cold crash?

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RugenBrau

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I've been making cider for a few years and this site has taught mehow much I don't know! It is a great resource and thanks to you all. Could someone please tell me what cold crash means? Thanks
 
It means that you put your carboy somewhere cold, a refrigerator generally or outside or in a basement if either is sufficiently cold. The cold forces the sediment in solution to collect and drop to the bottom of the carboy. This can be used to quicken clearing, or some people use it to stabilize the brew by hopefully removing all of the yeast in solution so after a racking, no yeast remains.
 
Right you are...but I just want to mention for safety reasons....
Cold Crashing will NOT stabilize your brew (or wine) I cold crash ALL THE TIME, and never have a problem bottle carbing.
 
Right you are...but I just want to mention for safety reasons....
Cold Crashing will NOT stabilize your brew (or wine) I cold crash ALL THE TIME, and never have a problem bottle carbing.

I think maybe what he meant was cold crashing and maintaining a cold temp will work to stabilize, like if I wanted to halt a cider, keg it, and force carb.

edit: It sounds like that's not what he meant after I reread that, but that should still work anyway.
 
Well I should have used more italics and quotations etc, because I would never try to stabilize a cider merely by cold crashing. The idea of just trying to rack off of "all" the yeast to prevent a new fermentation is way to risky. If I backsweeten, I would not hesitate to use k-meta and sorbates.

A few people have poked up recently saying that they just cold crash then backsweeten, and that scares me.
 
I have stabilized ciders by cold crashing for years and it works fine. Last year I put up 20 kegs, four of which I cold crashed with no problems (cold crashing carboys is a pain though). I also bottled over 100 liters last year from individual gallon batches, that I cold crashed at sgs ranging from 1.002 to 1.010 and I had no bottle carbonation over the past year.

You cant stabilize a sweet cider and then bottle carb though - unless you are using some percentage of non fermentable sugar, in which case it will stabilize on its own anyway.

Last year I did have one bottle break - that was with a wild yeast that I cold crashed at 1.020, so I knew I was taking a risk there.

What I do when I cold crash is I rack the cider first. Then I refrigerate for a couple days at about 36F. Then I rack it again into bottles or keg.
 
I'm a noob here but trying to sort out lots of incoming data...

(Hypothetically) I have a given batch that has been in primary for 3 weeks. Airlock activity is nil. Cold Crashing the batch would help clear the brew of sediment but leave me with live yeast in solution, so adding priming sugar to my secondary just before bottling will give me carbonation?
Other than clear vs cloudy, what are the advantages or faults with Cold Crashing?
I've read differant things on the assorted forums here about cold conditioning (I hope that is the right terminology) but it seems the time allowed for carbonization to develop in beer is longer than what is suggested for cider. For beer it's ~3 weeks, while for cider it is a matter of days.
Am I correct in this?
And what about a hybrid, like Graff where the brew is mostly a cider but with beer making ingredients and methods involved in the process?
 
It depends on the yeast that you are using. If you cold crash with ale or wheat yeast, the yeast will flocculate and the resulting cider will be stable (if you are careful not to pick up any sediment on the final rack). If you are crashing so that the cider stays stable (which is what I usually do) it also helps to use juice organic (low nitrogen fertilizer) apples and dont add any nutrients. That way, if any yeast do remain, they wont get very far because of low nutrient levels.

If you use a lager or chamagne yeast, these will typically not floc completely and enough will remain in suspension to continue fermentation.

Also, if you add malt, the yeast is less likely to floc completely

As far as carb time for cider, there are lots of variables: temperature, type of yeast, etc
 
People bottling, it will have SUPERB taste and drinkability after the standard 3 week bottling period for carbonating.


I found this on page 1 of the Graff thread. DOH!! Now I'm bugged, wondering where I read that cider had such a short conditioning period.:confused:
 
graff is not the same thing as cider. depending on yeast, temps and sg at bottling, it can take as little as 24hrs to carb a cider

oooh ok. point taken about the Graff. That is what I'll be bottling first.

And I was correct then, that a cider does carb up in less time. I"ll surf around here some more and see what I can find on determining the time for a given brew.
 
After reading these posts I am a little confused on which is which.:confused:

I am brewing an apfelwein variant containing 3 gallons of apple cider with 2 gallons of apple juice along with 2 lb of dextrose and a package of Nottingham yeast. I read on https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/ that you can add sugar, in my case I want to add a few cans of apple concentrate to my cider and then bottle, let it carb for a while and then stove top pasteurize to prevent further fermentation, allowing a carbonated but still sweet cider. Well I decided that before my apfelwein finished fermentation that I would cold-crash it to speed up the clarifying process since I don't want it to finish fermenting anyways. Will this flocculate all of my yeast out of suspension and not let me bottle carbonate my cider?
 
After reading these posts I am a little confused on which is which.:confused:

I am brewing an apfelwein variant containing 3 gallons of apple cider with 2 gallons of apple juice along with 2 lb of dextrose and a package of Nottingham yeast. I read on https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/ that you can add sugar, in my case I want to add a few cans of apple concentrate to my cider and then bottle, let it carb for a while and then stove top pasteurize to prevent further fermentation, allowing a carbonated but still sweet cider. Well I decided that before my apfelwein finished fermentation that I would cold-crash it to speed up the clarifying process since I don't want it to finish fermenting anyways. Will this flocculate all of my yeast out of suspension and not let me bottle carbonate my cider?

This is my question also. My cider is at 1.060 and I plan to backsweeten with concentrate and some caramel syrup. The notty has mostly settled out. Conventional wisdom says there should be plenty of yeast still in suspension to carbonate, like a beer, after 24 hours of crashing. Or is cold crashing cider that much different?
 
1.060 is pretty sweet. I let mine get to 1.020 or 1.010 ..I wont back sweeten enless its 1.000-.998
 
I'm cold crashing my cider in secondary with the hopes to reduce the strong yeast smell/taste, does anyone have any experience with improving overall taste and drinkability by cold crashing? Used champagne yeast, fermented dry after just 9 days at about 70F
 
I bottled and primed my bottles...
I put them straight into the fridge..I'm worried that I have put the yeast to sleep early and I will have no carbonation? I cracked 1 just now...it's only been 4 days but,,flat as a pancake :( help!
 
Take them out of the fridge and let them warm up a little. Once they get close to the carb level you want, then you can move them back to the fridge.
 
Fill coke bottle half full put out in dark place when coke bottle gets hard test one should be really firm to the touch...
 
Fill coke bottle half full put out in dark place when coke bottle gets hard test one should be really firm to the touch...

True, but it's best to mimic what's bottled (with the "tester"). Meaning filled the same and with a similar size plastic bottle.
 
True, but it's best to mimic what's bottled (with the "tester"). Meaning filled the same and with a similar size plastic bottle.

No the reason you do it half full is it takes longer tlfor it to get hard meaning your not opening to many bottles premature
 
After reading these posts I am a little confused on which is which.:confused:

I am brewing an apfelwein variant containing 3 gallons of apple cider with 2 gallons of apple juice along with 2 lb of dextrose and a package of Nottingham yeast. I read on https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/ that you can add sugar, in my case I want to add a few cans of apple concentrate to my cider and then bottle, let it carb for a while and then stove top pasteurize to prevent further fermentation, allowing a carbonated but still sweet cider. Well I decided that before my apfelwein finished fermentation that I would cold-crash it to speed up the clarifying process since I don't want it to finish fermenting anyways. Will this flocculate all of my yeast out of suspension and not let me bottle carbonate my cider?

This question of will it carb after cold crashing isn't getting answered or maybe I'm confused. I use Cote des Blancs and have the same question
 
If you have not reached the maximum alcohol limit of your strain, then carbonating shouldn't be a problem after cold crashing. Unfortunately, there's also the variable of the particular strain used...if its a hardy strain, you should have any problems carbing. You will just need to bring the temps up to around 70f to get them moving in the bottles.
 
If you have not reached the maximum alcohol limit of your strain, then carbonating shouldn't be a problem after cold crashing. Unfortunately, there's also the variable of the particular strain used...if its a hardy strain, you should have any problems carbing. You will just need to bring the temps up to around 70f to get them moving in the bottles.

Thanks for the info! :mug: But now I have one more thing lol My current cider has reached FG about a week ago and last time I used this yeast I back sweetened and still no carb after a few weeks so I'd assume the same with this batch so that being said if I repitched when I back sweeten would that be a good idea to get the buggers to carb?
 
I don't know if I would call it a 're-pitch' at bottling...it really shouldn't take more than a few grains of dry yeast in each bottle to carb them. I've seen people who make soda/rootbeer use a 'pinch' in each bottle instead of pitching in the bottling bucket.
 
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