a final round of newbie lager questions

[harbinger]

Hi Again,A few questions which other newbies are probably also wondering about!!!!


1)At what stage if any can I take the lid of my FV?
2)Are all Lager yeasts bottom feeders?
3)If bottom feeders live at the bottom of the FV should I be looking to move lager to a secondary one prior to bottlingto reduce sediment?
4)will i need to syphon from top down with bottomfeeders or will the crud be well below my tap?
5)can lager be filtered with say paper coffer filter(or something similar)prior to bottling?

Again apologies I know people probably get sick of answering the same questions all the time but its the only way to find out some questions are probably dumb,some are maybe self obvious,but i'm sure i'm not the only one wondering and if i am so be it the answers will be here for anybody else who either doesnt register or feels embarressed about asking i just want my beer to taste nice and be more knowledgeable for my next batch...kind regard Dave

[Normski]

Hi harbinger
1, Any time you like, but depends how clean the area you ferment is. Best to keep it covered.
2, Yes I think they are. There maybe some special yeast that isn't though.
3, Yes it can be helpful, but not everyone does this. There is an extra risk with infection.
4, Tap should be fine.
5, Absolutely NO.
Norm

[harbinger]

Cheers Norm,I figure its best to ask rather than knacker my beer

[harbinger]

So how do commercial brewers we'll say 'miller' produce lager with no sediment is it all chemicals?this one isnt very important just curious

[jaroporter]

4) is a pretty difficult question to give an absolute answer to. with kits you'll have a fairly thin layer of yeast (compared to grain where you might get more trub and stuff in there) so i'd agree it should be fine, but obviously we don't know where you've put your tap! also, if the yeastcake isn't solidly compacted, some bits might be pulled through the tap anyways, but that would happen with top and bottom fermenting yeasts alike.

commercial brewers filter (or fine) their beer and force carbonate their bottles. that's (part of the reason) why they all taste so, tasteless..

[Rookie]

Lager yeast is called bottom fermenting and ale yeast top fermenting, but that is not exactly right. Ale yeast does tend to gather on top and lager yeast on the bottom, but the actual fermentation is being done by yeast that is in suspention in the wort.