering time depends on the OG.