Chilling during primary

I was planning on putting my primary fermenter in a spare fridge around day 14, and leaving it there for a week. I will be removing air lock, covering with foil for suck back, etc. any other issues or advice. I don't think I have a way of chilling incrementally over several days as I have heard others do.... Will this be a problem?

What are you attempting to do by doing this?

I would use an airlock to maintain a seal as foil allows the possibility of too much air which will ruin your beer...unless you really like green Jolly Ranchers.

blasbek said:

I was planning on putting my primary fermenter in a spare fridge around day 14...

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Why day 14? I would advise you to make certain the beer has reached its terminal gravity before dropping the temp to typical refrigerator temperatures.

...and leaving it there for a week.

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Are you doing this in an effort to "cold-crash" your beer for clarity and cleanliness?

I will be removing air lock, covering with foil for suck back, etc.

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Is there anything else in the refrigerator? I would be less concerned about suck-back than using only foil as a barrier.

any other issues or advice. I don't think I have a way of chilling incrementally over several days as I have heard others do.... Will this be a problem?

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only other advice would be to buy a Johnson controller or similar device to control the temperature of the fridge you are using.

Are you trying to cold crash? Or lager?
I'm a little wary of just foil on the top. If it gets skewed or gets a split or just doesn't cover completely, it might let in some contamination.

Yes, cold crash, not lagering.


I read various posts about using sanitized foil and securing it firmly to the fermenter. It seemed fairly foolproof and avoided any water being sucked in from airlock. Fridge has lots of bottles of beer in, nothing else. And day 14 as I always do 2 weeks in primary.

blasbek said:

Yes, cold crash, not lagering.

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It should be fine for cold-crashing. Again...I would take gravity readings to ensure terminal gravity and I would keep the airlock in rather than the foil. You do not want to add oxygen to your beer at this point (at all).

I read various posts about using sanitized foil and securing it firmly to the fermenter. It seemed fairly foolproof and avoided any water being sucked in from airlock.

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Water suck-back (I use a Star San solution as my airlock liquid) is far less worrisome than oxygenating your beer.

Fridge has lots of bottles of beer in, nothing else.

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Invest $60 in a Johnson Controller.

If I cold crashed, I would be putting the beer into a fridge set to 30-32 and crash quickly, not slowly over a week period, after a few days I would rack while cold. Again, I really don't see the point of foil, it isn't air tight and adds extra work to accomplish what an air lock is designed to do.