Cold crashing

I'm about 4 months into brewing and was wondering about cold crashing my beer. What is it exactly and what is the benefits of cold crashing

Cold crashing is when you drop the temp of your beer when it is done fermenting to a low temp( I usually try for 34-35 degrees) to drop yeast and other particulates out of suspension to clear you beer.

So if I cold crash at 40 for a couple days then bottle and bottle condition at 65 is that ok

46andbrew said:

So if I cold crash at 40 for a couple days then bottle and bottle condition at 65 is that ok

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You got it. Usually a 24-36 hour cold crash will be enough to drop the yeast out of suspension, but the extra time wont hurt it. I find a cold crash especially helpful when I dry hop with pellets, it will settle all the hop matter with the yeast and allow you to rack nice clear beer.

Will too much yeast drop out of suspension impeding bottle conditioning? I thought of cold crashing my barleywine starting tomorrow and bottling Saturday. I plan on lagering it for 12 months or so and wonder if too much yeast will drop out of suspension for bottle conditioning.

Sujeto said:

Will too much yeast drop out of suspension impeding bottle conditioning?

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There should be plenty of yeast left over in solution, it's never been a problem for me.

Sujeto said:

Will too much yeast drop out of suspension impeding bottle conditioning? I thought of cold crashing my barleywine starting tomorrow and bottling Saturday. I plan on lagering it for 12 months or so and wonder if too much yeast will drop out of suspension for bottle conditioning.

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It shouldn't be a problem. I'd go ahead with your plan and cold crash it tomorrow, bottle Saturday.

I don't think cold crashing for 2 days will really accomplish anything (especially at 40° F), nor do I think 65° F is an appropriate temperature for bottle conditioning.

I would cold-crash for at least a week, and much closer to freezing (32° - 34° F). Pouring in a gelatin or isinglass solution 2 or 3 days in will help even more.

If you're bottle-carbing (and it sounds like you are), then you should keep the bottles at around 70° F or warmer for the first 3 weeks. I'm not sure 65° is warm enough to effectively carbonate in 3 weeks.

And yes, even with cold crashing and gelatin/isinglass, there will still be plenty of yeast in suspension to bottle-carb.

kombat said:

I don't think cold crashing for 2 days will really accomplish anything (especially at 40° F), nor do I think 65° F is an appropriate temperature for bottle conditioning.

I would cold-crash for at least a week, and much closer to freezing (32° - 34° F). Pouring in a gelatin or isinglass solution 2 or 3 days in will help even more.

If you're bottle-carbing (and it sounds like you are), then you should keep the bottles at around 70° F or warmer for the first 3 weeks. I'm not sure 65° is warm enough to effectively carbonate in 3 weeks.

And yes, even with cold crashing and gelatin/isinglass, there will still be plenty of yeast in suspension to bottle-carb.

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I recently did some forum research of cold crash/gelatinization/ and bottling on here and my results were in agreement with this. BUT
I want to stress the importance of conditioning at 70 degrees or a little higher. There is plenty of yeast leftover to do the job, but my last 2 batches. Have taken a full 2 or 3 weeks to carb correctly.

Sorry to hijack this thread 46andbrew (nice Tool reference btw), that wasn't my intention. This just happened to be a topic on my mind this past week and instead of creating a new thread...
I've never used gelatin or isinglass although I have heard them many times on this forum as effective clarifiers. With this being a barleywine I'm not too concerned about it being crystal clear, maybe I should be? I'm not opposed to trying new things! It was dry-hopped so I was hoping the hop matter would fall out of suspension by cold crashing it prior to bottling. After adding ice blocks last night and this morning the water bath was at 44 degrees. I added an addiitonal block of ice prior to going to work so I'll have to check it when I get home.
I will be bottle conditioning/carbonating but it will be closer to 70 degrees and for 12 months due to the expected high ABV of the barley wine (10+%).
But ya'll have answered my main concern about there possibly not being enough yeast. I guess the answer is RDWHAHB!

No worries thanks for noticing the tool reference my fav band can't wait for some new ****.