benefits of cold conditioning

[nachov]

Hi Folks,

I´m planning on transferring from primary fermenter to keg;
then priming my keg (with malt extract).

I´m wondering if I should cold crash my beer
before priming my keg or after when I´ve reached my carbonation?

I believe I should cold crash my beer before priming if I plan to
do bottle carbonation (because I don´t want too much yeast sediment).

But if I´m priming my keg, would it get carbonated faster without prior cold-crash? Then I would cold-crash my keg; and filter-bottle straight away.

Besides, can somebody share his experience with cold-conditioning?
I´ve heard that lots of brewers have achieved awesome brews with cold conditioning near 32F.
Clarity apart, I don´t understand what are the benefits of cold-conditioning over conditioning at cellar temp (55-60F).

I´d appreciate some heads up.

Cheers.

 

[BigFloyd]

I'm trying to sort out what exactly it is that you're trying to find out. Cold crashing and long-term cold conditioning (aka cold lagering for X weeks) are mostly for different purposes.

I crash for a week at 35*F even for beers that are going to be lagered for several weeks. I'd prefer to drop out the excess yeast and transfer clear brew into the keg whether I later cold-condition of not. My beers are quite clear and I don't filter.

Cold conditioning/lagering promotes the settling of the phenolic compounds and tannins that are often present after the completion of fermentation. Doing so smooths the flavor of the beer. Depending on the beer, this can take from a couple of weeks to a few months.

Why are you priming your keg with malt extract? Is there a CO2 shortage in your area?

 

[Thakaz]

Co2 also dissolves into beer faster at lower temps, i.e. your beer will carb up in the keg faster.

 

[nachov]

Cold-crashing is used to clear the beer before transferring to a different vessel or bottling. is that right?

I probably misused the words cold-crashing and cold-conditioning.

My plan is to make natural carbonation in my keg.
So, I´ll have to clear the beer and filter it after priming.

I thought I would cold-crash my beer after priming. Instead of cold-crashing before and after priming.

 

[copyright1997]

If you are going to naturally carbonate in the keg, you should do that before you cold crash. You need to carbonate with temperatures that allow the yeast to do their thing, i.e. eat sugar and produce Co2. After that, you "cold crash" to have the gunk fall to the bottom. You could then rack to another vessel, or what I do is just draw a couple pints. Since the gunk has fallen to the bottom, you will be pulling it out when you draw the pints.

However, I must ask....why are you carbonating this way? I ask only because it is more difficult to control the amount of carbonation, although I guess you could carb naturally and use Co2 as required.

 

[nachov]

I prefer natural carb. It creates finer bubbles which I believe contributes to the smoothness of the beer.

I prefer keg carb over bottle carb because I don´t like the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. I can filter from keg and get beer clarity up to my preference.

 

[BigFloyd]

I prefer natural carb. It creates finer bubbles which I believe contributes to the smoothness of the beer.

I prefer keg carb over bottle carb because I don´t like the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. I can filter from keg and get beer clarity up to my preference.

So, you're going to first sugar prime it and then filter once the beer is already carbed? If you filter prior to the end of sugar carbing in the keg, you can filter enough yeast out of your beer that it won't naturally carb. If you filter with a course enough filter to allow the yeast cells through and then naturally carb (which creates its own slight cloudiness and trub), why filter in the first place? I suspect that you'd get just as good of a result by crashing first, racking to the keg, hitting it with gelatin and then adding priming sugar. Have you ever tried that?

If you are going to naturally carbonate in the keg, you should do that before you cold crash.

I've had no problems at all the times I've crashed the primary, racked to a keg then added sugar and let it warm to room temp. It will carb just fine and the cold crash of the primary helps prevent having an excess of gunk in the bottom of the keg.

 

[nachov]

Thanks for your contributions.

If you filter with a course enough filter to allow the yeast cells through and then naturally
carb (which creates its own slight cloudiness and trub), why filter in the first place?

Do you think I won´t be able to filter the yeast with a fine filter (1 or 0.5 micron)
and still retain the natural carbonation ?

I suspect that you'd get just as good of a result by crashing first, racking to the keg,
hitting it with gelatin and then adding priming sugar.

I´ll give it a try.
I already had good result with the use of gelatin.

Maybe I won´t have to filter at all.
I would just chuck the first pint out when bottling.
Because that would be the gunk from the bottom of the keg.

Concerning cold conditioning vs cellar temp conditioning:
what temperature are we talking about in cold conditioning?
Does it really improve the beer compared to cellar conditioning (55-60F) ?

Cheers