Cold Crash In Bucket

[KarmaCitra]

I've seen a lot of discussion about suck back when cold crashing and I thought maybe this would work until the temp was stabilized. Bc I'm cold crashing in my primary bucket, couldn't I just put a piece of tin foil over he grommet hole in the lid and cover that with something else, like a cap? Nothing would be secured, it would really just be laying on the lid. Anyone try this?

 

[Sailingeric]

Just crack the lid. It will be fine, between the alcohol and near freezing it will be fine.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Ime the 3-6 oz of air that may get sucked back in is not a worry. The beer is fermented and the alcohol and hops will protect it, the oxygen will not oxidize the hops immediately.

If it makes you feel better soak a cotton ball in alcohol and place it on the hole in your fermenter.

 

[KarmaCitra]

Ime the 3-6 oz of air that may get sucked back in is not a worry. The beer is fermented and the alcohol and hops will protect it, the oxygen will not oxidize the hops immediately.

If it makes you feel better soak a cotton ball in alcohol and place it on the hole in your fermenter.

Is this assuming using a standard airlock? My Blow-off tube if filthy and I definitely don't want any of it to get sucked back (fermentation went bonkers).

 

[LLBeanJ]

It should work fine, but I tend to be a little more cautious since one of the two times a brew of mine came down with an infection occurred during the cold crash. I usually don't use an airlock during primary, as my thermowell occupies the airlock port (the fit is semi-loose), so I will dunk a paper towel in Starsan, then roll it into a snake and wrap it around the thermowell where it meets the grommet. When I do use an airlock, I soak a paper towel in Starsan and wad it up and shove it into the top of a dry airlock.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Is this assuming using a standard airlock? My Blow-off tube if filthy and I definitely don't want any of it to get sucked back (fermentation went bonkers).

Yes, remove blow off tubing as that is for active fermentation and seal your fermenter with plastic wrap or foil or something clean with a little vodka if your paranoid. But god no don't cold crash with a filthy blow off bucket with dead fruit flies floating...

 

[KarmaCitra]

I ended up using an empty airlock wrapped in sanitized tin foil. Seems to be OK!

 

[IslandLizard]

I place a small squeezed out Starsan soaked washcloth over the airlock hole. Works like a charm. It stays wet for at least a day.

But I would really prefer to let CO2 stream into the headspace rather than air.

I've cold crashed in kegs, leaving the headspace with 15-20 psi of CO2 for a couple days, without having gas connected. Then blow out the sediment with the first pint or so before transferring to a serving keg using a 3' long transfer/jumper hose.

 

[Smellyglove]

I've seen a lot of discussion about suck back when cold crashing and I thought maybe this would work until the temp was stabilized. Bc I'm cold crashing in my primary bucket, couldn't I just put a piece of tin foil over he grommet hole in the lid and cover that with something else, like a cap? Nothing would be secured, it would really just be laying on the lid. Anyone try this?

This is about oxygen.. I have several 4 inch pieced of pvc hoses where I have melted together one of the ends, so its sealedin one end. If im CCing I remove the airlock while slightly pressing on the lid so I press co2 out and while im doing that I install the forementioned piece of hose and then you have a sealed fermentor.

Then I start CC. Nothing will happen as the volume shrinks as the plastic bucket/lid is flexible enough to bulge inwards as the temp goes down and the volume shrinks.

You can not pull more than one sample of a spigot as this point since the underpressure will not let you, so take a final gravity sample before doing this. You can of course just take a sample as you run the beer into bottles/keg whatever but I dont see why you would start CC before knowing the gravity..

 

[EDF713]

If you don't mind a little air coming back in, an S-type airlock allows air back in without suckback.

 

[Bobby_M]

Yup, I do worry about it and I've finally fixed it. My blowoff tubing goes into a 2 liter bladder and then the bottom of that bladder has a hose that continues to the blowoff bucket filled with some starsan. During ferment, the bladder fills with co2 and continues to vent to the bottom tube. When cold crashing, it sucks co2 from the bladder and that's that. No oxygen in the fermenter and no dirty water or starsan back into the beer. For a typical 5 gallon batch, crashing from 65 to 35 will suck in just over 1 liter of gas. I really don't want 200ml of oxygen in my fermenter not mention any questionable microbes that may be in my fridge.

 

[Smellyglove]

Yup, I do worry about it and I've finally fixed it. My blowoff tubing goes into a 2 liter bladder and then the bottom of that bladder has a hose that continues to the blowoff bucket filled with some starsan. During ferment, the bladder fills with co2 and continues to vent to the bottom tube. When cold crashing, it sucks co2 from the bladder and that's that. No oxygen in the fermenter and no dirty water or starsan back into the beer. For a typical 5 gallon batch, crashing from 65 to 35 will suck in just over 1 liter of gas. I really don't want 200ml of oxygen in my fermenter not mention any questionable microbes that may be in my fridge.

Do you have a pic?

 

[Bobby_M]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jbj7IJ4uZU[/ame]

 

[CudaJoe]

I always use vodka or sanitizer in my 3 piece airlocks. If it does get sucked back in, its shouldnt be an issue.

 

[EDF713]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jbj7IJ4uZU

That's really cool. Where do you get those bags?

 

[vampirebeer]

is that a foley bag? like for urine?

 

[MatterOne]

I always use vodka or sanitizer in my 3 piece airlocks. If it does get sucked back in, its shouldnt be an issue.

It's not the vodka or sanitizer that's the issue. It's the oxygen.

 

[doug293cz]

Here's the solution to suck back. Keeps both blow-off and air from sucking back. And if you want to get fancy, you can even purge your keg with CO2 while fermenting.

Brew on