Cold crashing question

[TwoHeart]

I've got an IPA that I just racked to secondary. I would really like to cold crash, but I don't have room in my fridge, or a spare one to do it. However, I do have a big freezer chest in my garage. I was wondering if I can put it in the freezer, and unplug the the freezer just before the beer freezes and let it sit in the middle of some ice bags in the freezer for the next two days. I'm thinking the freezer should stay pretty well insulated for a day or so.

If this will work, when should I cold crash? And from what I've read, two days seems about right? I was also thinking about throwing in some gelatin to really clear up the brew.

 

[libeerty]

You would want to get it cold before using gelatin. But it's a good idea. Just put a cup of water in there with thermometer before you put your fermenter in there. Don't want to accidentally freeze it. 2 days with gelatin makes it clear, a week and you will be amazed.

 

[TwoHeart]

You would want to get it cold before using gelatin. But it's a good idea. Just put a cup of water in there with thermometer before you put your fermenter in there. Don't want to accidentally freeze it. 2 days with gelatin makes it clear, a week and you will be amazed.

Thank you good sir.

I was thinking of just putting it in there for about an hour and then unplugging it. I would have to put in a similar sized container of water to check if I want to be more precise. Me thinks the cup of water would absolutely freeze before the brew was cold enough to unplug the freezer.

Should I dry hop while the cold crash? And I'm assuming that I should bring it out of the cold crash and back to room temperature before bottling?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[libeerty]

I guess I was thinking you'd unplug for a bit before you put the keg in. I have no idea how long it stays cold though? If you're there to monitor, then it's fine.

I would dry hop first, then cold crash. Dry hop is best at warmer temperature, and the gelatin will pull some hop floaties down.

 

[AnOldUR]

This?

 

[TwoHeart]

This?

 

[libeerty]

I think OP just wanted to use it to cold crash temporarily.

 

[jdeere_man]

If I were going to use it for brewing generally speaking I would just wire up an external control. You might be able to mod the internal thermostat to do what you need, but and external digital unit is easy to adjust without guesswork for different temperatures required for different processes. I use a dual stage with one side cool and one side heat because my freezers are in a garage (winter). I just wired mine up with plugins so there was no permanent modification to the freezer. It just plugs into the controller like a household outlet.

That said a deep freeze, in a frozen state full of frozen food, will stay cold quite a while unplugged. How long it would stay cold with only a carboy of beer I have no idea. It would also depend on the ambient temperatures. If this a one-time thing you can probably get by with baby-sitting it. If it were me I'd wire up a controller.