Cold crashing - Step by step vs. All at once

[mgr_stl]

For those of you who cold crash in a temperature-controlled fermentation chamber, do you just set it to the desired temperature (around 35 degrees F) or cool it down in increments? I have been doing the step by step decrease in temp (about 5 degrees F every 12 hours), but it's kind of a pain and takes longer, so I'm interested to hear from you folks about what you've had success with.

 

[CJ1]

I just turn down the fridge temperature to 2 degrees (STC-1000 is in Celsius) and call it a day. Transfer to bottling bucket or keg after a couple days.

It has worked great.

 

[Beernik]

I drop mine about 5F at a time. Not so much because I'm worried about hurting my beer, but I keep other stuff in my ferm chamber that I don't want to accidently freeze.

 

[wobdee]

I just set it and forget it. Usually drops in 12 hours or so with my setup and have never seen any I'll effects. I've read as long as you are at terminal gravity you should be fine.

 

[mgr_stl]

So for those of you who go to the target temp all at once, do you remove the airlock and use foil to avoid suck-back?

 

[beernut70]

So for those of you who go to the target temp all at once, do you remove the airlock and use foil to avoid suck-back?

I turn it down all at once. Sometimes I use foil or I take a piece of rolled up paper towel and soak up some of the sanitizer in the airlock so it barely covers the holes on the center piece. I use three piece airlocks.

 

[CJ1]

So for those of you who go to the target temp all at once, do you remove the airlock and use foil to avoid suck-back?

I replace the airlock with a rubber stopper (plug). It's made for the same size hole, and I think it cost around 30 cents.

 

[QuercusMax]

If you're using a chest freezer, you can get get a more gradual chilldown and still doing it the lazy way if you take your temperature probe off your fermenter and let it sit in the open air.

If you're using a fridge, it probably doesn't make any difference.

 

[Yooper]

Remember that the definition of "cold crash" is to chill the beer- quickly. It's the sudden temperature drop that actually helps the sediment and suspended solids drop.

I don't cold crash much in a carboy any more, as I just keg first, but when I do (like for wine), I do pull off the airlock and cover the opening with sanitized foil and a rubber band around that.

 

[BowAholic]

If I'm taking mine out of the 68* freezer, racking to secondary, and putting it in a 50* room for a couple of weeks...do I need to remove the airlock?

 

[acidrain]

If I'm taking mine out of the 68* freezer, racking to secondary, and putting it in a 50* room for a couple of weeks...do I need to remove the airlock?

Better safe than sorry, but why would you even do that? It's not crashing it.

 

[BowAholic]

Better safe than sorry, but why would you even do that? It's not crashing it.

following a recipe that may not be as good as I had hoped... Buried Hatchet Clone-

Fermentation
Primary: 10 days @ 74° F
Secondary: 21 days @ 50° F
Tertiary: 91 days @ 50° F
Age: 14 days @ 45° F

 

[Bassman2003]

The main reason Lager breweries do the slow step down is to protect any yeast they want to stay active through the process. Crashing will put them out of service. Most homebrewers do not need the yeast to be active after fermentation, so crashing is perfectly fine for us.

 

[GHBWNY]

I always rack to another vessel before CC just to promote greatest amount of clearing. Stick it in the fridge @ 34-35F. After 24 hrs., I add gelatin with a single, shallow, gentle stir. Then allow it to sit in CC for another 2-3 days. Remove, allow to warm back up to room temp, prime and bottle. Works every time!

 

[Natdavis777]

I set my chamber to 35F and stick the keg/carboy in and let it ride for however long. Im gone for 15hrs a day so its more convenient to do it all at once.

 

[mgr_stl]

Do you guys count the days of the cold crash toward the number of days for dry hopping? For example, if a recipe calls for a six day dry hop, do you include the two to three days of cold crashing in that six days?

 

[Yooper]

Do you guys count the days of the cold crash toward the number of days for dry hopping? For example, if a recipe calls for a six day dry hop, do you include the two to three days of cold crashing in that six days?

No. Cold slows down the extraction of hop oils dramatically. Dryhopping is done at room temperature.

I don't cold crash, but if I did, I would do it before dryhopping because when yeast drops out of suspension, it "pulls" down the hops oils with it and reduces the "nose" and hops aroma from the dryhopping.

Sometimes I dryhop in the keg, cold, and leave the hops in there for the life of the keg. It takes a couple of weeks to extract the maximum flavor and aroma, while I dryhop at room temperature from 3-5 days for the same effect.

 

[morticaixavier]

The s type airlocks prevent suck back of liquid. They just bubble in reverse.

 

[GHBWNY]

No. Cold slows down the extraction of hop oils dramatically. Dryhopping is done at room temperature.

I don't cold crash, but if I did, I would do it before dryhopping because when yeast drops out of suspension, it "pulls" down the hops oils with it and reduces the "nose" and hops aroma from the dryhopping.

Sometimes I dryhop in the keg, cold, and leave the hops in there for the life of the keg. It takes a couple of weeks to extract the maximum flavor and aroma, while I dryhop at room temperature from 3-5 days for the same effect.

+ this

 

[k1ngl1ves]

I set my stc to 1° and cool it quickly and leave it for a couple of days. I don't worry about suck back as my ferm chamber is already full of co2 from fermenting...

 

[mgr_stl]

I don't cold crash, but if I did, I would do it before dryhopping because when yeast drops out of suspension, it "pulls" down the hops oils with it and reduces the "nose" and hops aroma from the dryhopping.

Interesting. I believe many people cold crash to help get their dry hops to settle out of the beer before bottling, but this time I'm using a mesh bag to avoid the racking cane issues I had last batch. So maybe I'll try the cold crash first followed by the dry hop. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

[Spellman]

In the Yeast book it mentions temperature shock, and how cooling can have the same effects as heating too fast. They can still expel some off flavors if cooled to quickly. I haven't noticed anything too off but I haven't been cold crashing for that long. I think it said something like 12 hrs or longer is fine? I'm sure that will be fine if you are using a fridge. I can get my 10g batch down in 6-8 hrs with my glycol though, so next time I think I may ramp it down slightly slower using my stc-1000+.