conditioning
Lagering
Store beer cold for an extended period after fermentation to clarify it and produce the clean, rounded character lagers are named for.
Also called cold conditioning.
What is actually happening
- Fermentation finishes. The beer is at fermentation temperature and still hazy with yeast and protein in suspension.
- Crashed to −1 to 4 °C. Yeast flocculates and drops, protein and polyphenol complexes come out of solution, and sulphur compounds volatilise off. The German word simply means "to store".
- Held there, for weeks. Nothing moves and nothing is added. Traditional practice ran to months; modern commercial practice has compressed it hard, and whether a two-week lager is the same thing as a three-month one is a live argument rather than a settled question.
Near 0 °C, yeast and protein-polyphenol complexes drop out, sulphur compounds volatilise off, and the beer rounds and integrates. The German word simply means "to store".
Traditional practice ran to months. Modern commercial practice has compressed it considerably, and whether a two-week lager is the same thing as a three-month one is a live argument in the trade rather than a settled question.
Typical conditions
| Temperature | -1–4°C |
|---|---|
| Duration | 2–12 weeks |
| Scale | Used at both homebrew and commercial scale |
Ranges, not targets. These describe what is usual across the styles and breweries that use this step, and a value outside the range is a decision rather than an error.
What goes wrong here
Risks rather than certainties. This step does not cause these faults; getting it wrong can.
- Excess sulphur — Sulphur compounds from fermentation — normal and transient in young lager, a fault when they persist.
- Chill haze — A temperature-dependent haze from protein and polyphenol binding — cosmetic only, and by definition it clears as the beer warms.
- Diacetyl — A buttery compound with a very low threshold — normally a sign of rushed fermentation, but traditional at trace levels in some Czech lagers.
- Yeast autolysis — Dead yeast breaking down and releasing rubbery, meaty compounds — the result of leaving beer too long on a yeast bed.
Styles where this step is decisive
- Munich Helles
Bavaria’s everyday pale lager: soft, bready and malt-forward, with just enough hop to balance and nothing to distract.
- German Pils
Pale, dry and firmly bitter, with a crisp finish and a spicy-floral noble hop character — Germany’s answer to the Bohemian original.
- Märzen
A rich amber lager brewed in March for autumn drinking, with deep toasty malt and a clean, firm finish.
- Czech pale lager
The Czech everyday lager: lower in strength than the premium version but keeping the soft bready malt and generous Saaz hopping.
- Czech premium pale lager
The original pale lager: rich bready malt, generous Saaz hopping and a rounded bitterness that soft Bohemian water makes possible.
- Munich Dunkel
Deep brown Bavarian lager led by rich Munich malt — bready and gently chocolatey, without real roast bitterness.
- Schwarzbier
Nearly black but remarkably light on the palate: smooth roast, clean lager finish and none of the heaviness the colour suggests.
- Vienna lager
An amber lager built on gently kilned Vienna malt: toasty and lightly sweet, but finishing clean and dry.
- Dortmunder Export
A pale lager sitting between Helles and Pils: fuller and firmer than the first, softer and less bitter than the second.
- Festbier
The golden, stronger lager actually served at modern Oktoberfest — malt-forward and smooth, but pale rather than amber.
- Kellerbier
Unfiltered, gently carbonated lager served young from the cellar, with a soft yeasty fullness filtration removes.
- Bock
A strong, dark, malt-dominated lager with deep bread-crust and toasty character and only enough hop to keep it from being sweet.
- Doppelbock
Intensely malty strong lager, dense with bread crust, caramel and dark fruit, and remarkably clean for its strength.
- Helles Bock
A pale, strong lager with the body of a bock but a brighter, more hop-balanced character — traditionally a spring beer.
- Eisbock
A doppelbock concentrated by partially freezing it and removing the ice, intensifying malt, body and alcohol together.
- Baltic porter
A strong dark lager descended from exported English porter: deep roast and dark fruit, remarkably smooth for its strength.
- Czech amber lager
A Bohemian amber lager balancing caramel malt against Saaz hop character, sitting between the pale and dark Czech beers.
- Czech dark lager
A dark Bohemian lager richer and sweeter than its German counterparts, with caramel and light roast over a soft body.
- India pale lager
A lager hopped at IPA intensity: clean cold fermentation carrying bright American hop aroma and firm bitterness.
- Cold IPA
A lean, dry IPA fermented with lager yeast at higher temperature, using maize or rice to strip body and expose hop aroma.
Related steps and concepts
- Bottom fermentation — The fermentation it follows.
- Diacetyl rest — What must be completed before crashing.
Also at the conditioning stage
Barrel ageing · Blending · Cask conditioning · Cellar conditioning · Conditioning · Dry hopping · Freeze concentration
See the whole process in order on how beer is made.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.
Evidence
What BeerHQ knows about this, and how. Every statement carries the state of the evidence behind it rather than being presented flatly as fact.
Carl von Linde’s mechanical refrigeration, first installed in a brewery in the early 1870s, freed lager production from dependence on natural ice and cold cellars.
Backed by a source
Sources: Beer: The Story of the Pint — print; The Oxford Companion to Beer — print
Mechanical refrigeration from the late nineteenth century removed lager brewing’s dependence on cold cellars and natural ice, allowing it to be produced year-round and anywhere.
Backed by a source
Sources: Beer: The Story of the Pint — print; The Oxford Companion to Beer — print