Silly cold crashing questions - logistics

Hey guys,

I've recently moved to kegging and am interested in cold crashing to clarify my beers as much as possible. I've read a little on gelatin and will consider that as well, but am trying to take this in baby steps.

What I haven't been able to find is a step-by-step of how people are cold crashing their beers. Can you help me with:

1. I get that cold crashing needs happen after fermentation is 100% complete and they yeasties have had time to clean up after themselves. I generally leave my beers in primary for a month if I'm not racking to secondary, and 20 days if I'll be racking to dry-hop, add fruit, etc. (10 primary, 10 secondary). Is that enough?
2. Where are you cold crashing? I'm moving to an apartment shortly and won't have room for a dedicated freezer or fridge. I don't think SWMBO will let me clear out the fridge on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to cold crash there.
3. Assuming most people are cold crashing away from where they'll be siphoning to a keg, doesn't moving the carboy stir things back up, in effect negating the effect of the cold crashing?
4. It seems like some people are cold crashing in primary, some in secondary, some in a tertiary keg, etc. Aside from the obvious advantages of reducing the trub at each of those stages, are there advantages to one over the other?

Thanks!

1. Well that depends on the yeast you're using and the beer you're making but for most applications that sounds right.

2. I cold crash in a temperature-controlled 15 cubic foot chest freezer. You can't really cold crash unless you have something cold to put the keg in.

3. When you store your carboy in such a way as it does not need to be disturbed before siphoning to a Keg, then you are not negating anything when you siphon to the keg then move the keg to the keezer.

4. Not necessarily. You can just as easily cold crash in the serving keg. After siphoning the beer out of the primary and into the keg, the cold crash occurs when you move it to the cold location. Over the course of 2-weeks the last bit of trub settles to the bottom of the keg and is then pushed out with the first couple pints. If the keg is disturbed after cold crashing and settling for 2 weeks, it will likely resuspend some trub and haze up the beer so it's important to make sure it's not disturbed if you want the clearest beer possible as some trub will remain stuck to the bottom of the keg even after it settles, clears, and served.

I'll try my best on these. I'm not new to brewing but somewhat new to kegging etc.

1. I'm sure that's enough time. If your fermentation is done, it's done. You can pretty much do what you want after that.

2. I have an extra fridge in the basement dedicated to beer. I count myself lucky every single day. LOL

3. Yes and no. When I siphon I carefully move the carboy to the table and let it sit for a half hour or so to let things settle again a bit. But remember that when you're siphoning into the keg that keg will in effect be cold crashed again when you put back into the fridge. The first pint might be a bit "dirty" but it should be fine after that.

4. See 1. Basically if it's done, it's done. I don't see an advantage to one over the other.

Thanks guys. I suppose I essentially cold crashed in kegs with the last few batches as I was trying to be careful when racking into the keg to leave as much of the trub behind as possible. I did prime in the kegs as opposed to force carbing, so I expected there to be a good amount of yeast in the first few pints but was surprised to see how much longer I was getting sediment in the pints (then again, I was pulling the keezer out from the wall to open the lid and adjust CO2 pressure, which may have been enough to stir things back up again).

On top of cloudiness, though, there were good sized little "chunks" of sediment in the beer which is really what I'm trying to minimize. Probably just me not doing a good enough job of racking.

Took me a while to come up with a full proof system for crystal clear beer that works for me. After fermentation is complete I place the primary in my beer fridge that's in my basement. After 2-3 days I rack the beer to my keg. Before I seal the keg I add a gelatin solution (that I made before racking). I then carefully move the keg to my keezer and purge the keg with CO2. I then shake the beer to mix up the gelatin. Then I place the beer in the basement. When I'm ready for the beer I carefully install tbe keg in the keezer....set the psi for a couple weeks.....first pull has gunk, and after that, look comercial.

Oh yeah, gelatin finings really help with clarity. I personally never use it because of my vegetarian fiance but if you ever want ridiculously clear beer, it is the way to go! There is one major drawback to gelatin though. With its use, you lose a lot of the antioxidant flavonoids that are naturally present in beer so you can't brag to your friends that you're reducing the risk of getting cancer by drinking home brew. Anyway, food for thought.

Hammy71 said:

Took me a while to come up with a full proof system for crystal clear beer that works for me. After fermentation is complete I place the primary in my beer fridge that's in my basement. After 2-3 days I rack the beer to my keg. Before I seal the keg I add a gelatin solution (that I made before racking). I then carefully move the keg to my keezer and purge the keg with CO2. I then shake the beer to mix up the gelatin. Then I place the beer in the basement. When I'm ready for the beer I carefully install tbe keg in the keezer....set the psi for a couple weeks.....first pull has gunk, and after that, look comercial.

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I always put the gelatin into the carboy before I cold crash, then keg after a few days that way all the gunk is left behind.

I have three options for cold crashing: My kegerator (if there is room available inside), my fermentation chiller (which I can get the temp down to about 40*F) or a foam box I made, with the cold coming from frozen bottles.

After cold crashing, I move the bottle to a table for siphoning and let it sit for about an hour or so. The bulk of the yeast and trub stirred up by moving it settles back out.

I use my kegerator, which is a small fridge, not dorm sized. I ferment for the 3-6 weeks, then cold crash for a few days. Then siphon into keg and put back into fridge for serving. Still get a somewhat cloudy first pull, but after that it's usually very clear. I do not use gelatin, just Irish moss whenever I remember to use it.

If you don't have room for a dedicated beer fridge, you can cold-crash using a cooler filled with ice water... I did that a time or two before I got my fermentation fridge. One thing to remember though, is that when you plunge a fermenter that has been sitting at room temp or just slightly below into a cooler of ice water, the drastic temperature change can cause the air pressure inside the fermenter to drop, which will cause whatever is in your airlock to literally be sucked into your fermenter.

Good tips. Thanks all. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to cold crash in the fermentation cabinet I'm in the planning stages of now. I'm building a cabinet that'll house 2 carboys vertically, one on top of the other, using the guts of a minifridge. I may try putting the cooling elements on the bottom and either adding a temperature controlled fan to move cold air to the top chamber when needed or add a heating element in the top to keep it in the mid-60's and the bottom in the mid-40s to 50. This thread has helped greatly though.