I brew mostly lagers. There are a few things to keep in mind when brewing lagers.
1. If you brew it right, you shouldn’t need much over a 2-4 weeks of lagering. It can be sped up by the use of gelatin, but you risk oxygen ingress. If you need to lager 8 weeks to get a good beer, you probably messed up somewhere.
2. You can lager on the yeast cake. I ferment, carbonate, lager and serve from the same vessel. I transfer to a keg after 4 weeks of lagering to avoid autolysis.
3. It’s really tough to overpitch a lager. Most homebrewers underpitch lagers. There is no harm in using 2 packs of 34/70, in fact I would strongly recommend it if it’s your first lager. That would give you a +2.0 pitch. I rarely pitch below 2 billion cells/ml/ degree Plato. German brewers typically pitch very hard, 2.0-2.5. The big pitch helps the mature much quicker, plus lag times are much shorter.
4. Pitch as cold as you can. I pitch 34/70 at 44F and let it rise to 48F. Let it set there 7-9 days and if you want you raise it to 60F or you can leave it set at 48-52 for 2 weeks total. After that crash it to 32F for lagering.
There is a lot of fog out there about a lot of brewing subjects. Lagers are a little tougher than ales. Mistakes stand out with lager, so they require a little more attention. But when you get them down pat, you get used to the extra details and work. It’s worth the effort.