Dry hop, Cold crash, and bottling

I reached my SG on Thursday and added an ounce of Citra and an ounce of Mosaic pellets to my 2.5 gallon fermenter on Thursday night. I plan to cold crash on Monday night. I have some questions:

1. Should I remove the hop sock before I crash? Does it matter either way?
2. How long should I crash?
3. When the crash is over, can I go straight to carb and bottling, or do I need to let the beer reach room temp first? Or, again, does it matter either way?

Anyone?

I don't not bottle I keg but

when I dry I just put my pellets in loose for three days then cold crash

@ 33 f for 72 hours then keg cold

I can't see why you couldn't just leave the hop sock in if you like

but if it is easy to get out you could take it out

I don't why you could not bottle cold then let it warm up carb

I am sure someone who bottle will have a reply for you

all the best

S_M

I am still relatively new to everything but personally, I would remove the sock. Mainly because when you cold crash, it is meant to settle everything and clear up the beer...when you remove the sock I would be concerned that it would agitate everything and cloud your beer back up. Just my $0.02.

Good point. I suppose I could leave the sock in when I rack out, but I also suspect I am not going to get a lot of extra hop goodness by leaving it in when the temps are in the low 30s. I will probably take it out unless someone convinces me otherwise.

I'm assuming your using priming sugar for the carbing. I would recommend warming back up to room temperature first before adding the sugar so the yeast isn't too unhappy.

Also, I don't typically cold crash when bottling and using priming sugar, you will drop a lot of yeast out of suspension. There are usually still enough to carbonate, however will take a bit longer than usual to get there.

I'm gonna recommend against warming it back up to bottle, you will just resuspend some of the stuff that dropped out from cold crashing. I bottle exclusively and have never had a problem with carb times after a few days of cold crashing. Get some of the yeast cake into the bottling bucket if you're concerned. (You don't need to be)

What type of brew is this? Ale or lager

i'm no professional, but i throw pellets in to the fermenter to dry hop for at least 5 days, then cold crash for at least 3 days. i'm brewing 6 gallons usually and it takes a bit of time for it to get down to cold crash temps and stay there enough for stuff to drop out. i then bottle cold as it means i don't have to use as much sugar because more co2 is still present in the beer. that's the only difference, as far as i understand, about warming the beer up or bottling it cold.
with this method i've still been getting the approximate carbonation levels i've been looking for after 3 weeks conditioning time at room temps. with cold crashing i've been getting about 1/4 the amount of yeast sediment in my bottles, yet still the same carb levels after 3 weeks.
if it were me and the hop bag is sitting in the fermenter where it really should be (aka not sitting on top of the yeast cake), i would leave it in during the cold crash. i really don't think it will hurt much if you're pulling it out of the fermenter slow enough. you will bring up more sediment by moving the fermenter in order to rack it into the bottling bucket that you will be removing the bag. and even if less hops goodness is extracted at lower temps, at least you're still getting a little more into the beer in that time.

It is an APA, albeit a little on the low ABV side (5% or maybe a little lower). I plan on using Cooper's Drops to carb each bottle.

Is there any risk of over-carbing this way? I understand that cold wort holds more CO2 than it does at room temps. Then again, the times I have used the drops in the past I thought they could stand a little more carbonation, so maybe I will just wind up where I want to be.

whovous said:

It is an APA, albeit a little on the low ABV side (5% or maybe a little lower). I plan on using Cooper's Drops to carb each bottle.

Is there any risk of over-carbing this way? I understand that cold wort holds more CO2 than it does at room temps. Then again, the times I have used the drops in the past I thought they could stand a little more carbonation, so maybe I will just wind up where I want to be.

Click to expand...

i don't use drops. i personally believe they're a waste of money when i have table sugar already in the house.

i use a kind of conglomeration between these two sites and beersmith in order to determine how much sugar i want to use to prime with. so for example with a darker beer i will aim for the one with the most conservative estimate, but for a paler beer that, in my opinion, should be a little more crisp and carbonated, i go for the more generous estimate. the only odd one out from my brews is that i just brewed a wheat that i am traveling to the US with, and so i went with the conservative side to ensure that it doesn't get too much pressure in the plane. i'm sure i shouldn't be concerned with this, but i am!

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/resources/priming-sugar-calculator/

Well, I've had OK results with them, and the money is already wasted on this bag, so I will use them this time. It will likely finish off the bag, at which time there is a big old bag of dextrose with my name on it.

Dextrose isn't really worth the extra cost, at least in my experience. For the tiny amount in the batch to bottle with regular table sugar works just as well at less than half the price. Even in larger amounts I haven't noticed a difference (added a pound to the IPA I'm brewing today). Pretty sure the beer goes cidery thing is a holdover from old recipes being 30% or more sugar. Also those canned hopped extract kits that are at least 50%.

Your beer will need LESS priming sugar if you bottle cold. I didn't reset temp in Beersmith and I had some over carbed beer after bottling cold. Now I make the adjust meant.