Cold Crashing, gradual cool down?

I have an extract batch (Irish Amber) that has been in the primary in my Fermentation fridge for about 12 days. I have the temp control set to 67F and it has been at that temp +/- a degree or 2 the whole time. I am going to take the second hydro reading tonight. I need to have it ready for a wedding on Aug 8th. I am looking to cold crash in the next day or so. then bottle

Do people generally gradually decrease the temp down to say 55F or so or can I just dial it down?

thanks,
zman

I would go gradually because you are bottling. You'll probably be fine either way though.

The theory is that a sudden drop can shock the yeast into dormancy, therefore fewer yeast will be available to carb your beer when it's bottled. It's unlikely that a sudden shock would cause ALL the yeast to go dormant, but since you are in a hurry, I wouldn't risk it as fewer yeast may mean a longer time to carb up fully.

Just slowly move it down over the next 24-36 hrs. 5 degrees at a time.

If you were kegging I don't think it would matter. I just drop mine immediately. Same goes for when I lager.

I think the 5 degrees per day is a good rule of thumb. Thanks for the help.

You also have to factor in that you're cooling down a big volume of liquid. You can turn it down 5 degrees, but how long do you actually think it's gonna take for the beer to cool down that much? The way I do it set the final temp that I want and let it ride, it's not going to reach it's final destination immediately. I also cold crash at 32F.

I keg, though.

I am not going to bottle until Sunday at the earliest. I have a thermometer on the carboy so perhaps I will float between a 5 and 10 degree drop each day. my ferm chamber is a 5.2 cu ft mini fridge. I just do not want to send the remaining yeast into hibernation

zman said:

I am not going to bottle until Sunday at the earliest. I have a thermometer on the carboy so perhaps I will float between a 5 and 10 degree drop each day. my ferm chamber is a 5.2 cu ft mini fridge. I just do not want to send the remaining yeast into hibernation

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then that's perfect. if you really needed to crash immediately, for whatever reason, it wouldn't send all the yeast running. I am 100% confident it would still carb. Worst case it would take an extra week or 2 to carb up. But in your case that would be very bad!

Yeah, I do remember reading a post yesterday and it was said that if you crash cool and bottle condition it generally takes around 2 weeks longer. Maybe decide what's more important, a possibly clearer beer or a carbed beer. Or you could simply not drop the temp as low like you were saying.

I dropped the temp down to 59 and probably leave it there to play it on the safe side and bottle it on Sunday. That way I have about 3 weeks in the bottle. I do not have AC but I have a Basement that stays in the low to mid 60's. Thank you all for the advice.

59 isnt cold crashing. FYI, we cold crash down to 34-36* for 3-4 days and never have a problem with our bottles carb levels. I would also just dial it all the way down, good luck!

zman said:

I dropped the temp down to 59 and probably leave it there to play it on the safe side and bottle it on Sunday. That way I have about 3 weeks in the bottle. I do not have AC but I have a Basement that stays in the low to mid 60's. Thank you all for the advice.

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I cold crash in my fermentation freezer. The temp probe reads close to the temp of the beer so I'll just set it at 34 and let the freezer drop to well below freezing while it cools the carboy down as quick as possible. I don't ever remember having carbing issues with this, but I've been kegging for a while so it has been a while since I cold crashed -> bottled.