I made an imperial Irish red last friday. Fermentation was quick and seemed to settle down by the end of the day Monday (no I haven't checked the gravity yet). The krausen settled back down and the wort is still now. I've been maintaining a temp of between 64 and 68f to continue to clean up the by products of fermentation (its an Irish Ale yeast with temps suggested 62-72f) and have been using a brew belt to do so. It's almost been a week now and I'm hoping to let the temp settle back to room temp, which would be about 59-60 degrees..."cool crash" if you will. Let's assume the gravity has hit it's FG, should I continue the current temps (64-68f) or would it be okay to drop the temp to my basement temp (59-60f)?
How soon to "cool" crash
- Thread starter trevorc13
- Start date
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I would keep it at fermentation temp for another week. Take a gravity reading and then take another gravity reading 2 days later to see if there is change. If not Cold crash it. (although many people don't cold crash and still have perfectly clear beers)
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trevorc13
Well-Known Member
Yeah I think I'll keep it at optimum temps for as long as possible. I guess I was wondering how long the yeast continues to clean up off flavors after fermentation ends. Also if 59-60f will completely crash the yeast when optimum temp is 62f+, or if they will still do their thing at this temp?
Yeast will usually continue to work at lower temps than advertised on the yeast package. Those temps are just the "optimal" temps. To effectively cold crash you really need to bring your carboy to a lagering temp, high 30's F.
+1 stay below 40F
There should still be yeast cleaning up your beer at that temp, they'll just be doing it slower.
Yep. +1
