Cold Crash Bev. Hefe?

My Bev. Hefe has been in primary for 3 weeks, I moved to a bottling bucket on day 21 just to free up my carboy for another batch.

I am now ready to keg the Hefe and was wondering if I should cold crash the brew before kegging?

I've heard this helps with carbing....

Cold crashing improves beer clarity by promoting flocculation of the yeast and precipitation of cold break material. It is unnecessary in a hefe which is expected to be cloudy. There is a "crystal" version which is clear in which case cold crashing would be beneficial. I am unaware of any benefit for carbonation.

GT

Noooo...first of all cold crashing is for clearing and you generally don't want that with bavarian hefe. As far as carbonation goes, if anything cold crashing could hamper that if you're bottling, because it's the yeast that 's still in suspension that does the carbonating.

I primaried my Bavarian hefe for 2 weeks and then siphoned straight into the bottling bucket. In fact I purposely picked up extra yeast when siphoning to make sure I had a lot of yeast in the bottles. They carbonated in less than 2 weeks, and there was plenty of yeast in the bottle to swirl up and pour into the glass.

Yah, dont crash a heffe, you will lose a lot of the beers character. If you want a clear wheat, brew an american wheat.

Ok maybe I worded this wrong...The guy at the lhbs said I needed to cool the beer though before hooking it up to the c02 tank to force carb. So should I put in keg and then let it sit in the fridge a day before force carbing?

daveooph131 said:

Ok maybe I worded this wrong...The guy at the lhbs said I needed to cool the beer though before hooking it up to the c02 tank to force carb. So should I put in keg and then let it sit in the fridge a day before force carbing?

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Yes... ya cant carb up room temp beer. CO2 wont go into solution well.

He means you need to chill the keg before hooking it CO2 instead of carbing the warm beer. Cold liquid will absorb gas easier. Therefore, it will take less gas and time to carbonate if the keg is cold.

This is different from crash cooling which you would do while its still in the fermenter to knock out a bunch of yeast.

The Pol said:

Yes... ya cant carb up room temp beer. CO2 wont go into solution well.

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Well, you can. It just takes a higher pressure.

Force Carbonation & Carb Table

AnOldUR said:

Well, you can. It just takes a higher pressure.

Force Carbonation & Carb Table

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Really?????

Ha ha, that was my point... sure 30PSI at 70F and you cannot even get 2.5 volumes of CO2 into it. I calculate that to get 4.0 volumes of CO2 into this beer (for style) you are looking at 53 PSI at 70F per ProMash... yowza.

Sure you can mow your grass with scissors too, but it is a little counter productive.

The Pol said:

Sure you can mow your grass with scissors too, but it is a little counter productive.

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Well, again, not really.

If you don't have room in you beer refrigerator there is nothing wrong with this method. Although the pressure is higher, you do not use any more CO2. It just takes more pressure to absorb the given volume, not more CO2. When you're ready to tap the keg, drop the pressure and chill. It will be ready to drink as soon as it reaches temperature.

You know what I meant with my original post... but, that is ok.

If you have a CO2 tank serving other beers and you dont have some wicked 5 regulator setup on your CO2 tank it is really inconvenient to stop serving your other beers while this ONE at room temp sits on the gas at 53 PSI until it is carbed.

If you arent serving other beers, then your fridge isnt full obviously and you have room to chill it and carb it quicker.

The preferred method, for this reason, is generally to cool it to serving temp. and carb, at serving temp you can carb it up in 24 hours. At room temp and 53 PSI it will take much longer. And thusly, this is what the LHBS was talking about.

The Pol said:

You know what I meant with my original post... but, that is ok.

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The Pol said:

Yes... ya cant carb up room temp beer. CO2 wont go into solution well.

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Your original post said that it can't be done and this is misleading the to the OP or anyone else.

You are right. It does take a little more equipment. My CO2 tank is outside the kegerator with a wye splitter after the regulator. One line goes into the fridge the other has a keg connector on it. I have a seperate regulator inside the fridge for serving pressure. The connector outside is used for purging and pre carbing whatever keg is going in next. Haven't really checked, but I don't think it takes any longer to carb inside or out. I just set the pressure and leave it until I need it.

My bad...

BAD POL

BAD POL

I need to go drink more of my botulism infected beer

The Pol said:

The preferred method, for this reason, is generally to cool it to serving temp. and carb, at serving temp you can carb it up in 24 hours.

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24 hours? Is that at serving pressure? Your CO2 must be on steroids!

AnOldUR said:

24 hours? Is that at serving pressure? Your CO2 must be on steroids!

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30 PSI

Then serving pressure.

The Pol said:

My bad...

BAD POL

BAD POL

I need to go drink more of my botulism infected beer

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Yeaaaa!

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