How long should I cold crash my IPA?

I have 5 gal of high gravity IPA fermenting and will be done this Saturday (its now Wednesday), and was planning on cold crashing it. How long should I crash it? This is probably a commonly known thing, but as you can see from my rating I'm brand new at this. This is my first non-kit batch and I don't want to screw it up.

It depends. you could get away with 3-4 days minimum. 7 days is better.
Did you dry hop? with pellets or leaf hops? Did you use a bag or just put them in the fermentor?

Any time from 8 hours to several weeks is ok (though doing it for that long is more like lagering). I don't have a fridge to crash cool my beers, so I set them outside either overnight for for a couple days when the weather is cold.

It's up to you, your reasons for crash cooling, and your equipment/capabilities!

"How long should I cold crash my IPA? "

0-7 days depending on how thirsty you are....

PassionatePigBrewery said:

I have 5 gal of high gravity IPA fermenting and will be done this Saturday

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slightly off-topic, but how do you know it is done this saturday? yeast doesn't follow a calendar, it can be faster or slower than advertized.

I like to ferment for 3-5 days then dry hop for 3-5 days then cold crash for 3-5 days. It all varies depending on what's happening. I add dry hops when the fermentation stops being exothermic. I cold crash a few days later, maybe depending on my mood. Then I'll package it a few days later, depending on my schedule.

Ideal for me is brew Saturday, dry hop Wednesday, cold crash Monday, gelatin Thursday (optional), keg Saturday, drink Friday (will not be very well carbonated, but good enough for me!)

sweetcell said:

slightly off-topic, but how do you know it is done this saturday? yeast doesn't follow a calendar, it can be faster or slower than advertized.

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Being brand new, I'm kinda just doing what I'm told (2 weeks). The fermentation kicked up crazy at first, but its barely been bubbling lately so I think it should be good by Saturday.

chalkdust41485 said:

It depends. you could get away with 3-4 days minimum. 7 days is better.
Did you dry hop? with pellets or leaf hops? Did you use a bag or just put them in the fermentor?

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No dry hop.

I only cold crash for 48 hours max. If the bad stuff hasn't fallen out of the brew by then and really cleared at 34 degrees, guess what.... it's going in my beer

PassionatePigBrewery said:

Being brand new, I'm kinda just doing what I'm told (2 weeks). The fermentation kicked up crazy at first, but its barely been bubbling lately so I think it should be good by Saturday.

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Hopefully those instructions you got also tell you to use your hydrometer to check the gravity, probably right about now since it's been 2 weeks and your airlock has stopped bubbling frequently. Then measure the gravity again with your hydrometer 2-3 days later and make sure it's still the same. Because as it was mentioned, yeast doesn't really follow a concrete schedule.

Visual cues are helpful but unless you measure your gravity you can't really be sure if fermentation is over and sometimes that happens in a few days, other times a few months. Bottling too soon can lead to exploding bottles or super carbonated fizzy beer so it's really worth verifying

I've never cold crashed a beer in my life prior to bottling. Irish moss works wonders and so does just leaving the stuff in your fridge for a few weeks before drinking it if you're worried about clarity. If it's your first few batches I wouldn't worry about this step. This is the kind of thing people worry about once they've locked in their basic process and are starting to worry about the details.