Cold crash?

[Greynolds16]

Hi everyone, I’m new to Homebrewing and I have a batch due to go into bottles in a couple of days. I’ve heard that doing a cold crash (i.e. putting your fermenter in the fridge) can cause some of the solids to drop out of the beer.
is this doable or recommended? Right now I have a one gallon glass carboy in the hall closet

 

[VikeMan]

A cold crash can do exactly what you said. But unless you have a way of maintaining pressure in the fermenter, I wouldn't recommend it, because air gets sucked in and oxidizes the beer.

If you search on "mylar balloon" here on the forum, you'll see one way to prevent this.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Hi everyone, I’m new to Homebrewing and I have a batch due to go into bottles in a couple of days. I’ve heard that doing a cold crash (i.e. putting your fermenter in the fridge) can cause some of the solids to drop out of the beer.
is this doable or recommended? Right now I have a one gallon glass carboy in the hall closet

Hard to give general advice without the recipe / style, but for many recipes, you can let the beer sit for another week and gravity will cause many of the solids to drop out.

 

[Rob2010SS]

...Or you can bottle the beer, let it carbonate, and then stick them in the fridge and use THAT as your cold crash. It will do the same thing and when you pour it, just leave the last little bit in the bottle to keep the sediment out of your glass.

 

[LBussy]

Cold crashes do help to clear the beer. It's generally most appropriate for Ales - and at that more the British styles. The reason is the yeast even when done fermenting still has "cleanup" to do. Time will also work. At this point in your career, time (and patience) would be a better recommendation.

 

[kh54s10]

I have tried cold crashing but didn't see much of a difference in clarity. What I have seen is TIME. If you wait until the beer clears before bottling it should be just about as clear as a beer that has been cold crashed. That said, I have had beers that I left in primary that never really cleared as much as I would have liked. The beer was great, except still cloudy. That doesn't bother me as long as the beer tastes good.

 

[LBussy]

Clarity, or lack thereof, can be attributed to different things: yeast, proteins, tannins, etc.. Each clears a different way. A cold crash is a non-intrusive way to get some proteins and most yeasts to flocculate and drop out. On the downside, done too soon it can lead to some off-flavors (depending on style) and can stop fermentation prematurely, resulting in gushers. Some fining agents work best when chilled too, gelatin comes to mind.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Wort and Beer Clarification Manual (link to PDF) at Brewing Techniques | BSG CraftBrewing Brewing Techniques | BSG CraftBrewing (link) may be of interest.