Cold Crash an Oatmeal Stout?

Should I Cold Crash my Oatmeal Stout before bottling?

Does Cold Crashing only help with clarity or are there other advantages to doing it?

Thanks!

Most people do it as a clarity step, which I personally wouldn't even worry about in a dark oatmeal stout. There are some nuances of flavor differences, but I personally don't see it being advantageous for this style.

But then again, there's no reason NOT to, so if you want to experiment cold crash it for a few days before bottling and see how you like the results.

I cold crashed my last oatmeal stout just to reduce the amount of yeast. If you have space in the fridge to crash it, I would do it.

shanecb said:

Most people do it as a clarity step, which I personally wouldn't even worry about in a dark oatmeal stout. There are some nuances of flavor differences, but I personally don't see it being advantageous for this style.

But then again, there's no reason NOT to, so if you want to experiment cold crash it for a few days before bottling and see how you like the results.

Click to expand...

Thanks! That was definitely what I was thinking. Since clarity is not a factor in a dark beer like this, I wasn't planning on cold crashing unless there was another reason / advantage to doing this.

WoodlandBrew said:

I cold crashed my last oatmeal stout just to reduce the amount of yeast. If you have space in the fridge to crash it, I would do it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! What does it do exactly? I guess reducing the amount of yeast in the final beer will make a difference in the way it tastes?

I do have the room in my fridge. How long do both of you cold crash for when you do it?

Thanks again!

Two days seems long enough to drop most of the yeast out. Some always gets mixed back in when racking, so I never crash more than a couple of days. My goal is 1 million cells per milliliter. if you don't crash it will eventually drop to the bottom of the bottle when you refrigerate the beer. I don't like to see a whole lot of trub in my bottles. the more yeast in the bottom the more will get mixed in when you pour. So it's about both presentation and taste for me.

Thanks again! I read somewhere that some people cold crash for a week, so that's what I'm currently doing with an Irish Red that I'm bottling this weekend. Do you think that is completely unnecessary? Is it harmful in any way?

I cold crashed my last IPA for 2 days before bottling, and it didn't seem to clear up that well. It's still really hazy. Then again, I didn't have my wort chiller built yet, and it took over an hour to get down to pitching temp using an ice bath. I'll pay attention to the amount of yeast that's in the bottom of the bottle when I get home tonight.

It sounds like a experiment I would like to try. I can't imagine it will hurt, and it's possible that the protein takes longer to fall out of suspension than yeast. The only down side I see is that it adds to production time. If the beer was still cloudy after being refriderated for a while (after bottling) I'm not sure that extra time cold crashing would make a difference. It might be a chill haze problem.

"American Amber Ale" I'm at 8 days in the primary and I was planning on cold crashing the primary this Sunday which will be a total of 14 days in primary, no secondary. How long should I cold crash this in the fridge and still have enough healthy yeast for bottling??

dlcumpton said:

"American Amber Ale" I'm at 8 days in the primary and I was planning on cold crashing the primary this Sunday which will be a total of 14 days in primary, no secondary. How long should I cold crash this in the fridge and still have enough healthy yeast for bottling??

Click to expand...

I've cold crashed for over a week and still had plenty left for bottling. Even if the beer looks clear to the eye there's still a ton of yeast in suspension. But cold crashing for 2 or 3 days is typically sufficient for my beers, so would be a good starting point.

You could cold crash for a month and still have enough healthy yeast. Some will get sucked from the cake when you rack to the bottling bucket. Right now I'm running a comparison test of yeast from a starter to yeast that was refrigerated for a month and the performance is indistinguishable.

shanecb said:

I've cold crashed for over a week and still had plenty left for bottling. Even if the beer looks clear to the eye there's still a ton of yeast in suspension. But cold crashing for 2 or 3 days is typically sufficient for my beers, so would be a good starting point.

Click to expand...

Awesome thanks for the quick reply

WoodlandBrew said:

You could cold crash for a month and still have enough healthy yeast. Some will get sucked from the cake when you rack to the bottling bucket. Right now I'm running a comparison test of yeast from a starter to yeast that was refrigerated for a month and the performance is indistinguishable.

Click to expand...

In your comparison test, what are you doing exactly? Are you also making a starter out of the yeast that has been refrigerated or are you just dumping it in as is?

Based on a technical article on this website, I began making a starter with a fresh WYeast pack and I made it 500ml more than I needed for my beer. I put that 500ml of yeast in a sterile mason jar and put it in the fridge. I've done this for my last 3 batches and now have 1272, 1084, and 1098 on hand.

The part that I wasn't sure about, is do I now make a new starter with these 500ml jars and treat them like that are a single WYeast smack pack?

stewart194 said:

In your comparison test, what are you doing exactly? Are you also making a starter out of the yeast that has been refrigerated or are you just dumping it in as is?

Click to expand...

I've been collecting daily data on two fermentations, and will be collecting starting and final data on a matrix of 40 additional fermentations. The daily data is on intermittently shaken starters with an inoculation rate of about 65 million per ml and a 9°P wort. Data is %sucrose, %alcohol, live cell and total cell counts.

The matrix is an array of 3°P to 15°P worts, and four inoculation rates for each of the two yeasts. At the termination of the test attenuation and cell count will be done.

The "inactive" yeast has been in the fridge for a month, the "active" yeast was taken from the "inactive" yeast three days before setting up the culture tubes. It was started in a 9°P wort and shaken intermittently.

For the results you'll have to sign up for my blog.

stewart194 said:

Based on a technical article on this website, I began making a starter with a fresh WYeast pack and I made it 500ml more than I needed for my beer. I put that 500ml of yeast in a sterile mason jar and put it in the fridge. I've done this for my last 3 batches and now have 1272, 1084, and 1098 on hand.

The part that I wasn't sure about, is do I now make a new starter with these 500ml jars and treat them like that are a single WYeast smack pack?

Click to expand...

Either way has worked fine for me. Estimating 2 billion cells per ml of thick settled slurry should get you in the ball park for a cell count. (It varies, but for yeast cultured with DME this seems to be about where most of the cell counts lay.)

Awesome! Thanks! I'll probably just keep making starters out of them and always keep 500ml in a mason jar afterwards. I've read that after 5 or 6 times it's best to start over with a fresh pack of yeast. Something about wild yeasts and other organisms getting into the yeast over time.

WoodlandBrew -
How can I measure milliliters? I just checked out my yeast stash and all of them have about a 7mm thick yeast cake at the bottom of each jar. They are 1 pint mason jars. They are full of wort / liquid, but the yeast cake itself is only around 7mm thick.

When I filled them, I had just pulled the flask off of the stir plate so the yeast was definitely in suspension if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

If you have another pint jar use a table spoon fill it to Te same level as the one with the yeast. That will give you a pretty good idea of the volume. Or, if you have a scale that weighs in grams you can use that. One gram is one millilter... Well pretty close one ml is .9983 grams at 25°c if memory serves.

Thanks! I measured it out this morning and each jar has roughly 3 Tablespoons of yeast at the bottom. 1 Tablespoon is roughly 15 milliliters, so each jar has roughly 45 milliliters of Yeast. 45 x 2 = 90 billion cells. A WYeast smack pack has roughly 100 billion, so that's pretty close. I will always make a starter with the cultivated yeast just to be safe.

Thanks again!

WoodlandBrew said:

I cold crashed my last oatmeal stout just to reduce the amount of yeast. If you have space in the fridge to crash it, I would do it.

Click to expand...

Exactly, I cold crash everything just for the fact I can. Also nice having some cold beer to taste before it goes to bottle....