bottling cold crashed beer

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OHIOSTEVE

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I have searched and get differing opinions, and even called my brew guru ( brew shop guy) and got his opinion, now I'd like to hear from you guys.
I have two carboys cold crashing right now. The thermometer in the cooler says a little uner 30 degrees but we keep bottled water and beer in it and neither ever freeze so I am guessing low to mid 30's. The beer has only been in a couple of days and I had planned on waiting until Sunday or Monday to bottle, but I have time today and there is quite a bit of " fallout" since I put the carboys in the cooler. That all said I have a few questions. Do I bottle it cold then let it come back up to room temp to bottle condition and carb?......... Do I need to add some yeast at bottling..........do I need to intentionally transfer some of the trub to the bottling bucket for yeast?.......do I use the same priming sugar amount as bottling at room temp?
 
OHIOSTEVE said:
I have searched and get differing opinions, and even called my brew guru ( brew shop guy) and got his opinion, now I'd like to hear from you guys.
I have two carboys cold crashing right now. The thermometer in the cooler says a little uner 30 degrees but we keep bottled water and beer in it and neither ever freeze so I am guessing low to mid 30's. The beer has only been in a couple of days and I had planned on waiting until Sunday or Monday to bottle, but I have time today and there is quite a bit of " fallout" since I put the carboys in the cooler. That all said I have a few questions. Do I bottle it cold then let it come back up to room temp to bottle condition and carb?......... Do I need to add some yeast at bottling..........do I need to intentionally transfer some of the trub to the bottling bucket for yeast?.......do I use the same priming sugar amount as bottling at room temp?
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Since it's so cold I would let it warm up a bit before bottling so as not to shock the yeast. I would add more yeast at bottling since you likely caused most of the yeast to drop out as well as shocked it with such low temps. The same amount of priming sugar should work since although the temp is dropped there is no co2 added to the solution to be absorbed.
 
Clonefarmer said:
Since it's so cold I would let it warm up a bit before bottling so as not to shock the yeast. I would add more yeast at bottling since you likely caused most of the yeast to drop out as well as shocked it with such low temps. The same amount of priming sugar should work since although the temp is dropped there is no co2 added to the solution to be absorbed.
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I don't think you will shock the yeast at all. It's not like your heating the beer up. Also, you don't need to add more yeast, there's plenty left in the beer. You'll have less sediment in your bottles since you cold crashed - a good thing IMO.

OP, I did what you're asking about not too long ago and everything is fine. Use the same amount of sugar you would use for the beer at normal temps.
 
If you are worried you can siphon of a tiny bit of the yeast cake into your bottling bucket.

I have crashed several beers without having to add more yeast at bottling, worst case is it takes an extra week to carb all the way. Then I ususually crash the bottles.
 
Letting it warm up or adding more yeast or trub would defeat the purpose of cold crashing. Neither is necessary, but as said, it will take longer to carbonate. Leave it at room temperature for 3-4 weeks after bottling.



Edit:
If it's a high gravity beer it will take even longer at room temperature. Be sure to check one before chilling your bottles.
 
You can cold bottle it. If you don't like the idea of cold bottling, you might want to rack to another carboy to get it off the sediment before it starts to warm up. Like someone said, if you let it warm up and then rack it, it defeats the purpose of cold crashing. I agree that you may want to add yeast at bottling. I've had problems with racking too much yeast out of the beer when cold crashing. Then I had to open up the beers after 3 weeks and add yeast and start the carbonation process all over again. You can use the same amount of priming sugar as you normally would.
 
Bottle cold, no additional yeast needed. The yeast will replicate and do their thing just fine, warming would defeat the purpose of Cold Crashing.
 
bottled............ bottled it cold with no additional anything except priming sugar. I have another that is ready to bottle if I want to, that has been in cold storage a few days also.. I think I will experiment with the knox gelatin on this one as the one I just bottled definitely had chill haze and this one looks to have it also ( hard for me to tell in the carboy.)
 
After reading through this I have an additional question....if he warms it to room temp, you guys say that would be defeating the purpose.....are you implying that the protiens that fell out of the solution would rise?
 
DurangoHomeBrewMafia said:
After reading through this I have an additional question....if he warms it to room temp, you guys say that would be defeating the purpose.....are you implying that the protiens that fell out of the solution would rise?
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It is possible for the proteins to become suspended as the temperature rises if there is sufficient agitation. Simply moving the carboy from cold storage to a table top if often enough agitation to re-suspend some of the proteins at warmer temps.

Regarding bottling cold, don't forget beer hold more CO2 when it is cold and you will not need as much priming sugar as you would for a batch at 65F. This I have learned from experience. Here is a bottle priming calculator that works very well. http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html
 
oceanselv said:
Regarding bottling cold, don't forget beer hold more CO2 when it is cold and you will not need as much priming sugar as you would for a batch at 65F. This I have learned from experience. Here is a bottle priming calculator that works very well. http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html
Click to expand...

So, would you use the higher or lower temp if you're bottling cold (from crashing) but then allowing the bottles to return to room temp?
 
DurangoHomeBrewMafia said:
After reading through this I have an additional question....if he warms it to room temp, you guys say that would be defeating the purpose.....are you implying that the protiens that fell out of the solution would rise?
Click to expand...

I don't think it's possible for the proteins to rise without significant agitation. Since the beer is being moved cold and allowed to warm up in the spot it will be racked from this shouldn't be the case. If it were than the proteins would be agitated regardless of letting it warm up or just moving it and racking right after moving.
 
CF- this is what I have always thought...carefully out of the fridge to the spot on my counter that it will be racked from, then bottle 24 hours later at ambient (68-72) temps.
 
neovox said:
So, would you use the higher or lower temp if you're bottling cold (from crashing) but then allowing the bottles to return to room temp?
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I would calculate the priming amounts at the final fermentation temp. After fermentation is ceased no more co2 is produced to be absorbed at cooler temps.
 
Clonefarmer said:
I would calculate the priming amounts at the final fermentation temp. After fermentation is ceased no more co2 is produced to be absorbed at cooler temps.
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Correct. That is what I do. Not necessarily the final fermentation temperature, but the highest temperature that the beer was at in the fermenter. Lowering the temperature after fermentation is finished won't really cause more carbonation- although the co2 in there is "held" and not released as much, it's not producing any either.
 
Fermentation temperature is really not important at bottling time. Use the temperature of the beer when you bottle. If you cold crashed your beer to 34 and then raised it to ambient temperature of 78 your CO2 levels will be different. At 34 the beer will hold more CO2 than at 78. Also if your highest fermentation temp was 62 you will have less CO2 in your beer at 78 than you did at 62.
 
DurangoHomeBrewMafia said:
CF- this is what I have always thought...carefully out of the fridge to the spot on my counter that it will be racked from, then bottle 24 hours later at ambient (68-72) temps.
Click to expand...
When you let the temperature rise the yeast that is still in suspension comes out of its dormant stage and has the possibility of effecting the clarity of the beer by stirring up trub. Probably not to any great extent, but there is no reason not to bottle cold and let the bottles raise to room temperature for carbonation. Just my crazy theory, but I'm stick'in to it!



:(:(
oceanselv said:
Fermentation temperature is really not important at bottling time. Use the temperature of the beer when you bottle.
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:(:(





:):)
YooperBrew said:
Correct. That is what I do. Not necessarily the final fermentation temperature, but the highest temperature that the beer was at in the fermenter. Lowering the temperature after fermentation is finished won't really cause more carbonation- although the co2 in there is "held" and not released as much, it's not producing any either.
Click to expand...
:):)
 
The first one you bottle will be cold, the last one will be warm. I bet a month from now you won't be able to tell the difference.
 

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