Cold crashing

It was suggested I cold crash my American pale ale before bottling. This is my first batch. I don't see anywhere what the temp should be. Just refrigerate to 37? Will that kill the yeast for bottling? It's been in secondary at 67 for 2 weeks. Want to bottle this weekend. Thanks

Drop it to around 35-36 and leave it for a few days. Should still have enough yeast in the beer to bottle carbonate if that's your plan.

Cold crashing won't kill the yeast. The beer will clear better at cold temperatures, but there will still be literally hundreds of billions of yeast in suspension so the beer will carb up just fine.

Doesn't necessarily kill anything.. put's them into a deep sleep.. The get real sluggish and settle to the bottom along with some other stuff and the result is a much clearer beer. 37* is fine for three days or so.. just remember.. if you are bottling, you might be wise to add a few grains of yeast to each bottle before bottling. There are probably enough in suspension.. but... why hose a batch just hoping there are enough.

HbgBill said:

Doesn't necessarily kill anything.. put's them into a deep sleep.. The get real sluggish and settle to the bottom along with some other stuff and the result is a much clearer beer. 37* is fine for three days or so.. just remember.. if you are bottling, you will have to add a few grains of yeast to each bottle before bottling.

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I cold crash and bottle and didnt had an issue about bottles not carbonating

That's cool.. I'm sure a lot of people do.. I'd not chance it. Wonder how many threads there are on HBT that had no carbonation in the bottle when they opened their beer. I, for on, have and I couldn't explain it. I didn't cold crash.. but, I left it sit in the primary for about four weeks. I know that's not supposed to be a problem either. I've heard that's what Sierra Nevada does with their naturally carbonated beers. That, plus a bit of sugar. Don't know for sure. However, I know they aren't counting three or four grains of yeast into each bottle.

It can't hurt to add some yeast, but it's almost never necessary.

If I was lagering at freezing for 5+ weeks and the resulting beer was crystal clear, I'd add some yeast at bottling. Otherwise, I don't. I've never had a beer that didn't carb up, and I bottled 200+ batches before going totally to kegging.

Thanks. It's in the fridge. I'll bottle Sunday. That will be 2 days. Can't wait.

Something I've been wondering about...when you cold crash, do you bottle cold as well? Or do you let it warm up? Does it matter?

Cold crashing is something I have yet to do - because I don't really have the space to do it - but I may be able to clear some space in the chest freezer to give it a try

I cold crashed an ale for three weeks. Removed from fridge and bottled. Carbed just fine. real clear beer
Slainte

JLem said:

Something I've been wondering about...when you cold crash, do you bottle cold as well? Or do you let it warm up? Does it matter?

Cold crashing is something I have yet to do - because I don't really have the space to do it - but I may be able to clear some space in the chest freezer to give it a try

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You can bottle it cold- no need to let it warm up. It works great- if people are having issues with come cloudy beer, it can really make a difference, and in the end there is lots less crud in the bottles.

I have a nut brown in primary now. Today makes two weeks, but instead of bottling tomorrow, I going to leave it in primary another week. Next Saturday would make three weeks to the day after I brewed it. Could I:

1 cold crash for three days, starting on Thursday?
2 rack to my bottling bucket on Saturday
3* let my bottles condition at room temp (70*F) for two weeks, instead of returning to the fridge?


*I don't know if I'm going to bottle this whole 5 gallon batch or not. I'm thinking of just bottling a 12 pack and transfer the rest to one of my cornies and let it carb naturally at room temp until I get my keezer done. Suggestions?

Yesfan said:

I have a nut brown in primary now. Today makes two weeks, but instead of bottling tomorrow, I going to leave it in primary another week. Next Saturday would make three weeks to the day after I brewed it. Could I:

1 cold crash for three days, starting on Thursday?
2 rack to my bottling bucket on Saturday
3* let my bottles condition at room temp (70*F) for two weeks, instead of returning to the fridge?


*I don't know if I'm going to bottle this whole 5 gallon batch or not. I'm thinking of just bottling a 12 pack and transfer the rest to one of my cornies and let it carb naturally at room temp until I get my keezer done. Suggestions?

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You definitely want to leave the bottles out at room temp for at least a couple of weeks before putting them back in the fridge. If you put them in the fridge too soon, you'll end up with flat beer.

JLem said:

You definitely want to leave the bottles out at room temp for at least a couple of weeks before putting them back in the fridge. If you put them in the fridge too soon, you'll end up with flat beer.

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I'm a bit confused, do you cold crash before, or after you bottle? I was thinking of cold crashing the whole bucket (nothing bottled yet) before transferring to the bottling bucket, bottle the beer, then condition at room temp for 2 weeks minimum.

Yesfan said:

I'm a bit confused, do you cold crash before, or after you bottle? I was thinking of cold crashing the whole bucket (nothing bottled yet) before transferring to the bottling bucket, bottle the beer, then condition at room temp for 2 weeks minimum.

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When it's called 'cold crashing' they are referring to the entire fermentation vessel being reduced to a certain temperature.

When it happens in the bottle it's just getting your beer cold in the fridge for drinking!

You want to get the bucket/Carboy down to 40-50F however you can. I call 2-3 days good enough. So you are correct, get the whole batch cold before bottling it.

Awesome. Thanks Jim for the help!

Yesfan said:

Awesome. Thanks Jim for the help!

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No problem. Enjoy!

Thanks for the cold crashing clarification(s). I have one other (newbie) question to throw on the pile. It sounds like you cold crash for a few days at 37 degrees or so, bottle while it is still pretty chilly, and then let it condition at room temperature for two or three weeks.

When calculating how much priming sugar to put in, do you plug in the initial temperature, or the conditioning temperature? I have not cold-crashed before, but I had an over-carbonation problem on the last batch, so I don't want to repeat, or add another mistake.

Thanks for all the help I have already received through months of lurking.

I am a newbie, but this is my understanding from a lot of newbie research and a pretty good understanding of physics:

You have to cold crash the entire batch to precipitate solids out of solution. This is because warm fluids can hold more of a secondary material in solution. (Think of sugar in water. When the water is cold, a pile of sugar sits in the bottom of the pan. Heat the water and more sugar dissolves. Cool the water and some of that sugar will come back out of solution. Same reason it rains when a cold front moves in.) The same thing happens with dissolved proteins and yeast particles. You cool your carboy or fermenter to remove them from solution, then bottle or keg, leaving the extra material behind and resulting in a clearer brew. If you "cold crashed" after bottling, the same materials would precipitate out, but would be reabsorbed into solution if the bottle warmed up.

I believe you could accomplish nearly the same thing if you got a bottle pretty cold and poured into a glass before warming, it just wouldn't be as drastic.

AllDay said:

Thanks for the cold crashing clarification(s). I have one other (newbie) question to throw on the pile. It sounds like you cold crash for a few days at 37 degrees or so, bottle while it is still pretty chilly, and then let it condition at room temperature for two or three weeks.

When calculating how much priming sugar to put in, do you plug in the initial temperature, or the conditioning temperature? I have not cold-crashed before, but I had an over-carbonation problem on the last batch, so I don't want to repeat, or add another mistake.

Thanks for all the help I have already received through months of lurking.

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When calculating priming sugar you need to have an idea of how much co2 there is still in solution that´s why calculator will ask you about temperature, you have to use the highest temperature of your beer before bottling, let´s say that you fermented at 69F and then cold crash, the temperature that you have to use it´s 69F then, if you let it sit warmer after fermentation an before cold crash, lets say at 75, then you have to use 75.
Hope this helps

It does. Thanks for clearing that up.

Clearing - ha!

Yep-
Use the temp you did the majority of ferment with. Honestly I just do 0.75-1oz per gallon that I'm bottling and it's all good.

Making The bottles cold is like cold crashing, but if you do it in the fermentor too you just double clarified your beer. It helps a lot.

I think I'm going to try to bottle my second batch today. I've had the fermenting bucket cold crashing in my freezer at 40*F since Thursday night. When I get ready to bottle, could I add the beer straight from the freezer to the bottling bucket or does the beer need to warm to room temp first before transferring?

Obliviousbrew said:

When calculating priming sugar you need to have an idea of how much co2 there is still in solution that´s why calculator will ask you about temperature, you have to use the highest temperature of your beer before bottling, let´s say that you fermented at 69F and then cold crash, the temperature that you have to use it´s 69F then, if you let it sit warmer after fermentation an before cold crash, lets say at 75, then you have to use 75.
Hope this helps

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Guess I've been doing this wrong for a while now, calculating based on temp @ the time of bottling.

Don't think it made a huge difference but every little bit helps on the hunt for quality beers

Yesfan said:

I think I'm going to try to bottle my second batch today. I've had the fermenting bucket cold crashing in my freezer at 40*F since Thursday night. When I get ready to bottle, could I add the beer straight from the freezer to the bottling bucket or does the beer need to warm to room temp first before transferring?

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Beer doesn´t need to be at room temp bottling cold it´s allrigth

Obliviousbrew said:

Beer doesn´t need to be at room temp bottling cold it´s allrigth

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Thanks brother!


Looks like I'm bottling today.

Yesfan said:

Thanks brother!


Looks like I'm bottling today.

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Have fun bottling! I use to hate it when I started but after batch #10 it got really easy and I now enjoy bottling as much as I do brewing.

My beer's been in the primary for about 4 weeks. If I keg at 35 degrees and leave the keg in the fridge for 3 weeks is that the same thing as cold crashing?

lhommedieu said:

My beer's been in the primary for about 4 weeks. If I keg at 35 degrees and leave the keg in the fridge for 3 weeks is that the same thing as cold crashing?

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Cold crash in primary/secondary has an advantage since yeast will drop on bottom of fermentor's and you will siphon clearer beer in keg/bottle.
Cold crashing in keg is similar with the exception that yeast will fall on bottom of the and 1st pint or so will probably be turbid, but after that it will get clear.