Cold crashing using swamp cooler?

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chungking

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Since I don't have an extra fridge to cold crash in, can I just add a ton of ice to my swamp cooler for a few days and crash it there before bottling?

Should I let it warm back up before bottling?

Thanks!
 
This could work, you just have to be careful not to get it too cold. Definitely don't let it warm back up very much, since a lot of the particles that drop out will come back into suspension. At least, that's been my experience. Once I cold crashed a beer and let it sit out overnight, and the next morning, it looked like it had never been crashed.
 
When the beer starts to freeze. Never tried this myself, but my thought is if you make the swamp cooler too cold too fast, you could start to freeze the beer along the side of the carboy. I do think this would be pretty difficult, though.
 
I ferment in a plastic bucket. I figured it'd be like putting ice of some beers in a cooler. I have never had a beer bottle freeze from ice, but I do live in florida
 
I don't think you can possibly get it too cold with ice. Also, keep in mind ice melts fairly rapidly compared to the time it takes to cold crash.

Here is a blog post detailing what you can expect in terms of temperatures:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/09/swamp-cooler.html

because your average temperature will only be about 5 or 10 degrees below room temperature and a fridge is about 20-30 degrees below room temperature I wouldn't expect it to settle much faster. I would expect the clarity to be about the same as just letting it settle.
 
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