any point in cold crashing a stout?

[aidan]

I'm guessing cold crashing won't do anything cosmetically for a stout, is there any other benefit to cold crashing? any point in cold crashing a stout?

 

[Stuntman]

Personally, if I have the room, I cold crash everything. Problem is the room for me.

 

[user 21663]

Since I keg I cold crash everything to drop out as much yeast as possible.

 

[aidan]

Personally, if I have the room, I cold crash everything. Problem is the room for me.

So what's the payoff of cold crashing a stout or a dark beer?

 

[TheSeether]

I find a great deal of yeast clods to be unappealing when contrasted with a dark bodied beer. Cold crashing should ostensibly reduce the amount of yeast that transfers to the bottle (assuming you crash before bottling).

If you have the time and room then why not do it? Otherwise, no worries, really.

 

[gr8shandini]

The payoff is that you drop the yeast out of suspension. It's not just a cosmetic thing, you can taste the yeast if there's enough of it (think hefes).

 

[str8wire]

Yeast suspended in a dark beer causes more light to be reflected and causes the beer to appear lighter in color. Also, just because it's dark doesn't mean it should be cloudy. pour some into a hydrometer test jar...even dark beers can be clear enough to read through

 

[SumnerH]

Yeast suspended in a dark beer causes more light to be reflected and causes the beer to appear lighter in color. Also, just because it's dark doesn't mean it should be cloudy. pour some into a hydrometer test jar...even dark beers can be clear enough to read through

Exactly. Just like you can have pale frosted glass or dark clear glass, you can have light cloudy beers (many hefeweizens are quite light) and dark clear beers. A cloudy stout just doesn't look right, on top of tasting funny if there's enough yeast in suspension.

 

[MikeMayhem]

Is there any need to cold crash a stout that has been in a secondary?

I just brewed an english oatmeal and racked to secondary on a bed of course coffee grains (in a muslin bag). I'm debating now if I should have cold crashed the secondary before bottling.

 

[SumnerH]

Is there any need to cold crash a stout that has been in a secondary?

I just brewed an english oatmeal and racked to secondary on a bed of course coffee grains (in a muslin bag). I'm debating now if I should have cold crashed the secondary before bottling.

If it's clear, no need to cold crash. If not, cold crashing or fining or both can help.

 

[Countrysquire]

Just kegged a Vanilla Porter from AHS last night that I'd cold crashed for 48 hours as opposed to my normal 24 hours. The yeast cake was MUCH more solid, so much so that within two seconds of stating the siphon, the beer in the racking cane was free of any visible yeast as opposed to 7-10 seconds. The end result was that I ended up with more beer than my Corny keg would handle and had to fill four bottles.

I'll be kegging a Czech pilsner next week, so it will be interesting to see how well it clears it up with the additional time in the keezer.