lagers; to rack or not to rack?

[Pinski]

That is one of my questions.  I've got a split batch of Pils. Half is Urquell 2001, half is Bohemian 2206. Both fermented for 20 days at 48*F, then were moved to the laundry room where they could rise to 68* over the past week to clean up diacetyl.  Tomorrow I plan to begin bringing them down to the mid thirties for the tertiary fermentation. What do you think? Should I rack them to clean carboys or leave them in the primary carboys?  How long do folks like to run their cold fermentations? Seems like sometimes folks say they rack to steel. I'm assuming this means generally a corny keg.  If you rack to a corny after the D-rest, do you pressurize the same as if you were carbonating or just to certain degree, or at all?   

[Slowbrew]

If it were me I'd get them out of the primary and off the trub at this point.  Go straight to kegs and seal them with CO2 but not force carb.  Store the kegs at lager temps.

Paul

[jeffy]

I usually transfer mine to a clean carboy after the d-rest, but that's more to free up the bigger carboys for the next batch than for any real scientific reason.  There is still plenty of yeast in suspension to clean up the beer during lagering.

[Mark G]

I rack to a keg and lager in there under pressure. That way when it's done lagering, I have carbed beer ready to get dropped into my serving fridge.

[corkybstewart]

I rack to a keg and lager in there under pressure. That way when it's done lagering, I have carbed beer ready to get dropped into my serving fridge.

Almost the same as me, but I'll lager mine without pressure for a couple of weeks first.  I don't really know why, it may be just because I don't always have room in the fridge(I usually do lagers in the winter so I can lager them in the garage at the right temp)

[tygo]

I ferment cold until they're almost done, raise them for a few days of d-rest, then cold crash them back down to drop the yeast, all in the primary.  This all takes 2-3 weeks.  Then they're transferred to the keg and lagered under pressure.

[redzim]

I ferment cold until they're almost done, raise them for a few days of d-rest, then cold crash them back down to drop the yeast, all in the primary.  This all takes 2-3 weeks.  Then they're transferred to the keg and lagered under pressure.

This is exactly what I do. If you wade through Kaiser's great writing about this stuff you'll find that this is pretty to close to schedules C and F here: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fermenting_Lagers#Maturation_of_the_beer  I run closer to F.   

Then I'm lagering at about 33F under 10-11 psi, which means whenever my beer is done (a month for Pilsners, longer for various Bocks, etc), the beer is carbed and ready to drink.

[davidgzach]

That is one of my questions.  I've got a split batch of Pils. Half is Urquell 2001, half is Bohemian 2206. Both fermented for 20 days at 48*F, then were moved to the laundry room where they could rise to 68* over the past week to clean up diacetyl.  Tomorrow I plan to begin bringing them down to the mid thirties for the tertiary fermentation. What do you think? Should I rack them to clean carboys or leave them in the primary carboys?  How long do folks like to run their cold fermentations? Seems like sometimes folks say they rack to steel. I'm assuming this means generally a corny keg.  If you rack to a corny after the D-rest, do you pressurize the same as if you were carbonating or just to certain degree, or at all?   

IMHO-Bring it back down to lagering temp so any residual yeast falls out and cakes, rack and lager.

Dave

[ynotbrusum]

I rarely do the d-rest anymore, but I would rack it at this point (I typically ferment a month and then rack).  Then get it cold for a month or more, if you can stand the wait.  I put about 10 psi on it to make sure no 02 is in the headspace, but don't keep it on the CO2 unless I have room in the fridge....

[chezteth]

As others have chimed in I agree.  After the diacetyl rest rack to another fermentor for lagering.