Can You/Should You Cold Crash Yeast 1056

I'm brewing a Wheat but used Wyeast American Ale 1056 Yeast because I am adding Orange peel's to the secondary so I was looking for more of those fruity tones.

Batch has been fermenting in primary now for 12 days (I broke my hydrometer unpacking my brewing equipment after our recent relocation) so I am just assuming I will have a settled gravity reading by this point.

I want to rack today onto orange peels I have sanitizing in vodka now for 22 hours and was going to cold crash at 40-45 for another week or so.

I know that the basic concept of cold crashing is to drop out quite a bit of deposits to clear the beer up which in theory sounds like you could do it to any beer you brew... but should you?

If you're doing an American Wheat then you shouldn't cold crash, or do anything to clear up the beer IMHO. Other than that I cold crash almost every beer I make.

wyzazz said:

If you're doing an American Wheat then you shouldn't cold crash, or do anything to clear up the beer IMHO. Other than that I cold crash almost every beer I make.

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Now, I know this beer is suppose to be cloudy but in theory will cold crashing clear up an American Wheat THAT MUCH. All I'm looking for is a reduction in yeast deposits. I have many friends who always try my brews but are still custom to commercial filtered beers. I always, ALWAYS, pplace pouring instructions (Shoulder pour) on my labels so they know how to pour a home brew but still.

I have American Wheats and Hefeweizens go crystal clear by the end of a keg. I always toss a tsp of flour in the end of the boil to try and keep the haze, believe it or not it works pretty well! If they don't like the yeast, then they probably shouldn't be drinking a Wheat Beer, I guess that just means more beer for you!

Outside of this technically being a "wheat" beer, there is no harm in crashing it if that's what you prefer. If you really want to drop yeast and proteins out of suspension, add a fining agent like gelatin and then crash it. Although, I'm not sure dropping the temp to 45F is going to do it. Mind you, I've only crashed my beer once or twice, but I thought you needed to drop the temp to around 36F or 38F.

JJL said:

Outside of this technically being a "wheat" beer, there is no harm in crashing it if that's what you prefer. If you really want to drop yeast and proteins out of suspension, add a fining agent like gelatin and then crash it. Although, I'm not sure dropping the temp to 45F is going to do it. Mind you, I've only crashed my beer once or twice, but I thought you needed to drop the temp to around 36F or 38F.

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You are correct, you'll want to drop as close to freezing as you can. If you want a Kristal then why not use gelatine?