Cold Conditioning/Lagering in Primary?

[3toes]

When cold conditioning/lagering, do you typically do so in the primary, or do you transfer it to a secondary or keg?

And if to a keg, do you usually carb first or after conditioning is complete?

 

[3toes]

Also, what's the difference between cold crashing and cold conditioning?

 

[Yooper]

When cold conditioning/lagering, do you typically do so in the primary, or do you transfer it to a secondary or keg?

And if to a keg, do you usually carb first or after conditioning is complete?

I always rack off of the trub before lagering, and I usually do it in a keg.

It doesn't matter if you carb it up while it's lagering or not- either way works.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I could be wrong, but cold crashing generally takes place over a few days prior to bottling. Cold conditioning pertains to ales (lagering for lagers) and is held at the cold temperatures for a week or more.

The idea of either method is to help the yeast flocculate better and settle out any suspended particles, so as to end up with clearer and smoother tasting beer in the bottles. I think cold crashing is more about trying to clear up the beer by settling the suspended materials, whereas cold conditioning does the same, plus it promotes a smoother, crisper taste in the beer.

 

[3toes]

I could be wrong, but cold crashing generally takes place over a few days prior to bottling. Cold conditioning pertains to ales (lagering for lagers) and is held at the cold temperatures for a week or more.

The idea of either method is to help the yeast flocculate better and settle out any suspended particles, so as to end up with clearer and smoother tasting beer in the bottles. I think cold crashing is more about trying to clear up the beer by settling the suspended materials, whereas cold conditioning does the same, plus it promotes a smoother, crisper taste in the beer.

Ahh gotcha. So by cold conditioning, I'm already cold crashing.

 

[Yooper]

Cold crashing means to chill very quickly. So if the temperature of the beer is say 70°, you would simply reduce the temperature to 40 and chill as quickly as possible. The quick chilling causes even more suspended solids to precipitate out.