Bottle Priming: temp to use for calcs after cold crashing

Hi all,

I've got a Saison that's been sitting in a keg at room temperature w/ no carbonation for a week, after being in primary for 4 weeks. I'd like to cold crash it for a couple of days for clearing, then prime and bottle it. The charts, equations, and online calculators all take into account the temperature of the beer to correct for residual carbonation. My question is: should I use the cold crash temp in the calcs, where the beer will have been for a short time when I go to bottle it, or should I use the temp that the beer was at when fermentation completed? The temp delta makes a significant difference in the amount of priming sugar.

I guess a third option would be to allow the beer to come back up to room temp and sit a few days after crashing to remove all doubt.

What do you think?

I think use the fermentation temperature.
There won't be enough CO2 produced during cold crashing to reach saturation for the lower temperature.

I have the same question actually, can anyone clarify?

Say you have 2 batches to bottle and you want both to have 2.5 volumes CO2.
One is an ale that has fermented out at 70F,
the other is a lager that has fermented out at 50F.
Since the ale is warmer, more CO2 escaped out of the airlock.
So you would need 4.5 ounces of corn sugar versus 3.5 ounces for the lager.

Cold crashing doesn't magically create more CO2.
The ale will still need 4.5 ounces after spending a day in the fridge.

Gotcha, that's what I figured, but I wanted to be sure. Thanks Hairy

If you are bottle conditioning your beer, you will not want it at 50F anyways. I'm not quite sure what charts you're looking at, but they may have to do with kegging (force carbing) your batch. Different temps will require different pressures to get to the desired carbing levels when force carbing.

If you are bottle conditioning though, all priming sugar measurements are based off of temps right around 70F. There is no way the bottles would carb if you stored them at 50F, unless you were using lager yeast strains.

Also, it does not matter what temperature your beers FERMENTED at. All that matters is what temperature you're bottle conditioning your beer at. Just because you cold crashed one batch and didn't do that to another on does not mean that you need two different amounts of priming sugar. The conditioning temperature is what matters. After you cold crash your beer and rack to the bottling bucket, BOTH batches will be primed and stored at the same temperature.

Are you referring to the carbonation level based on beer temps calculations? Like Palmer's monograph, or the calculator in most software like beersmith?

IF so you calculate it based on the temp of your beer at bottling time. You take the temp, calculate the amount of sugar water you need and bottle as normal...

But honestly most of us who cold crash just let the beer return to room temp and add the usual amount. It's easier that way.....Just pull the beer out of the fridge the night before you plan to bottle, and it will be ready to go when you are the next day.

Use the highest temp the beer ever was after fermenting. Lowering the temp will not produce any more C02 but raising the temp will gas some off.

Sorry to resurrect a slightly old thread, but I wanted to clarify for my situation. I have a lager that I fermented at 50 and am now lagering at 32. I did not do a d-rest, the highest temp it's gotten to is probably about 55 when I transferred to the lagering vessel. If I understand things, I agree with Revvy above - as long as the bottling temperature is the highest temp that it's been. I would like to bottle this in a week or two. Should I:
1. Bulk prime by transferring right out of the lagering vessel into a bottling bucket and use the nomograph for 55 degrees, assuming it won't get over this temp when I bottle? (it might)
or
2. Let the beer warm up to room temp overnight and use this as my temp, bulk prime and bottle. I know this will allow some of the CO2 in solution to leave, requiring more priming sugar.

My point is to not save priming sugar, it's cheap. I just want the proper carbonation in my beer and I wanted to see what others do. I may be a rarity, bulk priming and bottling a lager. I'd be willing to bet most keg.

Is 55 degrees to low of a temp to rack into my bottling bucket? I have everything prepped and ready to go????? I need to start reading ahead of time.I am brewing True brew Pale Ale with Muntons Ale yeast.

Malticulous said:

Use the highest temp the beer ever was after fermenting. Lowering the temp will not produce any more C02 but raising the temp will gas some off.

Click to expand...

^^^^^ This is correct.

I understand that, but i was curious as to whether or not if i primed at 59-61 F would it produce a bad carbonation? i am using 5 oz of priming sugar

The temp of the beer in the primary is 59-61 and i was wondering if i racked it and stored the bottles at a temp of 70 -72 F would i get sufficient carbonation?