Lagering- how fast to drop the temp and two other quesitons

[TimL]

I'm getting ready to transfer a new sub-style of maibock (I call it "Shit, that's pretty damn brown for a blond MaiBock") into a corny for lagering. I'm just hyped it fermented, the first lager I tried seemed to be contaminated to me at the time so I dumped it.

So, the beer is at room temperature on the yeast for a diacytl rest... when I checked the gravity I had a taste and it was very clean, so I guess diacytel rest may not have been necessary, but wtf, I guess I'm superstitious or something.

Question here: I've seen/heard two general ideas about dropping to lagering temps- one is to drop the temperature slowly (2-5 deg a day) and one is to just drop the temperature.

A. I have not transferred to the corny yet.. so do I put the fermenter back in the freezer, drop temp (slow or fast) to lager temp, then transfer into the chilled corny? Or do I transfer at room temp to corny, then drop temp (slow or fast).

B. Is there a scientific reason for a slow temp drop, or is this just "how its always been done"?

Another question - should I have transferred to a seconday before hitting final lagering gravity? Palmer says when you're about 3/4 to your fg you should transfer... is that just to avoid oxygenation issues by transferring when the yeast is active?

Fianl question - if I save and clean the yeast from this batch, will it last long enough to make another bock in a couple months?

[bub]

The reason to drop temp slowly is so that the yeast don't get shocked and say... "Hey yeast buddies... it's getting mighty cold in here, lets hibernate."
if you lower it slowly they won't notice as much and keep a workin.
BUB

[Speyedr]

I'd transfer to the corny and then lager it. I don't lower the temp slowly, I just put the room temp beer into a corney and put it in my CF. The amount of liquid makes the temperature drop fairly gradually anyway.

I think the FG thing you are referring to is to start lagering at about 3/4 to FG. AT that point you would transfer to "secondary", which in this case is your corny. Don't worry about it and lager away...

Cheers,

Rob

[TimL]

Thanks Speyder and Bub.