Cold crash, what is it?

[smellgoats]

I see this phrase used quite a bit. Clueless as to what it means.

 

[Malticulous]

Chilling the beer to near freezing. It drops the yeast and some protein and makes clearer more stable beer.

 

[Rbeckett]

Cold crashing also stops fermentation, so if you have a particularly tasty brew, a quick trip to the cooler will drop out the protiens and yeast and make your brew clearer too. If you target it at about 34 degrees and let it sit for a minimum of three days you will be very happy with the end result. I did it to a mr beer batch and it made a huge difference in the clarity of even that malty brew.
Bob