Cold Crashing?????

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stoneyts

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I've been seeing the process " cold crashing" mentioned a lot here and am unclear about what it means. Tried to search but couldn't get an understanding of its purpose. I am currently dry hopping a Citra pale ale. I forgot to add the irish moss to help clear it. When I added the hops for dry hopping I checked the the beer temp and it was @ approx 72* and the SG was at 1.012. When /how and do I need to "cold crash" this beer? I need to double check the SG on Friday as this will be the 5th day of dry hopping and I plan on bottling it on Sunday so any suggestion on how to proceed would be welcomed.Thanks in advance!!!
 
Cold crashing is for clearing the beer once fermentation is complete. Stick the fermenting container in a fridge for 1-7 days (or longer) and the yeast will settle out of suspension. I rarely resort to cold crashing myself. but it can be very useful...
 
At the end of the ferment the yeast normally clump up and settle to the bottom of the fermenter. This normally takes some time so if you are kegging the beer you need to wait for the yeast to settle or you draw off beer with yeast making the beer cloudy. By chilling the beer in the fermenter the yeast settle out much faster and you can transfer to the keg sooner without the yeast.
 
In short!

It can be either done in the secondary or in the keg!
It's a process of clearing the beer up by using coldness:) a fridge or outside non-freezing winter temps. It allows the beer to become uncloudy or less cloudy.
Done before keg'n or bottling. I typically allow mine to set in keg for 2-3 weeks before I drink.
 
To cold crash, just put the fermenter in the fridge. I've heard of people leaving it in there for 24 hours up to a week. It's like a really short lager, but it's purpose is not to cold condition, just to precipitate out yeast and other particles.
 
So it is done more when kegging than bottling? My beer has been in my primary for what will be 2 wks on Sunday. I'm guessing the SG will be good come Sunday as the FG the kit was targeting is 1.021. If my SG is still the same as the last I'm understanding that it is done fermenting and ready to be racked to the bottling bucket for priming and bottling. Am I on the right track timeline wise? The kit OG was supposed to be 1.075 and I had 1.064. I'm not sure why it was low but think it was a lack of proper blending of the water I topped up to when transferred to the fermenter.
 
You can cold crash with bottling. Just bring it back to 65-70, then rack to bottling bucket with primer and bottle away.
 
So it is done more when kegging than bottling? My beer has been in my primary for what will be 2 wks on Sunday. I'm guessing the SG will be good come Sunday as the FG the kit was targeting is 1.021. If my SG is still the same as the last I'm understanding that it is done fermenting and ready to be racked to the bottling bucket for priming and bottling. Am I on the right track timeline wise? The kit OG was supposed to be 1.075 and I had 1.064. I'm not sure why it was low but think it was a lack of proper blending of the water I topped up to when transferred to the fermenter.

With a beer with an OG that high I would wait longer before bottling. I think you would get better beer that way. The only rush is so you can drink poor beer sooner instead of giving it more time to mature and drink it when it is better.
 
Are you referring to the kits target OG of 1.075 or the OG I read of 1.064? I am certainly not trying to be in a hurry. I am looking forward to trying this but only when it is ready. Will the hops I added last Sunday be in there too long if I wait another week or maybe I should rack it to a secondary? I really wasn't planning to move the beer before going to the bottling bucket. Wanted to try that this time as opposed to moving it.
 
Are you referring to the kits target OG of 1.075 or the OG I read of 1.064? I am certainly not trying to be in a hurry. I am looking forward to trying this but only when it is ready. Will the hops I added last Sunday be in there too long if I wait another week or maybe I should rack it to a secondary? I really wasn't planning to move the beer before going to the bottling bucket. Wanted to try that this time as opposed to moving it.

I don't know the answer to that and I'm not sure anyone can be certain. I've heard that dry hopping is best with 3-5 days, or maybe a week, and with some people reporting that 2 weeks gave them a grassy flavor. I also know of people who put hops in a bag right in the keg and leave them until the keg is empty, including Mac and Jack's Brewing, Washington's second largest brewery. It may depend on the variety of hop too.

If it were my beer, I'd bottle it this weekend if the FG is stable and give it much longer in the bottle to mature, knowing I would lose some of the hop aroma but would gain in the beer flavor. It's a guessing/balancing game now.
 
That sounds like a good plan. I know I planned on 3 weeks minimum in the bottle before trying it so a little longer isn't an issue. I need to brew again soon to keep building my pipeline anyway so the waiting is just part of the game.:mug:
 
I always cold-crash, but only after proper primary fermentation and "warm" conditioning has occurred. If you keg, you can just rack to keg and put in fridge on Co2, then you're carbonating AND cold crashing at the same time. The first few ounces of beer you dispense will have a lot of yeast/trub in them, which you'd discard. Every time you go back to the keg after a day or two, there may be some sediment that dispenses in the first few ounces. This is opposed to longer cold-crashing where you'd have a lot more sediment in the bottom of the fermenter all at once.
 
Cold crashing is a method of clarifying a beverage quickly. you want your cold crashing chamber to be just above freezing, 33-34 degrees. a large majority of your yeast in suspension and other particulates will drop out to the bottom. also this will almost solidify everything that drops so getting a clean rack is much easier. With cold crashing you will get a cleaner product with better clarity. How much this matters is purely personal preference, but most keggers do it so that sludge doesnt move through your beer lines.
 
When you use gelatin fining in conjunction with cold crashing, would you add it before or during cold crashing? Are they separate or concurrent processes?
 
It seems as though this keeps getting tracked toward those who keg but I bottle. Would I have been better letting the batch set in the primary for 2 wks prior to adding the dry hop addition? This would give me a 3 wk time period prior to bottling. Would this be the better plan for the next time I do a beer like this? It's kinda confusing even w/o the cold crash added. I still don't know if I will do that or exactly what my approach will be.
 
It seems as though this keeps getting tracked toward those who keg but I bottle. Would I have been better letting the batch set in the primary for 2 wks prior to adding the dry hop addition? This would give me a 3 wk time period prior to bottling. Would this be the better plan for the next time I do a beer like this? It's kinda confusing even w/o the cold crash added. I still don't know if I will do that or exactly what my approach will be.

Cold crash after dry hop but you can do both at the sane time if you can bag or can filter the hops
 
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