Cold conditioning- pressurized or not?

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newell456

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I have a blonde I want to cold condition for a week or two. When fermentation is complete, is there practical difference between cold conditioning in the secondary or in a pressurized keg, as far as it will effect the finished product? I'd prefer the keg because it takes up less room, and if I use the keg, I would want at least some pressure to get a good seal.
 
I've never done a side-by-side test to see if there's a difference, but I do all of my longer-term conditioning in kegs. Hit it with enough CO2 to seal, and it should be fine.
 
The only difference is that you are going to have more sediment and schmeg in the bottom of your corney. If you were to cold condition in a secondary (carboy), you would end up racking your beer off of the sediment. When you cold condition in a carboy, the cold temps will make more of the yeast fall to the bottom. This only means that your first pint or two off of the keg will be pretty yeasty. No big deal though.
 
jay075j said:
The only difference is that you are going to have more sediment and schmeg in the bottom of your corney. If you were to cold condition in a secondary (carboy), you would end up racking your beer off of the sediment. When you cold condition in a carboy, the cold temps will make more of the yeast fall to the bottom. This only means that your first pint or two off of the keg will be pretty yeasty. No big deal though.
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I crash cool first before racking to the keg, but that makes sense; I probably will have a bit more sediment. I think I'll decide which way to go for cold conditioning in the future based on how flocculant my yeast is.
 
You can do that too, but don't over analyze this. There are many other steps in the brewing process that can screw up your taste more than this!
 
Thanks for the advice all. I kegged it, but when I drew a sample, it hadn't cleared well. It was racked onto whole strawberries and watermelon juice, so I'm not sure it's just yeast. Should I wait a good week or just add some gelatin? I don't see why I couldn't add gelatin after it's kegged to help it along a bit.
 
You can eliminate the sediment by taking the dip tube and bending it upwards so that it is not right on the bottom. I use a phillips head or torx screwdriver and insert it into the dip tube then bend it slightly more than it is already bent. Other people cut an inch off the tube.
 

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