Cold Crashing

The typical cold crash is putting your fermenter in a fridge that is set in or around the 30's F.

Wouldn't taking the yeast out of their range do more or less the same thing?

For example using Wyeast 1056 American Ale:

According to Their website, the yeasts temperature range is 60-72 F. If I took the yeast out of that range, say around 50*, wouldn't they drop out b/c they can't handle those types of temperature?

The reason I'm asking this is b/c I don't have room in a fridge to always cold crash and if I could, I'd like to be able to cold crash in an ice chest.

I've done some experimenting, but I'm not too sure if it's really working.

Half-

I think you are correct,theoretically....but it may take a bit longer....try 3 -5 days at 50ish and let us know how it works.

Well, I'm not using that strain and I currently don't need to cold crash anything, but I think next time I do, I'm going to try this method. I seem to use Nottingham a lot and it may be harder to do this with that strain, but we shall see what happens.

Cold crashing does more than precipitate yeast, though. It also helps with chill haze, for example, which is protein related. You can do without it, of course. I didn't have a place to cold crash either, so I did somethings differently. One thing I used to do is to make sure I put the bottles in the fridge for at least a week before drinking. That served the same purpose as cold crashing- it improved chill haze, and caused the yeast to fall out to the bottom of the bottle- giving a nice clear beer.

I have found that 50ish will not cold crash, but just slows it way down. Some falls out, but you are actually still fermenting with most yeast at 50. I tried an experiment with this to back up some previous messing around. Used a 1 gal fermenter and had a cider go from 1.020 to 1.000 at 50 using S04. Took about 2 weeks....so while alot dropped out, it was still fermenting (very slowly)...now taking it down into the 30s made it all drop out and stop fermentation.

Yeah, I know it would be harder to do with some strains. I know it would be hard with Nottingham for example. You can damn near lager with that yeast.

Yooper,

I don't bottle anymore, but I'd like to have a way to speed the process up a bit. There are some beers I find I like green (like some APA's,) and I like to just boost carb em and enjoy them within a couple of days of being in the kegerator.

That's why I'd like to cold crash more.

Thanks for your input,
J

i'm pretty sure the 30's would cause the yeast to drop faster than doing it in the 40-50 range.

android said:

i'm pretty sure the 30's would cause the yeast to drop faster than doing it in the 40-50 range.

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I think the key is the ferment has to be done and a little beyond so that it will floc as much as it will, plus the post above said US-04 which ferments pretty low and if it was cold crashed early it could still work early at 50 if it was too early.

Well, it's not about how fast it happens, but it's more about can it be done without a fridge. I'm just going to do some more experimenting.

Thank,
J

I don't have the fridge space to cold crash either... but I do have an extra cooler that I use... I set the cooler up on a table, put the carboy in the cool, then dump in about 30 lbs of ice and top it off with cold water. The ice will last about 24 hours and hold right at 32*F. I'll usually drain off a little of the water after the ice melts, then add another 10 or 20 lbs, and just let the cooler sit for another 48 hours. The last 24 hours there will be no/little ice, but the water temps will still stay well below 40 degrees. Certainly not the cheapest or most environmentally friendly way to do it, but it's all I got for now.

Jersh said:

I don't have the fridge space to cold crash either... but I do have an extra cooler that I use... I set the cooler up on a table, put the carboy in the cool, then dump in about 30 lbs of ice and top it off with cold water. The ice will last about 24 hours and hold right at 32*F. I'll usually drain off a little of the water after the ice melts, then add another 10 or 20 lbs, and just let the cooler sit for another 48 hours. The last 24 hours there will be no/little ice, but the water temps will still stay well below 40 degrees. Certainly not the cheapest or most environmentally friendly way to do it, but it's all I got for now.

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Yeah, I use A LOT of frozen water bottles and I don't tend to have a problem keeping it in the 40's. I think the deal is to have the smallest possible cooler to fit your carboy in that way you don't have to cool very much water.

OK, now I am even more confused. I have a batch in secondary right now that I am going to bottle next week. It I put it in the fridge and let it set until bottling day, will I still have enough yeast left in to carb up the bottles? When I rack it into the bottling bucket with the priming sugar, do I have to add anything or do anything different then what I have been doing?

ibbones said:

OK, now I am even more confused. I have a batch in secondary right now that I am going to bottle next week. It I put it in the fridge and let it set until bottling day, will I still have enough yeast left in to carb up the bottles? When I rack it into the bottling bucket with the priming sugar, do I have to add anything or do anything different then what I have been doing?

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Yeah, you will, but it may take a week or so longer to carb up. I only crash cool if I'm kegging. I don't worry about it if I'm going to be bottle conditioning. What you can do is let the bottles have their time and then put them into the fridge for a week or so before you want to drink em. It will do the same thing as crash cooling more or less.

HalfPint said:

Yeah, you will, but it may take a week or so longer to carb up. I only crash cool if I'm kegging. I don't worry about it if I'm going to be bottle conditioning. What you can do is let the bottles have their time and then put them into the fridge for a week or so before you want to drink em. It will do the same thing as crash cooling more or less.

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Thanks, that;s what I have been doing but I just keep hearing about Cold Crashing and wondered.

HalfPint said:

Yeah, I use A LOT of frozen water bottles and I don't tend to have a problem keeping it in the 40's. I think the deal is to have the smallest possible cooler to fit your carboy in that way you don't have to cool very much water.

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As a practical matter, as long as it works, don't fix it. However, it is not a matter of having the smallest possible cooler. To cool the carboy, you need both thermal mass and temperature differential.

jeffmeh said:

As a practical matter, as long as it works, don't fix it. However, it is not a matter of having the smallest possible cooler. To cool the carboy, you need both thermal mass and temperature differential.

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Yeah, you're right.