Cold Crashing ?

[abgogal]

I'm sort of new at this brewing thing and have a question. Right now I have an Oktoberfest (extract) batch fermenting in my primary bucket. I'm told it's a good idea to cold crash this beer before bottling. Okay. But as everyone knows a 5 gal bucket doesn't fit into a mini fridge. But when I started this brew I bought 5 1-gal containers of spring water. I discovered those 5 jugs will fit nicely into the fridge. So is there anything wrong with breaking up my beer into 1/5th and refilling those 1 gal jugs I have then after 3-4 days pour them back into my brewing bucket on bottling day? Of course I can't put an air lock on the jugs, but if I back off the caps a bit every day to check if there's any gas buildup, should I be okay?

 

[mac_1103]

In theory there's nothing wrong with splitting up a batch, but it depends on how you do it. What you propose is going to introduce a LOT of oxygen into your beer. At this point you're probably better off just letting the beer clear at ambient temperature in the primary FV. Even if the bucket would fit in your fridge you would need to do something to prevent suckback through the airlock.

 

[D.B.Moody]

Don't do that. It is a terrible idea.

 

[Jeroen79]

I Agree, if you can't cold crash whitout opening don't do it!

 

[hotbeer]

You only need to cold crash it if you are in a big hurry. Even then it doesn't save too many more days. Just leave it in the FV is what many of us do. It might take anywhere from 10 days after pitch to as much as six weeks for it to clear up.

Leaving beer longer in the FV has always given me a good to great beer. The ones I took out of the FV at 10 - 16 days I have just as many I'm disappointed in as I do ones that I'm happy with.

 

[Deadalus]

It depends on the size of the minifridge on whether a bucket will fit. I have three minifridges and they all fit a bucket fermenter or a carboy. Two of them are modified in different ways to do this. One fridge I carved out the door panel and the other, a wine fridge actually, I built a shelf even with the hump to accomodate the footprint of a carboy. The third one is a mini fridge designed to be convertible to a kegerator, so there is no freezer and the cooling panel is situated on the back wall as it is with a kegerator.

 

[apache_brew]

What you described is an oxidation and implosion nightmare. Cold crashing is only something I would recommend if you have pressure rated equipment and the proper prv/gas make up equipment to maintain internal fermenter pressure during the temperature change. I used to fill balloons with CO2 and place them on my airlocks when I just started out using buckets in hopes that I was doing something useful but I don’t think any of it was worth the hassle. Minimize the cold side oxidation as much as possible and enjoy that Oktoberfest.

Prost!

 

[mac_1103]

Cold crashing is only something I would recommend if you have pressure rated equipment and the proper prv/gas make up equipment to maintain internal fermenter pressure during the temperature change. I used to fill balloons with CO2 and place them on my airlocks when I just started out using buckets in hopes that I was doing something useful but I don’t think any of it was worth the hassle.

This seems overly pessimistic. Anything that is airtight can be purged and filled with CO2 at 1 atm. It doesn't have to be a pressure rated vessel. There's a 13 page thread on the subject of closed transfers with a non-pressure rated FV that's been running for over three years.

 

[bellhp]

...the juice ain't worth the squeeze.
Relax , have a homebrew and let the beer sit in the fermenter two weeks , bottle , enjoy.

 

[apache_brew]

This seems overly pessimistic. Anything that is airtight can be purged and filled with CO2 at 1 atm. It doesn't have to be a pressure rated vessel. There's a 13 page thread on the subject of closed transfers with a non-pressure rated FV that's been running for over three years.

just replying on my own behalf. Haven’t read the thread you mentioned. I’ll stick to cold crashing in my keg fermenter & freezer ferm chamber while it’s hooked up to a 5 psi CO2 regulator with check valves and PRV. I envisioned the OP using 1 gallon glass jugs, looking back, they probably meant plastic jugs, either way, I’m not encouraging anyone to pressurize any “airtight” container to 14.7 psig.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I “cold crash” in a bottling bucket at the ambient temperature of my garage and leave for three days to clear. Bottled today after three days at 18C and the beer was clear as a . Chilling helps but it’s gravity plus a protafloc tablet or Irish Moss that clears your beer.

 

[mac_1103]

I’m not encouraging anyone to pressurize any “airtight” container to 14.7 psig.

I wasn't suggesting that anyone pressurize an airtight container that isn't pressure rated. 1 atm was supposed to mean zero gauge pressure. My point was that any airtight container can be purged without the need to pressurize.