cold conditioning plan

[Jack]

I have some porter in the primary right now and I want to experiment with some cold conditioning to see what happens.

Just so I don't miss anything basic, I'd like to bounce my plan off you guys:
1. Rack from primary into secondary.
2. Place secondary in refrigerator.
3. Wait three weeks.
4. Remove from refrigerator, wait until an appropriate yeast pitching temperature and pitch more yeast. (Is it necessary to pitch more yeast, or will there still be enough active yeast for bottle conditioning without this step?)
5. Wait a day, mix in priming solution, and bottle.

 

[malkore]

You don't need to add any more yeast. Just recently read a post where a fellow left his beer in secondary for 14 months, and it carb'd without adding any yeast...so 3 weeks is no need to re-pitch.

just make 100% sure your primary has completed...that it went at least 7 full days, and sat at the expected FG (or close to it) for 3 full days.

so step 4 would be to bring back to room temp, mix in the priming solution and bottle.

 

[Got Trub?]

What is your goal for this? A porter is not something that I would cold condition - condition yes but not cold. I'd reserve that for lagers...

GT

 

[Jack]

What is your goal for this? A porter is not something that I would cold condition - condition yes but not cold. I'd reserve that for lagers...

GT

I've always heard people say things like "there are very few ales that aren't improved by cold conditioning" etc. I've heard it cleans up the beer and may remove some of the ale character in the beer, but that it generally results in a cleaner, more drinkable brew.

My heart isn't set on cold conditioning by any means, so I figured I'd just give it a try... unless it's general homebrewer consensus that cold conditioning a porter is a bad idea.

 

[Surly]

I've always heard people say things like "there are very few ales that aren't improved by cold conditioning" etc. I've heard it cleans up the beer and may remove some of the ale character in the beer, but that it generally results in a cleaner, more drinkable brew.

My heart isn't set on cold conditioning by any means, so I figured I'd just give it a try... unless it's general homebrewer consensus that cold conditioning a porter is a bad idea.

Why not brew an Kolsch and cold condition it, rather than a Porter?

I am planning on doing so. I don't have the gear set up to do a lager but have patched together enough to use in this cold weather we are having to do a hybred.

 

[Craig5_12]

I think if you want to try cold conditioning, go for it, homebrewing is all about experiments! I don't think anyone will promise that you'll notice a difference, but hey, at least you tried something new and who knows....maybe it'll be the best porter ever!
On a side note, all of my beers are crash cooled after primary fermentation. I don't use a 2ndary so crash cooling helps to flocculate all the remaining yeast/trub that are in suspension. I get all the beers down to about 35 degrees and they sit there for a minimum of 3 days. A red ale I did sat there for about 3 weeks so technically I guess it was "cold conditioned". This beer took the longest to carbonate (in bottles) than any other beer and I'm sure it's due to spending so much time at a low temp. What I ended up doing was turning the bottles up-side-down and then right side up about once a week. This ensured that there was always some yeast in suspension to eat the bottling sugar. I've actually got an Imperial IPA doing the same thing right now.

 

[Got Trub?]

Some of this is going to depend on the temperature you are conditioning at and the style of beer you are brewing. If what you want is a "cleaner" less ale like beer ferment cool and condition cold. When I brew a porter I'm looking for that ale taste with esters etc and don't want it clean. I do condition it however at the mid 50's - my cellar temp. The other consideration is for long term storing. If you are very sanitary and can keep your beer cold it will keep a long time.

GT

 

[srm775]

I've always heard people say things like "there are very few ales that aren't improved by cold conditioning" etc. I've heard it cleans up the beer and may remove some of the ale character in the beer, but that it generally results in a cleaner, more drinkable brew.

I'm on of those brewers of that mind-set. I think cold crashing and conditioning really helps blend the flavors and age the beer. I cold crash and condition every beer now. Whether it's an oatmeal stout, mild, porter, IPA, Dubbel or Lager, everything goes into the fridge for at least 10 days.

 

[BierMuncher]

Drowning Hops - IPA (AG, Bridgeport IPA Clone w/ First Wort Hopping)

I4. Remove from refrigerator, wait until an appropriate yeast pitching temperature and pitch more yeast. (Is it necessary to pitch more yeast, or will there still be enough active yeast for bottle conditioning without this step?)

There shouldn't be a need to add more yeast.

Even in a secondary, there will be sufficient yeast in the bottom of the vessel. You'll just need to try and siphon a little bit of that yeast into the bottling bucket when the time comes. It will carbonate your beer just fine and settle out pretty quickly.

I don't think cold crashing your porter will hurt anything. Time and conditioning helps all beers. Cold crashing though, is used primarily to force lighter colored beers past the chill haze phase fro a clear beer. If your refrigerator can be better used for something else, just “cool” condition the beer for 3 weeks. Do you have a garage up there that stays above freezing? I have four cornies in my garage now at a nice 40 degrees.