how cold is too cold-crashing

for yeast viability, how cold is too cold?

would 24* kill the yeast, or would i only have to worry about freezing bursting cell walls?

i would like to bottle, and do not wanna repitch. kinda defeats the purpose of cold crashing, i went a little too cold tho

Well since 24* is below freezing, I'd say you'd have another problem on your hands.

I usually cold-crash around 35 degrees.

Yeah, flyangler, but it also depends on the composition of the beer, how much alcohol, etc. 24f doesn't necessarily mean frozen beer---but I would guess that the yeast aren't too happy in any case. To be safe, I'd rehydrate half a packet of dry neutral yeast like US-05 or nottingham and mix that into the beer when you mix in the priming solution at bottling.

Since 28°F is usually the temperature at which most beer freezes, 24°F would obviously seem too cold. So, to answer your question, "freezing" is too cold. If, for some reason, it didn't actually freeze, then you're fine.

Evan! said:

Yeah, flyangler, but it also depends on the composition of the beer, how much alcohol, etc. 24f doesn't necessarily mean frozen beer---but I would guess that the yeast aren't too happy in any case. To be safe, I'd rehydrate half a packet of dry neutral yeast like US-05 or nottingham and mix that into the beer when you mix in the priming solution at bottling.

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Quite true, Evan! Without knowing the specific ABV of the beer in question, I'm only speculating. Odds are pretty good that the yeast is tits up.

Jason

I dont crash cool if I`m bottling a beer, only with kegs. The beer goes through a mini fermentation in the bottle and will clear on its own in time. Time in the bottle will clear your beer. That being said I usually only bottle beers that you only drink one or two of in a sitting eg. Imperial stouts, spiced winter beers, barley wines etc.,the slammers all go into the keg.

24 is probably too cold. The only time that kind of temperature would come into play is if you were making an Eisbock (awesome stuff). I'd imagine it would fall out quite nicely, but the yeast would, in fact, be done.

not the slightest bit of ice in the bucket....

should be a 6% beer

17* is to low let me tell ya ... Took a few days in the fridge to thaw out . Beer was crystal clear though and went straight to keg.I am really glad this one was in a plastic bucket and not the BB, bucket has a noticeable bulge in it now.BB most likely would have split

since mine is still 100% liquid, would this mean the yeast should be able to carbonate? any general concensus?


thanks for the idea thus far

nosmatt said:

since mine is still 100% liquid, would this mean the yeast should be able to carbonate? any general concensus?

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I don't see why not. Some homebrewers "freeze" yeast in a glycerin solution and they can still ferment.

hope it works out!

damned beer was CLEAR!
it's sitting in a closet that ranges from 67-69 right now for the next few weeks. we shall see if it carbs up.

if it does, i have a new crash cool meathod for the next few months. no fridge space taken up either.
if it does not, i have alotta bottles to open and start over!

I bought an old Kenmore refrigerator modified with two tapper handles in the door - I checked the model and serial numbers online and the source I found said it was made in 1985, 27 years ago!

The guts all look very clean and in good condition - I cut down a bucket so I could cold crash in the freezer, and put a thermometer in there last night. The freezer settings are on their warmest setting.

This morning before I left for work it read 15 degrees F - I'm probably going home to a 4 gallon beer cube, even at 7.5% ABV.