Crash cooling and conditioning.

I just read a similar thread about cold conditioning. It made me think and brought some questions to mind. How many people cold condition their ales? What is the effect on taste of cold conditioning or crash cooling? And what would be the differerent flavors if you hadnt done these steps?

I don't cold condition ales. I would imagine that if you did you would get a "cleaner" ale, kind of a hybrid, that would be less "ale like".

GT

after primary and secondary fermentation, you can rack to a keg. Rather than force carbing it then, put it into your kegorator or other very cold spot. Leave it alone for a few weeks at 34-40 degrees. Your yeasties will floc out and some other flavors will mature. Some people will then transfer from that keg (and often will have a shortened dip tube in it to avoid pulling any yeast) to a final keg and pressurize and serve. You can do that into a purged keg without any O2 risk. Or you can then just pressurize what it's in (or move it into kegorator and start pressurizing, let it sit for yeast to re-settle). Your first half-glass or more may have a lot of yeast and sediment. Pour little glasses and set them in a row and you'll see the change. That is a tad easier in my opinion, and I HATE losing beer in transfers.

This technique is not so good for "fresh" styles, like IPA's, where those few weeks can dull your hop aroma (unless you overdid it, then it might help). It's great on styles you want to clarify, especially those light colored ales.

Alternatively, if your fridge setup will work, you can put the whole F'ing carboy into a cold storage for the last few days, dropping it down to 34 as you go. Then rack out of there into the keg, leaving the floc'd yeast behind, store the keg for a few weeks, then pressurize, carb, and serve. This requires that your carboy be cold and high enough to siphon out of (unless you rack with a pump or pressure or something fancy).

My last couple of beers I have put my carboy in the fridge. 1 week primary, 1 week secondary, and 3-5 days in the fridge. It really seems to clear the beer.