Cold Crashing in sub 0 degrees celcius

[skitamofo]

Hi guys

Just wanting to pick your brains a bit. Maybe some of you have experienced this. I want to cold crash my Irish Red to clarify it a bit, but the only means of doing this is a fridge in the garage. Currently, the temperature outside is about minus 15-17 degrees celsius and will be for the next few days. I put a thermometer in my fridge over night just to get an idea of how cold it would get in there. It read about -4 degrees celsius. Now obviously, this eliminates cold crashing for a long period of time, but I am guessing that I could probably do a 24 or 48 hour crash without risking the beer freezing. What do you guys think? How long would it take 5 gallons of beer to freeze in about 4-5 degrees below zero?

 

[m3n00b]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/table-freezing-points-alcohol-solutions-192138/

Its in F but you can figure it out. I think -3-4C would freeze most beer but it would take a long time.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

It will start freezing around the outside as soon as it starts getting much below 0. It really depends on the ABV though, as alcohol has a much lower freezing point.

If you had a temp controller you could put a heat wrap in there with it and run the controller to keep it at 0

 

[skitamofo]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/table-freezing-points-alcohol-solutions-192138/

Its in F but you can figure it out. I think -3-4C would freeze most beer but it would take a long time.

That's a nice reference. Thank you. I'm mostly wondering on how long it would take to freeze though. ABV is about 5.25%. I might try it for 24 hours with a towel on the fermenter and see how it goes.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/table-freezing-points-alcohol-solutions-192138/

Its in F but you can figure it out. I think -3-4C would freeze most beer but it would take a long time.

That thread is some deeeeeeeeep S@#$

 

[m3n00b]

That's a nice reference. Thank you. I'm mostly wondering on how long it would take to freeze though. ABV is about 5.25%. I might try it for 24 hours with a towel on the fermenter and see how it goes.

I would say check it every 4 hours and see where you're at. If it starts getting below 0, bottle/keg.

 

[billl]

There is an easy fix. Just use a lightbulb or other heat source and put it in the fridge. You don't even need a controller. If it gets warmer than normal fridge temps, the compressor will kick on and bring it back. You'll waste a little electricity, but we are only talking about a couple days.

 

[Huff360]

It will take a long time. The thermal mass of the inside of the fridge is relatively low. True, it's -5 or whatever in there, but it won't take a lot of heat to pull that temp up. Once the temp in the fridge is up a little, it will take a while for it to cool back down.

Remember, the fridge is made to keep a temp difference between inside and outside. The insulation doesn't care if it's warmer or colder inside.

I'd say check it every 24 hours and see what it looks like. Without the compressor running or the door being opened all the time, the interior ambient temp should be pretty close to the beer temp, so a cheap little thermometer from Wal-Mart with a remote probe just run the the door crack would let you glance at it as you walk by and have a pretty good idea what's going on.

It's 25-40 here lately. Turned the heat off about a week ago and the beer is still above 50. The fridge is in the insulated garage which is open during the day and closed at night.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

I agree with billl - I did this recently for dispensing. I had an IPA that was sitting at 34F because the fridge is in the garage. You can't taste any of the hops so I put in a lightbulb and let the fridge control to 45F and it was great. This is the simplest way.

 

[Maegnar]

I shall resurrect this thread, since my question is highly similar.
It's minus 15-20 C outside, currently. I'd like to cold crash before bottling but am I risking anything if I just leave the fermenter outside for, say, 8-10 hours?
We are talking about 9 ABV Belgian ale.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

I believe that cold crashing is such a slow process that this won't help much. It will cold crash faster at lower temperatures but it likely won't clear in the small time available before it would freeze. Perhaps covering it with a blanket to slow the cooling process to give you a longer window before freezing.

 

[KarenHauck]

Where do you live? With the weather lately, just put it on a back porch! Seriously!

 

[Maegnar]

Lithuania (central Europe). And as I've already mentioned, it's -20 outside

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[KarenHauck]

Bbbrrrrrr. Our wind chill is only -14.

 

[JimRausch]

For the past 3 winters I've lagered out in my garage where at best it stays 5 degrees above ambient. I put the carboys in a swamp cooler bucket filled with water and let them sit. I have a thermometer in the garage and the fermometer strips on the carboys. I do get ice layers in the buckets, at one point this year the layer was 2 inches thick. BUT, the beer did not freeze. ABVs have been from a 5% Vienna to an almost 10% dopplebock.
I also put buckets out there for cold crashing- I leave them out there for 48-72 hours, adding gelatin after the 1st 24 hours. So far, no problems. Probably because of the thermal mass effect.