Cold Crashing Temp. vs. Storage Temp.

So here is my dilemma…

My keezer has 5 taps and I like to have 2 or 3 kegs waiting on-deck. I have just recently discovered the benefits of cold crashing. Is it a bad idea to cold crash a beer @ 40F and force carb and store it at 68F - 70F (since I don’t have any room in my keezer and no other means to keep it cool)?

I know temp fluctuation is bad for other liquids (especially milk) but didn’t know if the same rules apply to beer/alcohol.

TIA!

John

Why not just rack it to the keg, hit it with co2 , purge, hit with more c02 and set it aside at 68-70f until you want to use it, then put it in the keezer?

You could force carb by shaking for 5 minutes if you wanted it ready and cold in a day.

Edit, I always cold crash my fermenter to settle out before racking.

As long as you're storing your beer at room temp in a keg, you might as well naturally carbonate. In addition to the advantage of the beer being ready to serve as soon as you get it cold, active yeast in the keg will scavenge oxygen, reduce diacetyl, and metabolize acetaldehyde.

If you like hop character in your beer, you can even do something like a hop tea gyle.

944play said:

As long as you're storing your beer at room temp in a keg, you might as well naturally carbonate. In addition to the advantage of the beer being ready to serve as soon as you get it cold, active yeast in the keg will scavenge oxygen, reduce diacetyl, and metabolize acetaldehyde.

If you like hop character in your beer, you can even do something like a hop tea gyle.

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I almost suggested natural carbing, but us kegging guys normally try to avoid yeast in our finished product. In this case it is a great idea.

But is there any concern about going form 40F (cold crash) to 70F (storage) and eventually back down to 37F (tapped)?

But why the cold crash? I figured cold crash was always to settle and clear the beer...? I personally wouldn't warm it up after carbing, but can't say what it would do. Probably nothing as beer tastes fine from storeroom floor to cooler.

Actually curious on this myself now... I pulled a keg a while ago that was on tap for a bit cuz it wasn't great, it has been sitting for a couple weeks, wondering if I could chill it and use again... mmmm seems far fetched.

TheSlash said:

But why the cold crash? I figured cold crash was always to settle and clear the beer...? I personally wouldn't warm it up after carbing, but can't say what it would do. Probably nothing as beer tastes fine from storeroom floor to cooler.

Actually curious on this myself now... I pulled a keg a while ago that was on tap for a bit cuz it wasn't great, it has been sitting for a couple weeks, wondering if I could chill it and use again... mmmm seems far fetched.

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As long as you were serving it using CO2, that really isn't much different from your "storeroom floor to cooler" statement...

Cheers!

I've really not seen a lot of difference in clarity with my naturally carbonated kegs. My very clearest beer ever was a naturally carbonated keg of Tripel, in fact.

944play said:

I've really not seen a lot of difference in clarity with my naturally carbonated kegs.

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I have definitely seen a MAJOR difference in clarity after cold crashing though. I wish I would have known about it sooner!

I'm still not clear going from cold to warm and back to cold is a bad thing though so I am going to be a little clearer about my proposed process.

I will cold crash the beer @ 40F for 2 or 3 days.

I will then rack to a keg.

I will force carb @ room temperature for ~3 days @ 68F.

I will then let the keg sit @ room temperature until I have an open tap (anywhere from a week to 3 months out).

I will then tap it @ 38F.

So, as you can see, the beer is going cold (cold crash) to warm (force carb and storage) and back to cold (tapped). I know going from cold to warm and back to cold with foods and liquids is usually a bad idea but I didn't know if that applies to beer that is fully carbed and in an airtight container.

John

Agree with everything John says. The only difference in my routine is that I try to cold crash in the low 30's.

The only other thing I'd worry about if you are force carbing at room temp is that liquid absorbs o2 much easier at lower temps, so it could be difficult to get the right amount into it. I'd probably put it on 30psi.

i don't think the temp swing is going to have that much of an impact since fermentation is complete. of course it's going to condition faster at higher temps, but depending on the style that might be fine. i pulled a pale ale out of the kegerator for 2 weeks because it was still pretty green when i tapped it. tastes great now!

Hi folks -
I tried cold crashing for the first time on a SNPA clone. I did this because I wanted to get as much clarity in the beer as possible. Anyway, I do my secondary (conditioning) in a keg but decided I wanted to bottle some of the batch. So, since I was going to have to bottle carb some, I figured I would just get the sugar solution into a second (sanitized) keg, take the cold crashed keg and draw off a couple/few pints to get the fallen trub/excess yeast, then do a keg to keg transfer of the rest to the keg with the sugar solution, and then use that as the source for the portion I was going to bottle.

Well, I should have known better as the first keg produced a little beer, and then stopped. I tried upping the pressure a bit, and also tried forcing a little gas in the bev out, but to no avail. I finally gave up, vented the pressure and racked from that corny to the one with the sugar solution and then did the bottling.

I guess what I am asking here is if I am going to use a cold crash technique, should I do that prior to transferring to the secondary (i.e. on top of the primary and its yeast cake?), or is there some other trick I am missing?

Thanks.

Ferment as you normally do, then after secondary, cold crash for at least 48 hours (I usually do it for a week), then keg it and you will have clear beer.

Hi John I know this is an old thread but I was wondering what kind of results / insights you may have had? I was hoping to do the exact same thing.

Cheers

Gamba, once you have cold crashed and racked off of the yeast cake, you should be able to carbonate and store at room temperature. I have let beer ferment in primary for a month until it was quite clear, racked carefully to kegs, carbonated, and stored the finished product in kegs, all at basement room temperature around 68* F / 20 C. They come out well. Once it is off of the trub and yeast cake and carbonating it is finished beer that is maturing. Heat and repeated temperature swings are best avoided, but at steady temperature until chilled for serving, you should be fine. I think it was Brew Your Own magazine that had an article comparing results on storing beer cold, at room temperature, in the garage, and in the attic. Beer in the latter two did not hold up well, but the former two gave little if any difference.

gamba said:

Hi John I know this is an old thread but I was wondering what kind of results / insights you may have had? I was hoping to do the exact same thing.

Cheers

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I assume you are talking to me. Cold crash your fermented beer then rack it to a keg and carbonate. Works every time. Not much more to say about it than that.

It's really easy to get clear beer. The only other thing I can say is to rack it to keg immediately upon removing it from the fridge you cold crash in. Try to be very gentle with the carboy/bucket as you can easily disturb the yeast cake if you jostle it around. Don't drive it around or anything like that. The fridge I cold crash in is literally 5 feet away from the counter I place my bucket on to rack out of. No jostling.

That's awesome thanks guys. I was concerned about the temperature swings but on second thought i think I'll have to get SWMBO to tell me we should get another fridge.

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