Cold Crashing 90min clone question

[CAbrewing]

Hi All,

I have a question concerning cold crashing. I am brewing a DFH 90min clone this weekend. As you would expect out of a great IPA like this, I will need to dry hop it. I will like to cold crash this beer after dry hopping, however I have a bit of a dilemma.

I will have a hefe kegged in my kegerator that fits 2 h gallon corny kegs. The kegerator is the only fridge I can use for cold crashing. I have a second corny keg open and I was thinking of doing the following:
1) clean / sanitize the keg of course
2) rack the beer from the primary to the keg and dry hop for 5-7 days at 69-70F
2) cold crash in kegerator
3) rack to a free primary I have and seal it with an air lock (+a bit of vodka) (just for a few while I clean and prep the same keg)
4) rack to the same keg and force carbonate

Do any of you see an issue with this? I read somewhere that store a keg of beer at temps higher than 50F can promote bacteria growth. Is this true? if so, hows is dry hopping in the keg any different that dry hopping in a carboy?

Thanks in advanced and sorry for the long post.

Cheers,
CAbrewing

 

[RM-MN]

How about leaving the beer right in the primary and do the dry hopping right in there? Make sure the ferment is completely done before you dry hop. Then you can cold crash the primary, transfer to the keg one time and you're done.

 

[aiptasia]

+1 to this ^

The more racking you do, the greater risk for infection or off flavors.

 

[CAbrewing]

Thanks for the replies. One transfer is definitely my preferred option, however I cannot fit the primary in the fridge with the other keg. It can only hold two 5 gallon corny kegs. Not one 5 gallon corny kegs and a 6.5 gallon carboy.

Would there be any issue disconnecting the Hefe and taking it out for the 1-2 days I'll crash cool? Would the beer be affected even though the keg would remain sealed with CO2? Temp changes an issue?

Thanks again for the replies!

 

[peterj]

I think taking the Hefe out for a couple days would be just fine. Kegs from commercial breweries go through way worse temp swings than that between the brewery and the bar and they usually taste fine.

However, if I were you I would just dry hop in the primary then transfer it to the keg to carb and refrigerate. Having the keg at serving temperature is the same as cold crashing it. When you cold crash, it should drop stuff out to the bottom, which is where the dip tube is. So just pull off a pint or so and that should get rid of the stuff you dropped out with the cold crash. There's no point in transferring out of the keg and then right back in it.