Which one to keg / bottle

[Rick_UK]

Hi fellas

I currently have 2 brews which will be finished at the same time. One is my first attempt at a pilsner, the other an IPA. I have one empty keg and plenty of bottles for 1 brew.

My dilema is which one to bottle and which to keg. I've read the lagering process works better in a keg rather than bottles but obviously the pilsner would be more true to style with the fizzy carbonation which comes with bottling and the IPA better from the keg.

Does it make a big difference lagering in bottles?

Any advice appreciated.

Rick

[Matt12398]

Corny keg or King Keg? IPAs keep their aroma better in bottles with less head space. If it's a King Keg it probably won't hold enough carbonation for a pilsner.

[Rick_UK]

It's just a Young's budget keg - but it has been fine for ales so far.

[Matt12398]

Why not bottle the IPA and then lager in the keg like you suggest.

I've not done a lager or in this case pilsner but from what I understand you're not going to be carbonating the beer until the end of the lagering process. Lagering should be done under airlock not a pressurised sealed container. Therefore lager in the keg then once complete you can reseed with fresh yeast and bottle it. Hopefully at that stage you'll have more bottles as well.

I'm sure there will be someone along in a minute to give a better response.

[Rick_UK]

I suppose another option would be to lager in the FV then bottle. Then I can keg the IPA.

Is lagering in the FV a big no no??

[bob3000]

Lager in a keg/barrel, secondary or bottle. But don't serve the lager in a plastic barrel.

[bigdave]

If you lager (the word simply means "store") the pilsner in the keg, you're still going to need bottles to put it in so would need to drink your IPA pretty sharpish.

Keg your IPA, lager your lager in the FV with the lid on somewhere cool for a couple of weeks and then bottle.

[Rick_UK]

If you lager (the word simply means "store") the pilsner in the keg, you're still going to need bottles to put it in so would need to drink your IPA pretty sharpish.

Keg your IPA, lager your lager in the FV with the lid on somewhere cool for a couple of weeks and then bottle.

Thanks Dave this seems like the best option if leaving it on the trub isn't an issue.

Will I need to add more yeast when priming and bottling?

[bigdave]

I'm not a lager expert (I brewed a lager kit about 4 years ago and thats it) so don't know what the effects of leaving it on the trub would be. If you're concerned, you could maybe transfer it off the trub and into another FV.

[Matt12398]

I would definitely move it to a secondary FV. Autolysis could become an issue from further weeks storage on the trub and would be even more noticable in a pilsner.

[Rick_UK]

Thanks guys i'll do this this eve and also keg the IPA.

Will I need to add more yeast when I bottle the Pilsner? I could wash and save some of the trub.

[Matt12398]

It depends on how long you lager for really. You want a million cells per millilitre to give proper carbonation (which can look clear in solution) but I've heard people have achieved affective carbonation after lagering and given enough time. If you store for a month of more you may want to add more yeast.