Lagering

[HobKnobBrewery]

For the average commercial lager, what's the average time frame from mash to keg? I make an awesome lager, but the time frame to market is going to kill me (35-45 days). Is it possible to get it down to the same time frame as an ale?

[CopperKettle]

I've not seen it shortened any and keep the same quality. Our lagers range from 30-90 days brewday to tap depending on strength. We brew 20-30 batches of lager a year and I've tried to shorten the time but it always has the sulfur smell and flavor early on which subsides with a few more weeks.

As long as you are letting your temperature in the fermenter rise from 50 to the mid 60s at the end of fermentation (i turn the chiller control for that tank off 3 days before I think fermentation will finish) the conditioning and aging of the lagering process will be as short as possible.

Some people do use hybrid style yeasts (like an Alt yeast, or the "steam beer" yeast) to get lager like characteristics with shorter process times but I think it is misleading your consumer to ferment something at 63F and call it a lager beer, and many people that know beer will detect the difference.

[HobKnobBrewery]

Thanks for the input Cop