Cold Crashing Advice

I've got two beers fermenting, an Abbey Ale that has been in primary for about 2 weeks and a lightly hopped pale ale that has been in primary for one week.

I am in the middle of a keezer build, putting it together as I have the money. Right now I've repurposed a compact chest freezer by putting an 8" collar on it and adding a Ranco controller. Kegging equipment will have to come later when I've got more funds to spend on it.

In the meantime I thought I could use the keezer to cold crash. From what I've read I can simply set the Ranco to about 40 degrees and put the Abbey Ale in it for the next week. I can then pull it out, rack it to my bottling bucket and bottle.

What do y'all think?

I would let the abbey ale sit another week and 2 for the pale ale. Give the yeast time to clean up. If the yeast are in the process of cleaning up diacetyl or acetaldehyde and you cold crash too early, you may end up with long term off flavors. That being said you can crash like you mentioned but I personally crash in the low 30's.

Agree ... three weeks to fully ferment then test with hydrometer make sure the SG is stable and at or near the FG target, then cold crash. I use my basement brew room (about48 to 52). Just put a Centennial IPA down there after dry hopping, it was 21 days in the bucket and a stable SG right at the target FG. Will let it crash until next weekend when I will bottle it. Which means I can brew a Hopped up Rye Pale Ale I been planning.

I agree to leave them for a bit longer. But you are correct in cold crashing, just place it in the freezer/fridge at around 35 degrees for a few days and rack to keg. Easy peasy. Best advice I can give though is get an S-type airlock to use for cold crashing. Dropping the temp in the fermenter will cause a vacuum and suck the liquid from 3 piece airlocks and blowoff tubes.

Yeah, I was going to go 3 weeks in the fermenter for both of them. I'm just trying to get my ducks in a row for next weekend.

Thanks for the advice.