Cold crashing an ale?

Is cold crashing an ale after the secondary a useful technique? I'm just thinking of more ways to clarify.

Yes

Very common to cold crash and lager ales, especially with the lower flocculating yeasts.

Yes, cold crashing will help with clarifying your beer. Recommended if you can.

I have been doing this lately and it definitely improves clarity and I have seen no ill effects yet from doing so. After I transfer I keep it at about 35+/- for about five days.

Ok....thanks for the assistance.

While there's debate on whether you should secondary or not, cold crashing pretty much negates the need entirely.

Secondary , gelatin + cold crash. That's how I do my ales.

I generally add gelatin to secondary after a period of conditioning (lenght of conditioning prior to cold crashing in secondary depends on the beer). I will typically soak the gelatin in cold water for an hour, boil to dissolve, cool to about 70 F, and add to my beer which I then place at 34-38 F for 5-7 days. Always works great. You can typically see it in action, and it appears as phases separating. Just don't use more than the 1.5 g/5 gallons for beer, as it can actually start stripping components of the beer that are associated with body.

turkeyjerky214 said:

While there's debate on whether you should secondary or not, cold crashing pretty much negates the need entirely.

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Secondary removes alot of the trrub and excess yeast. I still use a secondary and cold crash. My beer is clear as commercial beers.

Do you have any problems with the airlock sucking down when you cold crash, or do you guys just not even worry about it? I haven't really tried to cold crash anything, but I don't mind if the beer is cloudy.

Mindhop said:

Secondary removes alot of the trrub and excess yeast. I still use a secondary and cold crash. My beer is clear as commercial beers.

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so does that mean that you are able to drink a beer straight from the bottle without worrying about drinking the lil yeasties left at the bottom? also if it is that clear how long does it take to carb?

Mindhop said:

Secondary removes alot of the trrub and excess yeast. I still use a secondary and cold crash. My beer is clear as commercial beers.

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So is mine, and I only use a secondary when dry hopping or adding fruit or something. And I don't have clean and sanitize an extra vessel or take the risk of oxidizing or infecting my beers.

I primary until it's hit terminal gravity, raise it a few degrees for a couple days so the yeast can clean up after themselves, cold crash for a week, then keg.

I don't have any pictures, but I could read a book through both IPAs I've got on tap right now.

Obviously you should do what works for you. I'm just saying that I personally don't see the need for extra steps when I get clear beer from simply cold crashing.

I haven't looked at this post in a while, didn't realize there were so many more posts on it now. So, what is the "gelatin" that you're putting in to crash? Is this something I should be able to grab at my LHBS? I'm guessing it acts similar to Irish Moss in a way?

You can get gelatin at the grocery store, it's just Knox plain gelatin. I use about a half packet and dissolve it in some hot water, then add to the keg or carboy. It does a pretty good job getting stubborn yeast to drop out. I don't think it does much for protein, but that's not usually a problem for me, so I don't know.

I had a Pale Ale that looked like miso soup in the fermenter (and hydrometer jar). I just did the gelatin/cold crash technique on this beer for the first time. Did it right in the secondary then racked to keg. After a couple days/half-dozen pints, it is now probably the clearest beer I have ever made. Not quite as crystal-clear as the commercial products, but I can clearly see through the beer with no major cloudiness.

I will definitely be using this for any beer that isn't intended to be opaque.

I never got the gelatin thing. As long as I'm using a high flocculating yeast strain and malts with lower protein contents (aka not wheat) my beer is usually near transparent after a week in the keg. I'm doing primary only as well...?

This is definitely the first I've heard of the gelatin thing. Unusual to say the least, but it seems like people are happy with the result. Where do people come up with this stuff anyway? Who thought to put some gelatin in their beer as a clearing agent?

Well how long has Guiness been putting isinglass in their beer, not that much different than gelatin. I use it too and you can tell the difference between batches where I forget.

If you use a decently flocculant yeast (high or above in my case) and give it enough time to settle out (3 weeks, or more) in primary, then secondary is not needed. Since I'm kegging now, I guess I'm kind of cold crashing it too. Mainly because I use the two week 'set and forget' carbonation method. So, two weeks in the brew fridge, at serving temps, while carbonating, gives things more than enough time to settle out. What little there is actually. I normally see a very thin layer in the bottom of the kegs when I clean them out. Probably due to being careful when I transfer from primary.

I just got my freezer/fermentation chamber together and have an IPA that has been in secondary for a week at 69F and put it in and dropped to 65F just to test it out. I want to cold crash it but was wondering if you let it warm back up before bottling or do you add priming sugar while it is around 38-40 and bottle like that??

I always just cold crash and then straight to bottling bucket or keg. It will warm up a bit as it bottle condition so it will be fine.

Primary for 10 days. 2 days cold crash. Add a packet of gelatin dissolved in near-boiling water. Wait 5 in secondary or keg. Brilliant beer. Nothing else to talk about.

Chilled glass, otherwise see-through and deliscious.




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Do you change priming sugar amounts?

Use the same amounts of priming sugar regardless of whether you cold crash or not. HOWEVER, if you do cold crash before bottling, the priming sugar will not ferment unless it's around room temp; you'll need to store the bottles for a couple weeks between 65-72F in order to get proper carbonation.


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dmarc85 said:

Use the same amounts of priming sugar regardless of whether you cold crash or not. HOWEVER, if you do cold crash before bottling, the priming sugar will not ferment unless it's around room temp; you'll need to store the bottles for a couple weeks between 65-72F in order to get proper carbonation.


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That's not the same for if you force carb in a keg correct? Just curious because im new to kegging.

If you're force carbing no need for the
priming sugar.


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I asked about sugar amounts because it will change from .6oz for 6 gal at 32F to 3.2 oz at 65F using this calculator.
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

UncleJohnnys said:

I asked about sugar amounts because it will change from .6oz for 6 gal at 32F to 3.2 oz at 65F using this calculator.
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

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I'm definitely going to check this link out. I'd be shocked to see variances in priming sugar quantities as temperature fluctuates.

For the record, I always keg my beer ice-cold simply because the yeast and trub is much less likely to be disturbed during the transfer. If I ever did bottle my beer again, I'd probably try to dose each individual bottle with a pre-determined volume of a sugar/water solution; mixing in priming sugar to your beer before bottling presents so many potential issues, from oxidation to infection.


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Ok, I read it. I believe this calculator's temperature function is purposed specifically for beers that maintain a low ferm temp throughout their entire fermentation process, i.e. Lagers.

Most co2 dissipates from ales by the time they actually 'finish' because they are at room temp the entire time.


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The temp in those calculators is supposed to be the highest temp your beer ever saw. It helps determine residual CO2 in the beer. Cold crash all you want, even bottle cold, but if your ale was ever at 70F, put that in the calculator to get your sugar amounts. Then keep the bottles around your warmest fermentation temp to carb.