My fermentation chamber (chest freezer) is in my garage and I typically bottle in the basement based on winter temps and a fear of what bugs might be floating around outside (warranted?).
Anyways the first time I used the fermentation chamber I waited 3 weeks and then carried the fermenter downstairs to my basement. Once there everything was stirred back up. I left it for a few hours before transferring to my bottling bucket but still ended up with a bunch of stuff transferring and ending up in the bottles. To fix that I've started bringing the fermenter down to the basement after two weeks at which time I dry hop as required. A week later everything is relatively compacted to the bottom and I transfer and bottle with no issues.
Now I don't have any issues with my beer using this process but based on what I read it seems like it's pretty common to cold crash and being that I have the ability to do it, I've been thinking about how I would go about it.
The problems that I don't really have answers to are: I have to lift the fermenter after cold crashing in order to get the height needed to transfer, this means either a small lift and then risk transferring in the garage and then carry my bottling bucket down or carry fermenter to the basement after cold crashing and transfer down there.
Will both of these options completely negate cold crashing or does cold crashing really compact everything? If so how does everyone transfer after cold crashing without moving the fermenter from the chest freezer?
Thanks
Anyways the first time I used the fermentation chamber I waited 3 weeks and then carried the fermenter downstairs to my basement. Once there everything was stirred back up. I left it for a few hours before transferring to my bottling bucket but still ended up with a bunch of stuff transferring and ending up in the bottles. To fix that I've started bringing the fermenter down to the basement after two weeks at which time I dry hop as required. A week later everything is relatively compacted to the bottom and I transfer and bottle with no issues.
Now I don't have any issues with my beer using this process but based on what I read it seems like it's pretty common to cold crash and being that I have the ability to do it, I've been thinking about how I would go about it.
The problems that I don't really have answers to are: I have to lift the fermenter after cold crashing in order to get the height needed to transfer, this means either a small lift and then risk transferring in the garage and then carry my bottling bucket down or carry fermenter to the basement after cold crashing and transfer down there.
Will both of these options completely negate cold crashing or does cold crashing really compact everything? If so how does everyone transfer after cold crashing without moving the fermenter from the chest freezer?
Thanks
