Question about cold crashing.

[lasseg]

Hey folks..

Been reading the "Brew Like A Monk" and have tried out some recipes. My question is with regards to the lagering at near-freezing temperatures most recipes include. I don't have a fridge big enough for my carboys so I'm looking to doing a secondary at room temp instead. Is this a bad idea? The way I see it, the purpose of the cold secondary is just to crash out the yeast, am I way off here?

 

[cubbies]

You can certainly do a secondary at room temp. There is nothing wrong with that. I use cold crashing to clear my beers, but I still do a secondary at room temp prior to this.

 

[dirtymike1]

How long do you cold crash for? Hours? Days? I'd like to try it out on my IPA to get a lot of the haze out.

 

[cubbies]

Usually at least 7 days. Sometimes longer.

Haze in an IPA can sometimes be tough to get out though because of all the hops. Definitely worth a try though. My beers come out crystal clear after a week in the fridge.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

If you are using a secondary for clearing an ale (not lagering) then you do not need to cold crash. I now have the capacity to do so, and it speeds the process. However, time is your friend, if you are looking for a brilliant clarity and cannot cold crash your brew, here is how to do it.

Set your carboy at an elevated height, at least above the height of whatever you will be transferring into (keg, bottles). This is so you do not need to move the carboy again once it is clear. Then cover the carboy and let it sit. I have found that 1 month is sufficient to drop out almost anything including the majority of chill haze. This is how I did all my beers until about a year ago. Some of the less flocculant yeasts take a little longer (6-7 weeks) but all will clear up eventually. If you don't like the idea of waiting use some gelatin or other clearing agent.

Now if you are brewing a lager, this is a different story all together. Feel free to call me a fool for waiting soo long, but I have found this technique to work quite well. The other benefit of long secondaries is that by the time you bottle, the beer will be ready to drink and you will be much less temped to drink green beer!

 

[dirtymike1]

Well this is gonna be something that I will definately try. I know this one will be "green" because I started it way to late for my buddies wedding. But I will try this next time

 

[discgolfin]

I usually go 1 week to 10 days in secondary at room temp and than another 3 to 6 days cold crash in my keezer..if u dont have the room big bucket with ice water will work nice..Than age in bottle or keg for another month..The chill haze usually is gone after 3 to 4 weeks of cold conditioning for my IPA's. No matter how long I have cold conditioned prior to bottleing u always will have some yeast left to carb them from my experience..u also will have much less sediment in the bottle which is nice as well.

Jay

 

[lasseg]

So.. the consensus seems to be that the cold secondary fermentation so often described in BLAM (as in for instance Chimay Red, 4 days at 20-28 C/ 68-82 F followed by 3 days at 0 C /32 F) is not so much a maturing or conditioning as it is a cold crash to get rid of yeasts.

However...

I still think it's a bit counter-intuitive that these yeast driven beers don't get more of a "classical" seconday fermentation at ~room temp. Just look at the BLAM fermentation regime for Rochefort 10, its a week in primary, then cold crash for three days, then bottling! Sure enough.. the book also goes on to say that for Rochefort 10, the beer should mature for 10 weeks in the bottle. My intuition on a big beer like this would be to do a secondary at slightly lower than room temp for about a month, then bottle.

What's your take on this? Any input will be appreciated.. it's been bugging me for a long time now.. there just doesn't seem to be any answers!

 

[TexLaw]

I haven't read BLAM. For that matter, I have not studied a whole heck of a lot about Belgian fermentation techniques. However, I would be surprised if those monks just put that stuff in the primary for a week and then crashed the temperature.

I want to talk about this with some guys that know more about this stuff than I do. I might just be surprised!

By the way, I tend to crash for 3 or 4 days and then keg.


TL