Cooling right after fermentation

[JesperP]

Hi guys

I was reading Mitch Steele's IPA book, and i was wondering about some of the fermentation practices in some of the recipes there.

For the recipes of Stone's beer it says that when FG is hit, cool to 17 deg. C for 24 hours, dry hop for 36 hours, and then cool to close to freezing for about a week.

Are there some flavors that are preserved using this method, that would have otherwise gassed off/been broken down during the 3-4 weeks primary that i usually do in my homebrewery. Or is this done to just to speed up the process?

your thoughts?

All the best
Jesper

 

[andhou27]

If you are force carbonating I'd say it's okay, but I'd worry about the suspended yeast if you plan to bottle because they would almost certainly go dormant.

 

[eastoak]

If you are force carbonating I'd say it's okay, but I'd worry about the suspended yeast if you plan to bottle because they would almost certainly go dormant.

even after weeks or months of lagering you still have plenty of yeast for carbonation, this is pretty much common knowledge in brewing.

 

[andhou27]

even after weeks or months of lagering you still have plenty of yeast for carbonation, this is pretty much common knowledge in brewing.

It is also common knowledge in brewing that are many strains of yeast, pretty much broken into ALE yeast and LAGER yeast. Taking an ale that was fermenting at 60-70 C and crashing it to 30-40 C will severly stress the yeast. Lagering at a CONSISTENTLY low temperature and using yeast that are able to thrive in colder conditions is required. Thanks for your insight.

 

[boydster]

even after weeks or months of lagering you still have plenty of yeast for carbonation, this is pretty much common knowledge in brewing.

+1, after cold crashing you should have plenty of yeast in suspension to carbonate in bottles if that is what you are planning.

 

[pdxal]

even after weeks or months of lagering you still have plenty of yeast for carbonation, this is pretty much common knowledge in brewing.

+1 After weeks or months of lagering an ALE or lager yeast, high gravity beer and stressed yeast or not, you will still have tons of yeast in suspension that can carbonate your beer. Unless you filter the yeast out of the beer, I suppose. Dormant yeast wake up with new sugars to ferment and warmer temperatures for conditioning. You can always add champagne or a neutral ale yeast at bottling if you are afraid there is going to be an issue, though.
To the original question... there are tons of dry hopping methods employed by professional brewers, and they generally all work. BYO or Zymurgy recently had an issue discussing the various techniques, you might look it up. The professional brewers own opinions and equipment might influence their methods, but there are lots of variations that work. Scheele is probably in the camp that wants to make some of the yeast flocculate to reduce the possibility of interaction of yeast and hops and dulling the dry hopping flavors, perhaps believes there are some volatile flavors lost, or the possibility of warmer temps causing different or vegetal flavors being extracted. There is not a lot of research proving what actually happens during the process to fall back on.

 

[Nuggethead]

Yea, dont worry about cold crashing. If it was bad for Ale yeast, The suppliers would not be able to keep it under refrigeration in the mid 30's for 6 months and still have it work for us at home...