What is Cold Crashing?

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B192734

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So I've been doing a lot of reading both here and in the mead forum as well, and have been seeing the term Cold Crashing quite a bit. I'm not totally new to brewing, but I have never heard that term before. What does it mean? Is it just dropping the temperature of your wort before bottling, or what? Confused...
 
Yes, it is dropping the temperature before bottling. What it does is removes the yeast from suspension and lets everything settle on the bottom of the primary. It makes for clearer beer and is an alternative to using a secondary as a method of clearing.
 
How do you Cold Crash something? I have a carboy getting ready to go into bottles in a few days. How cold do you try to get it, and how fast? And does it affect the yeast for carbonating?
 
How do you Cold Crash something? I have a carboy getting ready to go into bottles in a few days. How cold do you try to get it, and how fast? And does it affect the yeast for carbonating?

I have a dorm fridge converted to a fermentation chamber. Others have done it with a cooler. You want to get it down to the upper 30's lower 40's. There is plenty of yeast in suspension even with cold crashing and should be enough for bottling. I got this info from the pres of my HBC that is also a brewer at the Wynkoop. I have never done it but I am going to do it with the Pliny clone I made once I get my sake to stage 2 this weekend.
 
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