Cold-Crashing Question

Before I ask my question, just wanted to say that I tried to look through previous "cold-crashing" threads but I didn't find my answer.

This may seem very obvious, but......

When you cold-crash, you're obviously chilling the beer quite a bit. Then, afterwards, when you bottle, you're returning the beer to room temperature (or close to it). Furthermore, the beer should then sit in said room temp for 10 days or so while it carbs....

Is it ok to take cold beer and let it become warm?? And then ultimately cold again?

Won't that affect it's taste, etc? Making it flat?

Thanks so much for any help. I guess I've always thought that once beer is cold, it should never become warm again, then back to the cold.

 

Cold crashing is a short term process, I've only done it for about 48 hours, to help knock out the rest of the sediment. It has not been primed yet so there will be no worries about it going flat. It typically takes a minimum of 3 weeks to properly carb and condition. 10 days will not be enough, it will be flat at that point. It'll be fine.

 

Are you concerned about skunking? If so, understand that skunking is a result of exposure to light, not temperature.

 

As long as beer or food is sealed I don't think I don't think making beer or food going from cold to warm to cold to warm will do any harm as long as long as the temps aren't enough to transform (cook, melt, cause a chemical reaction). And because the food is sealed you aren't getting any air loss, waterloss, frost etc. no harm is done. It can't make an already carbonated beer go flat because the gas has nowhere to go because it's sealed.

The only issue, I would think, would be the effect on the yeast. Chilling simply makes the yeast go dormant which is fine. Heating it to over 150 or so degree will kill the yeast so don't do that until the beer is carbonated[*]. So what about "stressing out the yeast" at warm temperatures. Well, my limited understanding is that that is only a concern to stalling fermentation by dropping the yeast numbers too low to ferment, or off flavors during fermentation by huge numbers of stressed out yeast while making ethanol. At time of carbonation the yeast and the amount of sugar that the yeasts are eating and the ethanol that the yeasts are making is too low to be significant. Or at least that's my limited understanding.


[*] To carbonate sweet or non-alcoholic beverages such as ginger beer after a few days of carbonation you actually heat the bottles up to 190 degrees to kill the yeasts before they can ferment the sugars.

 

Short temp swings between 33 and 90F shouldn't cause any problems for fermented beer.

 

Just a comment to twistr25:

I always pop open a beer after 7 days in the bottle just to test. Only 1 time out of last 8 batches would I consider it undercarbed.. and barely.

 

I do that as well just to test the progression, but typically, for it to fully carb AND condition properly, it takes 3 weeks.

I have not had a beer yet where I thought, "Man I wish I would have drank all those one week after bottling instead of a month later". That's all I meant.

 

I say the opposite: "Man, I drank all those beers. Wonder if they could have gotten even better."

 

Many thanks fellas!

 

At what stage do you typically cold crash, do you always wait to bottling or do you do it in the bulk. If so do you do it pre or post dry hopping/adjuncts?

 

You typically cold crash for 1+ days (most shoot for at least 2) prior to bottling. This is after everything else is done (dry hopping, fruit additions, reached FG, etc.).

 

I typically cold crash right before bottling in whatever fermenter it is in. However, if you intend to dryhop, I would cold crash first, then dry hop, then bottle.

To me cold crashing in the bottle is just getting it ready to drink

 

I don't remember ever hearing that you cold crash before dry hopping (unless you are dry hopping in the keg). What's the reasoning behind that?

Yeah, I think the only term I've heard for cold crashing in the bottle is "fridge time". Cold crashing should always refer to in the fermenter/bulk.

 

cold crashing is a trade-off. it's not the best for the beer, but bottling a clear beer is more important than the small degradation you get from the temp swings.

overall you are correct: once cold, it's best to keep the beer cold. cycles of warming and cooling will age the beer prematurely. it's not that "it should never" be warmed, it's just that it's best if it isn't.

it will not make the beer flat. once carbed, it's carbed. the gas has nowhere to go (ok there is a slight change in solubility due to the temp change, but i'm pretty sure the difference is imperceptible)

 

For it to be cold crashing it has to be done before it goes into the serving vessel, regardless if that’s bottles or a keg. Otherwise it’s just refrigerating.

It’s recommended to dry hop at around room temperature, so cold crashing before dry hopping would not make much sense. Cold crashing actually will aid in dropping hop particles or whole leafs from your beer along with some of the yeast and other trub. Bottle while the beer is still cold. There will be plenty of yeast still in suspension to carbonate the beer (although it may take a little longer.) Just let the bottles return to room temperature after capping and stay there until the process is complete.

 

Can you get things cold enough a cooler bag with ice blocks to cold crash?

I have also read that cold crashing effects hop aroma, reducing dry hop potency, is this noticable?

Does cold crashing effect carbonation much, peoples experiences seemed to be mixed.

 

You want to shoot for upper 30s, maybe low 40s. So if you think you can get there, go for it.

That's why I said cold crash first then dryhop.

There will be plenty of yeast left in suspension to carbonate. Wait the three weeks at room temp and it'll be fine.

 

Thanks, on 2nd thoughts I might empty my fridge and put that in freezer bags.

 

Ideally you want to be as close to freezing as you can get (so low 30's), but what ever works for you will certainly help. You do not want to let your beer warm back up after crashing until it's been bottled.

Never noticed this at all and I crash almost all my beers. The biggest thing that effects hop character is time. By clearing your beer faster cold crashing can give you the ability to serve sooner, but this advantage is more for keggers and well made hop forward beers like IPA's, IIPA's and some APA's.

Worse case, it may take a little longer to carb in the bottle, but if you normally wait for your beer to drop clear before bottling, the time will balance out.

 

yup, i do this. i call it "cool crashing", since i rarely get the beer below 48*f with an ice bath - but it still does great things for clearing the beer, getting hops and yeast to drop, etc.

 

There's a thread (I'm too lazy to link to it) called "Cold Crashing not worth the trouble" which a guy concludes that with a cooler and ice, cold crashing is ... well not worth the trouble. To which the universal response seemed to be "Well... yeah..."

The OP concluded that although cold crashing in a cooler could be done, it required swapping large amounts of ice the cost nearly 4 bucks for five pounds a few times a day and wasn't worth it because all it did was make the beer a little clearer some of the time.

Well, one person disagreeed most strenuously and insisted cold crashing in a cooler was easy because all it required was swapping at large amounts of ice that costs only 4 bucks for five lbs a few times a day and *totally* worth it because it made the beer a little clearer some of the time.

So, make of it what it what you will. You *can*, with lots ice and lots of swapping, get a cooler of beer to very cold temperatures and with a lot of attention keep it there for a few days. Is it worth it? Well, *I* would look at you sidewise, laugh, shake my head and walk away but there's at least one person out there who says "Hecky yeah!"

 

A smart person would empty their fridge into cooler bags with cooler blocks and put the vessel in the fridge.

Since I don't have kids, a few pints of milk butter, cheese, bacon etc can last a few days in a cooler. I might resent taking some beer out to make space though. I suppose that what the door compartment is for.

 

So... do ya'll cold crash in carboy and the rack to botteling bucket with primer?

 

in the carboy

 

yup.

 

I cold crash almost all of my beers, and I usually try to either rinse the yeast or just harvest some slurry if I intend to repitch it within a week. But last night I read this in Yeast by White and Zainasheff:

Pg. 114 "In addition, if you plan to use the yeast for repitching, you should avoid very rapid temperature changes (up or Down), as they can cause the yeast to express heat shock proteins."

I'm not quite sure what they mean by "very rapid" but this has me somewhat concerned.

 

If you mean crash in the primary fermenter, yes. 5-7 days at 35-36*F in the bucket.