1. You can lager in fermenter. If you keg you can go ahead and transfer to keg and lager in it. You don’t have to bulk lager it though. If you bottle you go ahead and package in bottles and lager in them. It’s up to you.
Edit: I added the below this AM:
2. IMO ... no.
3. I package as soon as the fermentation is complete. I move it to the freezer side of a side-by-side refrigerator fitted with a temp controller to clear/condition/lager/mature/carbonate. Once I have a keg kick, and the conditioning beer is clear, I move the conditioning keg to the serving line. IOW conditioning may last 2 weeks or a month or more. It depends.
I understand you want to get it right so you want to follow the ‘rules’. However, there are a lot of ways to brew beer. Like many things in life 1+1 does not necessarily = 2. “It depends” is a common theme in a home brewery.
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