Cold crash then keg condition warm?

i'm starting to get a stockpile of beer ready for the winter, but I'm running into a situation where I cant go directly from cold crash into the kegerator.
The kegerator will be full of kegs when the cold crash of another batch is done.

Is it ok to cold crash and then start keg conditioning warm?

Or is it bad for the beer to get cold in the cold crash, then warm for a few weeks in a keg before getting it into the kegerator? If so, I could fix the problem in either of 3 ways.

1. I could dry hop longer (up to 2 weeks ok?)
2. I could cold crash longer
3. I could primary longer

But in either case I want to stockpile around 40 gallons for the winter. So even longer dry hops and cold crashes wont fix the problem. I could do longer primaries, but then I cant free up carboys for the next batches. About 4 batches will need to be dry hopped/ cold crashed and the other 4 will not.

Any ideas?

Why not just keg, let the beer condition, and then cold crash in the kegerator when there is an opening in there? I don't understand the need to cold crash something and then keg it and let it sit out and then chill it again.

Keg conditioning warm will require much more co2 because warm beer won't keep as much co2 in suspension. You may have flat beer when pouring off the kegerator.

Yooper said:

Why not just keg, let the beer condition, and then cold crash in the kegerator when there is an opening in there? I don't understand the need to cold crash something and then keg it and let it sit out and then chill it again.

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I know what you're saying, but I have been cold crashing to get the dry hop matter to the bottom of the carboy, and then I rack to the keg.

I do it the way you describe for all beers that I do not dry hop. I may have to try racking from a warm dry hopped secondary to a keg with a strainer on the racking cane. that should work and take care of my problem as you describe

I cold crash.. Then transfer into keg an bulk age it in basement, which stays right around 60.. With winter coming it will go down to about 55. Which is great... I have no problems with this method. But with u doing 40 gallons of beer I would pre plan what u tend to age the longest. Porters, browns, stouts.. Lagers... I would plan to drink at the end.. Just my $.02. Good luck man!

First, one must remember that carbonation as defined as dissolved "volumes of CO2" remains constant regardless of how it is achieved. Whether carbonated warm or cold, the exact same amount of CO2 is required to obtain a desired level of carbonation. What changes is the pressure required at a given beer temperature to dissolve that same amount of CO2.

Beyond that, I can see why one would cold crash a beer to drop yeast/trub/dry hops before kegging a bright beer, and then setting aside the keg. It's called "building a pipeline", and there's no reason to be concerned about going from a cold-crashed state to long term storage at a higher temperature...

Cheers!

oconnorshomebrew said:

Keg conditioning warm will require much more co2 because warm beer won't keep as much co2 in suspension. You may have flat beer when pouring off the kegerator.

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Keg conditioning does not require more CO2. I keg condition all my beers. You add your priming malt / sugar in solution similar to bottling. Rack your beer to the keg & then seal w/ CO2. Leave it at room temp (72ish) for 10-14 days. I put the keg in my kegerator and attach the CO2 line at serving pressure & let it chill 24-72 hours. Then you're ready to go.
I currently have four beers ready just waiting on a spot in my kegerator.

Thanks for the tips! Looks like I'll be ok if i cold crash and then bring to room temp. But I forgot that my garage is around 40° during Dec, Jan, Feb. I could throw some kegs out there with just a little CO2 to seal the lids until space in the kegerator frees up. I brew outside and I don't want to deal with cold temps, snow, etc this winter. I plan on not brewing from mid Dec through mid March. I need to build a good pipeline to last me until around May 1st when next years' first batch will be ready to drink.