blasbek

Recipes 

I was planning on putting my primary fermenter in a spare fridge around day 14, and leaving it there for a week. I will be removing air lock, covering with foil for suck back, etc. any other issues or advice. I don't think I have a way of chilling incrementally over several days as I have heard others do.... Will this be a problem?

Bensiff

Recipes 

What are you attempting to do by doing this?

I would use an airlock to maintain a seal as foil allows the possibility of too much air which will ruin your beer...unless you really like green Jolly Ranchers.

ThickHead

Recipes 

Why day 14? I would advise you to make certain the beer has reached its terminal gravity before dropping the temp to typical refrigerator temperatures.

Are you doing this in an effort to "cold-crash" your beer for clarity and cleanliness?

Is there anything else in the refrigerator? I would be less concerned about suck-back than using only foil as a barrier.

only other advice would be to buy a Johnson controller or similar device to control the temperature of the fridge you are using.

__________________
Chad

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer."

-Abraham Lincoln

JimRausch

Recipes 

Are you trying to cold crash? Or lager?
I'm a little wary of just foil on the top. If it gets skewed or gets a split or just doesn't cover completely, it might let in some contamination.

blasbek

Recipes 

Yes, cold crash, not lagering.


I read various posts about using sanitized foil and securing it firmly to the fermenter. It seemed fairly foolproof and avoided any water being sucked in from airlock. Fridge has lots of bottles of beer in, nothing else. And day 14 as I always do 2 weeks in primary.

ThickHead

Recipes 

It should be fine for cold-crashing. Again...I would take gravity readings to ensure terminal gravity and I would keep the airlock in rather than the foil. You do not want to add oxygen to your beer at this point (at all).


Water suck-back (I use a Star San solution as my airlock liquid) is far less worrisome than oxygenating your beer.

Invest $60 in a Johnson Controller.

__________________
Chad

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer."

-Abraham Lincoln

Bensiff

Recipes 

If I cold crashed, I would be putting the beer into a fridge set to 30-32 and crash quickly, not slowly over a week period, after a few days I would rack while cold. Again, I really don't see the point of foil, it isn't air tight and adds extra work to accomplish what an air lock is designed to do.