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**CharlosCarlies** · 03-25-2009, 04:32 PM

I tried searching for this, so I apologize if it's already been brought up before.

Two weeks ago I brewed Ed's Haus Ale and a nut brown on back to back days. Ed's recipe calls for 14 days in the primary, then he crash cools and kegs (I think?). I did this with the nut brown as well.

My question: Does crash-cooling too early inhibit the cleanup process of the yeasties since they are dropping out of the beer? Will my beer still "clean up" and mature in the keg even w/ only 14 days primary and no true secondary?

Shawn Hargreaves · 03-25-2009, 04:55 PM

"clean up" and "mature" are umbrella terms that include a lot of different processes!

Obviously, if you crash too soon, that will stop fermentation, which could lead to an underattenuated beer if there is still any last few percent of slow fermentation going on at the time.

Also, crashing too soon may prevent the yeast from cleaning up any diacetyl left over from the main fermentation. Whether that is a problem depends on what yeast you used (ie. whether you're likely to have too much diacetyl in the first place) and also your fermentation temperature.

**CharlosCarlies** · 03-25-2009, 05:01 PM

I used Safale US-04 and 05 respectively...which I believe aren't too likely to produce diacetyl no? I was in the upper range of acceptable fermentation temps though. The probe in my conical was hovering around 70-72F for the first 2 days and dropped down to ambient (66F) after fermentation started slowing down. I did gravity readings before crash cooling and I hit my FG's pretty much dead on so I'm not worried about attenuation...but rather cleaning up any off flavors you mentioned.

I'm thinking both of these batches will prob be ok since they were lower gravity beers, but in the future should I be leaving it on the yeast cake for a couple weeks before crashing/kegging?

**BierMuncher** · 03-25-2009, 05:08 PM

I think you'll be just fine.

Two weeks for the "average" beer is sufficient for thorough fermentation, especially with dry yeast.

Most of my 1030-1040(ish) beers go 10 days and then 5 in a secondary. My 1040-1050(ish) go 2 weeks primary and then to secondary.

Anything 1050 and above gets three weeks in the primary.

**CharlosCarlies** · 03-25-2009, 07:20 PM

Awesome BierMuncher. That's about what I thought...just wanted to make sure.

I'll leave it in there a little longer next time.