cold crashing?

What is it? I have heard a lot of different definitions . So what is it and why do you do it and what are the benefits vs. Not cold crashing.

It's to drop the yeast and whatever else is in suspension. Basically to clear the beer. You can the rack to secondary or bottle/keg.

How is it done? And when?

From what little I know you just put the carboy or whatever in the fridge like 3 days before bottling and let everything clear out/fall to the bottom. I had some problems with my last brew during cold crashing, just make sure that you don't have suck-back.

Kevin

Do you still have enough yeast after to carb your beer?

yes, you will have enough yeasties to carb your beer. It might take a couple days more, but everything works out.

What temp is/should be used? Is there a temp that is too cold?

In for more answers.

When I know fermentation is done and I've let my fermenter sit for however long I want it to go for, I put it into my keezer. It sits around 40 degrees and I let it sit for 3 days. Some people go longer, some go shorter. It's whatever you feel like doing really. Cold crashing, you really can't screw up unless you get it too cold and freeze your beer. This is just from my own experience though.

Well how are you supposed to stop suck back?

Suck-back is when the liquid in the blow off tube or air lock is sucked back into the beer due to the drop in temperature (cold crashing)

william2010 said:

Well how are you supposed to stop suck back?

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From what I've come to understand, you don't. Just make sure you have something like cheap vodka in your carb lock, so that if it gets sucked in to your beer it won't cause problems (like bleach would). You could probably also use Starsan since your beer will be coming into contact with it anyway when you bottle/keg.

to prevent suck back which is inevitable since your putting warm liquid to cool and as it shrinks it draws air in u just simply remove your airlock and replace with a clean piece of saran wrap and a rubber band or if its in a carboy just place saran wrap over and smack bung in over it. I been cold crashing last couple batches and it definitely clears your beer some but also i seem to need close to a extra week with higher gravity beers to get carbed. My last brew (Irish red ale) around 5% carbed up and drinkable in about 5 days and seemed fully carbed after about ten days.

I use a sandwich baggie and rubber band.

I just pull the bung out for a sec to equalize the pressure.

I ferment in my cube so swap my screw on cap with airlock fitted for a standard cap. The cube walls get sucked in a bit as it cools and I usually hold it at 1C for 5-7 days.

On bottling day I pull the cube out of the fridge first and let it start to warm up a bit whilst Im getting all of my bottling gear ready and bottles sanitised. Before opening the cap I spray starsan around the top. Havent had any problems so far.

It takes a bit longer for your beer to carb up but then again its got to age for a month before the true flavours come through anyway.

I'm trying cold crashing for the first time this evening. I don't even have a fridge that'll fit my carboy. I do, however, have coolerand a bunch of ice. I won't hit the 35° mark but that's fine. I just wanna play with clarifying my brew.

Jesster said:

to prevent suck back which is inevitable since your putting warm liquid to cool and as it shrinks it draws air in u just simply remove your airlock and replace with a clean piece of saran wrap and a rubber band or if its in a carboy just place saran wrap over and smack bung in over it. I been cold crashing last couple batches and it definitely clears your beer some but also i seem to need close to a extra week with higher gravity beers to get carbed. My last brew (Irish red ale) around 5% carbed up and drinkable in about 5 days and seemed fully carbed after about ten days.

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In what, a keg? I give my bottles 3 weeks to carb up as a rule....

Speaking of this I had a cold crashing related question...if I cold crash for a full 7 day week, does anyone think I may need to add yeast at bottling?

In Palmers book he mentions this for 2+ month lagers.....

Jcoz said:

Speaking of this I had a cold crashing related question...if I cold crash for a full 7 day week, does anyone think I may need to add yeast at bottling?

In Palmers book he mentions this for 2+ month lagers.....

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no

Is it better to do it longer or does it not really matter.

I usually don't crash cool longer than a week, unless I get busy and can't get to it. i haven't noticed any ill effects if it goes longer.

One time I had a carboy sitting in the cold for two months. It was great beer.
Another time I crash cooled for 24 hrs. It was great beer also.

Sometimes I don't crash cool at all. It's also turns out great.


Just my 2c

I'm planning on cold crashing for the first time this weekend and I'm wondering if using a garbage can and several large bags of ice will work enough to clear the beer?

PhelanKA7 said:

I'm planning on cold crashing for the first time this weekend and I'm wondering if using a garbage can and several large bags of ice will work enough to clear the beer?

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I'm also planning on doing it for the first time next weekend. Here's what I found in my experiments so far:

I'm in Southern California so my fermentation closet stays fairly cool. With a rubbermaid bucket with only water, the H2o stays at 64*. A single frozen gallon water jug Brough the temp down to 52*. I'm guessing you can get into the 40s with a frozen gallon and a couple of frozen 20oz bottles. If I remember I'll update next weekend when I try it.

Jcoz said:

In what, a keg? I give my bottles 3 weeks to carb up as a rule....

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Actually in bottles I was shocked it wasnt like fully in the beer carbed but definatly crazy compared to my previous 1 week sampling of a 10 % imperial pale ale. But yes definatly about three weeks for best results im impatient and by the time my beer just gettin good its easily half gone already. Cheers

I have a chiller box I use to ferment ales at around 66F, an old fridge with controller to ferment lagers, and a serving fridge with taps in the front.

If you are on a budget, I strongly suggest building a chiller box! Search for "son of chiller" and you'll find it. Kudo's to whoever designed that thing.

If I'm not lagering, I transfer from the chiller box to the lager fridge, cranked down to ~36F, leave for 3-5 days. In addition to clarifying the beer, it really solidifies the trub, so I can siphon right down to the bottom without picking up much trub. So a side benefit is less beer left behind for clarity's sake.

If I'm doing a lager and I'm really on the ball, I can time the period when my lager needs to be cranked down to the 30's with the time I want to cold crash an ale, and have both going at same time/same fridge. If my serving fridge only has 2 kegs or less, I can transfer from my old chiller box to the serving fridge to cold crash.

Since I started kegging, haven't bottled in a while, but all the experienced brewers confirm that bottle conditioning/carbonating still works fine after cold crash.

From studying more experienced brewers the things that help clarify beer are:
- adding irish moss or whir-flock near end of boil
- QUICKLY cooling wort to pitching temp after the boil. I used a "dual-stage" immersion chiller until I got my Counter-Flow Chiller (CFC)
- having some type of "strainer" arrangement through which you transfer from Boil Kettle to fermentation vessel (carboy or keg)
- selecting a highly flocculant yeast strain
- crash cooling for 3-5 days prior to racking to serving vessel (keg or bottle)

Cheers.

To avoid issues with suck back you just use the S airlocks, bubbles go both ways in them. Fill with vodka just to be safe.

Hopelesst said:

I'm trying cold crashing for the first time this evening. I don't even have a fridge that'll fit my carboy. I do, however, have coolerand a bunch of ice. I won't hit the 35° mark but that's fine. I just wanna play with clarifying my brew.

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I do the same except I add finings (gelatin) 2-3 days before I crash. I usual only crash for 48 hrs then bottle

I ferment in an old freezer with a temp controller. I always use vodka in my airlocks and have not had an issue with suck back messing up a beer. I just pull the airlock off every now and then while it is cooling. I leave all my ale in a bright tank for 14 days, the first 7 is at 67 degrees then I lower the controller to 35 for 7 days. Transfer to a keg and hook up at serving pressure suggested by beer smith to achive carb level I am after at 35F. 10-14 days raise up to serving temp and you have perfectly carbed, clear beer.

Should I take out my dry hops before I cold crash.

william2010 said:

Should I take out my dry hops before I cold crash.

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If you've dry hopped in a hop sock or bag of some sort then yes. If you threw them in loose then no, they will just sink to the bottom with the yeast.

I've considered doing this for some future brews, but while it seems many people have done this without issue, I'm worried about the extra pressure forming in the bottle from the beer warming up during carbonation. Is the pressure added just not enough to worry about or is it more a matter of your cold crash temp vs. your conditioning temp?

Sixmilecross said:

I've considered doing this for some future brews, but while it seems many people have done this without issue, I'm worried about the extra pressure forming in the bottle from the beer warming up during carbonation. Is the pressure added just not enough to worry about or is it more a matter of your cold crash temp vs. your conditioning temp?

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I may be wrong but from what i found on this forum you should bring it back to temp once you have cold crash before putting in the bottle. This is what I have done myself and the beer stayed clear once I started drinking it.