Gnome-de-brew
New Member
Don't remember my ages old account so I'm a newbie again. Here's my issue:
Brewed 5g batch of my pilsner last Sunday and its sitting in my lagering fridge at 43F. The yeast activity looks great and everything is going according to plan. However, I'm currently unemployed (got laid of last Dec) and looking for jobs. I have a few opportunities in the works but both would require me to relocate. [Insert something about poor judgement moving ahead with a lagered beer] At any rate, you may see the predicament I might find myself in should a job offer materialize. So after a few days of forum sleuthing and other research, I'm still not sure I have a great solution. Should I...
Option A
Secondary to keg (in roughly 10 more days) and lower the fridge to lagering temperature until moving day, then throw the keg in my big ass cooler with an ice bath for it's journey. Then transfer to another keg at the new destination and finish lagering. The cons I can think of are having to constantly release CO2 pressure in the keg secondary, unless I don't mind naturally carbonating. The pros are that a keg is far easier to turn on it's side and into a cooler for transport than a carboy.
Option B
Secondary into carboy and carry on as normal until I know a job offer is certain. Then plan to bottle condition a portion the moment I know my future status and keg condition the rest. The cons here is the uncertainty of my timing and potentially having to bottle/keg early. The pros are just being consistent with the style and having a predicable result - unless I don't get to lager as long as I would like (normally I would do 4 weeks for this recipe).
Unusual question, but unusual circumstances and I only have myself to blame for choosing to brew a pilsner. Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice!
Brewed 5g batch of my pilsner last Sunday and its sitting in my lagering fridge at 43F. The yeast activity looks great and everything is going according to plan. However, I'm currently unemployed (got laid of last Dec) and looking for jobs. I have a few opportunities in the works but both would require me to relocate. [Insert something about poor judgement moving ahead with a lagered beer] At any rate, you may see the predicament I might find myself in should a job offer materialize. So after a few days of forum sleuthing and other research, I'm still not sure I have a great solution. Should I...
Option A
Secondary to keg (in roughly 10 more days) and lower the fridge to lagering temperature until moving day, then throw the keg in my big ass cooler with an ice bath for it's journey. Then transfer to another keg at the new destination and finish lagering. The cons I can think of are having to constantly release CO2 pressure in the keg secondary, unless I don't mind naturally carbonating. The pros are that a keg is far easier to turn on it's side and into a cooler for transport than a carboy.
Option B
Secondary into carboy and carry on as normal until I know a job offer is certain. Then plan to bottle condition a portion the moment I know my future status and keg condition the rest. The cons here is the uncertainty of my timing and potentially having to bottle/keg early. The pros are just being consistent with the style and having a predicable result - unless I don't get to lager as long as I would like (normally I would do 4 weeks for this recipe).
Unusual question, but unusual circumstances and I only have myself to blame for choosing to brew a pilsner. Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice!