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Cold crash carboy first or wait until I rack to keg?

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Shawn3997

Will brew for beer.
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I just bought my first kegging setup that will be here in a few days. In the meantime I have a freezer and Inkbird already set up. Should I cold crash the carboy and then transfer to keg and pressurize, or should I transfer warm to keg first and then cold crash and pressurize?

Or does it matter? Is there a possible yeast issue if I cold crash the carboy with beer on the yeast too fast?
 
Cold crash fermentor first. Then transfer the (much) clearer beer to a keg.

Just be careful your carboy doesn't freeze during the process!
Probe placement can be critical.
 
Cold crash fermentor first. Then transfer the (much) clearer beer to a keg.

Just be careful your carboy doesn't freeze during the process!
Probe placement can be critical.

Thanks! I have the probe taped and rubber banded to the side of a glass beer bottle and that's set on the bottom of the freezer. I set the freezer to 32F so that the beer can get close to 31F (it's a lager). Does this sound OK?
 
Thanks! I have the probe taped and rubber banded to the side of a glass beer bottle and that's set on the bottom of the freezer. I set the freezer to 32F so that the beer can get close to 31F (it's a lager). Does this sound OK?

Start your temp settings a little higher, for all security, and see if they correspond to the actual beer temps inside the fermentor. I would NOT use a glass beer bottle as your probe gauge. That small bottle may freeze up and burst. A small container is good, less mass, faster response, but don't use glass. Most of us put a piece of packing foam as insulation over the probe, to reduce temp influences from the surroundings. From the inside out: Container Wall - Probe - Foam - Tape or strap.
 
Here's a couple pics showing what @IslandLizard just said. I cut a channel in a piece of closed-cell foam, then use a bungee cord to hold it tight to the fermenter so the probe is picking up the fermenter temp not the ambient temp.

In the interest of gender equity I use both pink and blue foam.

probefoam.jpg
fermchamber2c.jpg
 
Moved the probe to a 12oz. aluminum (full) can and insulated it from the air with some cloth and rubber bands. Thanks!
 
As with anything in home brewing, there are several ways to do things. So, I am going to say that absolutely you can cold crash in the keg. Before I made some process changes I did this all the time. Closed transfer into O2 purged keg, pressurize keg, crash in keg with temperature control exactly as mongoose and islandlizard have suggested. Advantages: not having to deal with suck back and possible resulting oxidation problems because the keg is already pressurized, carbonate while cold crashing. Disadvantages: first pours are yeasty throwaways, some hop particle control in beers dry hopped in the fermenter is required (really tiny particles transferring to keg pose little problem and will drop in the keg cold crash - first pours yeasty and hoppy).

Worked for me.

Cheers
 

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