Cold crash before bottling?

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bottlebomber

bottlebomber

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So I've heard recently about a clarification technique, its a great idea really if you have the fridge space, of cold crashing the fermentor before you bottle/keg to get some yeast etc out of suspension. If your kegging that's great, but what about if you are relying on bottle conditioning for your bubs? Is there still enough yeast in suspension to ferment your priming sugar? Im not one to get impatient and post a "why isn't my beer carbed?!" thread 3 days after bottling. A month is fine, but will it work? Or will crashing it remove most or all of the yeast, leaving me with flat brew. If there's anyone who has actually done this id love to hear what happened.
 
Yooper said:
I've lagered for 6 weeks at 34 degrees and had crystal clear beer, and still had enough yeast in suspension to carb up! It'll be fine.
Click to expand...

Oh right, I forgot about lagering.. (never known anyone to do it). Excellent, thank you for that
 
I've lagered prior to kegging (of course, no yeast needed to carbonate that way) but when I've bottled after lagering, I added yeast -didn't know I could get away with it without adding. I'd have thought that they would have all dropped out!
 
My problem is, If you move the fermenter to the fridge, it stirs is up a little no matter how careful you are. Granted cold crashing will settle it back out.But when you move it again out of the fridge to bottle, it would stir up again. I would think that you have to let it set for a day to settle again before bottling. Plus the primer will not mix as good at a lower temp so extra stirring is required to dissolve it in turn risking aeration. My biggist concern is getting the primer into solution evenly(I hate it when some bottles are more carbed than others. But if your careful it should work. I try to keep it simple(which is why I keg the majority of the time)and use Irish moss and leave it in the fermenter an extra week. Crystal clear almost every time. My thoughts anyways.
 
Stevo2569 said:
My problem is, If you move the fermenter to the fridge, it stirs is up a little no matter how careful you are. Granted cold crashing will settle it back out.But when you move it again out of the fridge to bottle, it would stir up again. I would think that you have to let it set for a day to settle again before bottling. Plus the primer will not mix as good at a lower temp so extra stirring is required to dissolve it in turn risking aeration. My biggist concern is getting the primer into solution evenly(I hate it when some bottles are more carbed than others. But if your careful it should work. I try to keep it simple(which is why I keg the majority of the time)and use Irish moss and leave it in the fermenter an extra week. Crystal clear almost every time. My thoughts anyways.
Click to expand...

That hasn't been an issue for me. Sure, it mixes up a bit but you move it but not that much really, and it settles down again really fast.

The priming sugar is boiled in water, put into the bottling bucket, and the beer racked into it. It mixes just fine, as you're not just dumping sugar into a cold solution. I've done it hundreds of times, and it works great!

For a really clear beer, I like to use a flocculant yeast like nottingham or S04. It forms a very tightly compacted yeast cake and even carrying it around doesn't disturb it, especially when it's cold. You can rack right down to the trub and it won't move a bit!
 
Nightbiker said:
I've lagered prior to kegging (of course, no yeast needed to carbonate that way) but when I've bottled after lagering, I added yeast -didn't know I could get away with it without adding. I'd have thought that they would have all dropped out!
Click to expand...

Nope. Yeast are definitely hearty little creatures. Lots drop out, but billions stay suspended also. If I was lagering longer than, oh say 10 weeks, I'd re-yeast at bottling. But certainly for less than 2 weeks or so, the yeast will still be active at bottling.
 
A crystal clear beer (to the naked eye) even after cold crashing still has approximately 100,000 yeast cells per ml. That works out to ~1,892,700,000 cells in 5 gallons.

Unless you lager for an in ordinate amount of time I would see no problem.
 
+1 to Yooper's posts, I've cold crashed whenever possible, never added extra yeast, and never had any carbonation issues... just nice, clear beer w/o any added clarifying agents.
 
Yooper said:
That hasn't been an issue for me. Sure, it mixes up a bit but you move it but not that much really, and it settles down again really fast.

The priming sugar is boiled in water, put into the bottling bucket, and the beer racked into it. It mixes just fine, as you're not just dumping sugar into a cold solution. I've done it hundreds of times, and it works great!

For a really clear beer, I like to use a flocculant yeast like nottingham or S04. It forms a very tightly compacted yeast cake and even carrying it around doesn't disturb it, especially when it's cold. You can rack right down to the trub and it won't move a bit!
Click to expand...

Good to know
 

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