Why Cold Crash?

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McLovinBeast577

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I'm wondering 3 things....

1. What are the reasons for cold crashing? In other words, what does it accomplish?

2. At what stages in the homebrew process do people cold crash and why do they do it at that stage?

3. What temperature do you have to get it down to in order to successfully cold crash your beer?
 
1. To make the yeast drop out and clear your beer.
2. Just before packaging for the reason listed above.
3. As cold as you can without freezing.
 
The quick response:

1. It helps to clarify the beer

2. You cold crash after fermentation is complete.

3 I would imagine any tempature under 50 degrees would be acceptable. I continuely dump ice into the container that holds my ferment (which is surrounded by water) for 2 days and I see excellent results.

I'm sure you can find specific answers.
 
Okay cool. I also heard people cold crash so that they can add certain ingredients like molasses or fruit without having the yeast ferment out any of the flavors...?
 
Yep. It helps to clear your beer and is done when fermentation is done. I also do it because I keg, and CO2 is more readily absorbed in colder liquids. Beer is cold. CO2 is cold. I drink sooner.
 
I started cold crashing the last 2 batches. I'm drinking a beer o kegged last night and its clear
 
McLovinBeast577 said:
Okay cool. I also heard people cold crash so that they can add certain ingredients like molasses or fruit without having the yeast ferment out any of the flavors...?
Click to expand...

Not a workable plan. Even after a week-long crash at in the mid-30's, there's still plenty of yeast in the beer to eat that stuff once it warms up to a temp at which the yeast can operate. Now, if in addition to crashing you add potassium sorbate (0.5 tsp per gallon) when you rack out of the primary, you can flavor and sweeten without the yeast going to town on it. I do that on my ciders (which use ale yeast), but then if I want to carb them up, I must do so with a CO2 tank/reg.

Other benefits of crashing are that it really helps to firm up the trub layer (making it harder to pick up in the siphon) and results in much less bottle trub if you sugar carb. I do mine at 35*F for 5-7 days.

McLovinBeast577 said:
So when taken back to room temperature the yeasties will stay flocculated, correct?
Click to expand...

Not as well as if you prime/bottle it cold. There's no reason to warm it back up before bottling. Once the beer inside the bottles warms up, the yeast will wake up and eat the priming sugar.
 
BigFloyd said:
Not a workable plan. Even after a week-long crash at in the mid-30's, there's still plenty of yeast in the beer to eat that stuff once it warms up to a temp at which the yeast can operate. Now, if in addition to crashing you add potassium sorbate (0.5 tsp per gallon) when you rack out of the primary, you can flavor and sweeten without the yeast going to town on it. I do that on my ciders (which use ale yeast), but then if I want to carb them up, I must do so with a CO2 tank/reg.

Other benefits of crashing are that it really helps to firm up the trub layer (making it harder to pick up in the siphon) and results in much less bottle trub if you sugar carb. I do mine at 35*F for 5-7 days.



Not as well as if you prime/bottle it cold. There's no reason to warm it back up before bottling. Once the beer inside the bottles warms up, the yeast will wake up and eat the priming sugar.
Click to expand...


This makes more sense now, thanks!
 

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