Question about cold conditioning

MattD · 10-10-2006, 07:22 AM

OK so this is more of a logistics question than anything else...

I've currently got two brews in carboys. One is a batch of a high gravity old ale, which was brewed on 9/15. Around about 9/30 I transferred it to my 5 gal carboy to make room for another batch, although it was still fermenting. Left behind plenty of trub. It's now still in the 5 gal, and as of 10/7 the airlock was bubbling at about 2-3 bubbles per minute, and the SG was 1.010. OG was around 80-90. Today it's bubbling at about 1 bubble every 2 minutes. It's been sitting in a bathtub with 4-5 inches of water, and towels wrapped around it. Ambient air temp is around 75F. Plenty more trub has accumulated. I took a taste when I got the last SG reading, and it's pretty harsh, so I intend to let it age quite a bit.

Other brew is Cheesefood's Caramel Cream Vanilla Ale, brewed on 9/30. OG was 1.048. It has been sitting in the same conditions as the other brew, in a 6.5 gal carboy. At one week (10/7) it had a SG of 1.016 and was bubbling about 4/minute. I figure this brew will probably wind up bottled before the first, and will do a transfer-wash-transfer to get it off the trub at some point in the nearish future.

Now that that background is out of the way, here's the actual question. I got bored the other day and built one of the son of fermenter (or whatever it's called) chiller box. Now, there's only room in there for one carboy, so I'm wondering which one to stick in there. So my question to you all is this: Which brew would benefit the most from cold conditioning? Since the CCVA is still in the last stages of primary fermentation, with a yeast that has a fairly narrow temp range (White Labs Burton Ale), would I want to risk putting the yeast to sleep by cooling it down some? If not, once it's calmed down, would it benefit more from cold conditioning since it's not been sitting out for nearly a month already at 75F? Or would the old ale benefit more since it's likely to sit in there longer for aging?

Also, what would be a good temp range to aim for, for whichever brew you suggest?

**Chairman Cheyco** · 10-11-2006, 12:45 PM

You're right about not putting the primary in there, if you cool-off an active fermentation it'll make the yeast go into hibernation mode and it's tough to get them out again.

As far as cold conditioning, I'd put the old ale in there once you have it racked to secondary. It's a pretty big beer and will need to age for quite a while. Since it will take quite a bit of time to age, you may want to age it outside the chamber and use the chamber for your primaries to free up your bathtub.