I have problems finding time to make beer due to my work and travel schedule. Right now, I have a single batch in the fermenter, and nothing else to drink nor in the pipeline. Looking ahead, I see the chance to bottle, carb and then cold condition the current batch at the same time I am cold crashing the next batch. I want to do both of these things in the same chamber at the same time and head to London for ten days. I have an old fridge and an Ohmbrew Fermostat, so I should be able to automate temperature changes. Both brews will be basically the same Citra/Mosaic APA recipe.
So, some questions:
1. Is ten days too long to either cold condition or cold crash?
2. What's the best temp to cold condition? What's the best temp to cold crash? What's the best compromise between the two? Is there a point where the cold condition temp is too cold? I.e., if 46F is my desired drinking temp, will it matter if I've conditioned for a time at, say, 36F?
3. The Fermostat lets me program multiple temp changes if I want to. Do I want to? Should I either crash slowly, or maybe bring the temps up slowly for my return date? Crashing slowly might stop suckback, but will it have any side effects I don't know about? I confess I don't really know how to think this through, but it sure would be nice to able to simply pop open a 46F bottle from the first batch when I get home. Would it be bad if my cold crash was warmed up to 46F by then?
4. I expect to dry hop the second batch and to use a hop bag. Can I just leave the bag in for the entire crash?
So, some questions:
1. Is ten days too long to either cold condition or cold crash?
2. What's the best temp to cold condition? What's the best temp to cold crash? What's the best compromise between the two? Is there a point where the cold condition temp is too cold? I.e., if 46F is my desired drinking temp, will it matter if I've conditioned for a time at, say, 36F?
3. The Fermostat lets me program multiple temp changes if I want to. Do I want to? Should I either crash slowly, or maybe bring the temps up slowly for my return date? Crashing slowly might stop suckback, but will it have any side effects I don't know about? I confess I don't really know how to think this through, but it sure would be nice to able to simply pop open a 46F bottle from the first batch when I get home. Would it be bad if my cold crash was warmed up to 46F by then?
4. I expect to dry hop the second batch and to use a hop bag. Can I just leave the bag in for the entire crash?