Cold Crashing Nightmare!

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Bordy

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I just recently got back into brewing after a 4 year lapse. Today I was about to rack my second batch, a pale ale that I was dry hopping and wanted to give cold crashing a try for the first time to settle the hop pellets.
The cold crash definitely helped settle the hop pellets, but today I learned that doing this creates low pressure in the carboy resulting in my Starsan solution being sucked through my blow off tube, and now I have a nice inch layer of Starsan on top of my beer. I tried to siphon it off and anything that could go wrong went wrong. To make a long story short, I lost my cool and started dumping and even half way through dumping, threw my carboy off the deck into some bushes. I haven’t lost my cool like that in a while and now I’m super bummed out.
Next time I cold crash, how do I prevent this?
IMG_1553.jpg
 
When I cold crash, I soak a cotton ball in Star San, pull the airlock, and loosely tape the cotton ball over the hole.

NorCal Brewing Solutions sells a device for $50, but I'm pretty sure I can rig a more cost effective solution.

Eventually, I'd like to rig up a connection to my CO2 tank at 1-2 psi but other upgrades have higher priorities.
 
Happened to me once - looked just like yours. I sorta thought that it wouldn't affect the flavor, but it did. Soapy taste (it was starsan, which isn't soapy, so I assume there was some sort of reaction that caused that flavor in my IPA). Anyway, I dumped. I often have the small amt of starsan that's in my airlocks get sucked back when crashing. That is not a problem.

The solution is to make sure to disconnect the blowoff reservoir before crashing. Replace with an airlock or foil or similar.
 
Don't tell my boss (shhhh) but the last time I was kegging in the brewery by myself I forgot to pull the blowoff hose out of the sanitizer jug (we use Iostar) and didn't realize it until I heard the dreaded "slrrrrrrrrp" of the sanitizer getting sucked into the fermenter. Grabbed it quick and didn't drain the jug, but smacked myself upside the head for that one. Beer turned out fine.
 
That is also a reason why I only use about 3/4 inch of Starsan in a 16 ounce cottage cheese container. Just enough to keep the end of the tube submerged.

If I do get any suck back it is less than a half cup of solution.

S type airlock is the easiest thing. It works in reverse the same way as normal.
 
Don't tell my boss (shhhh) but the last time I was kegging in the brewery by myself I forgot to pull the blowoff hose out of the sanitizer jug (we use Iostar) and didn't realize it until I heard the dreaded "slrrrrrrrrp" of the sanitizer getting sucked into the fermenter. Grabbed it quick and didn't drain the jug, but smacked myself upside the head for that one. Beer turned out fine.

Whaaaaat? Iodine based sanitizer is not safe for consumption. That is very different situation than Star San contamination. Maybe I’m wrong but I’m pretty shocked by this and hope you don’t work at my local brewery.
 
Cold crashing for anything more than 24 hours is a complete waste of time (at best) and at worst, well see your pic

Extreme temps aren’t needed to drop hop debris either, 45-50F will do the trick too.
 
No, and yes. Yes, by the time my cold-crashes hit 50°F everything that was floating is well sunk. No, 24 hours is not excessive at all.
You can't simply set a hard time like "24 hours". That might have worked for my five gallon batches, but it takes my fridge closer to 48 hours to drop 10+ gallons down to ~34°F, where it has brightened considerably...

Cheers!
 
That’s a good point, my timeline was in reference to ~5 gallons in a chest freezer, should have clarified that.

But my point holds that extended cold crashing, especially non-dry hopped beers, is not necessary and likely causes more harm than good.
 
Your blowoff vessel should only have an inch of sanitizer to prevent this. @Bordy I know what you're feeling, frustration sometimes takes takes over and bad stuff can happen. I've broken/smashed a fair bit of useful gear while pissed off. When I'm transferring, moving a full carboy, or cold crashing, I lay a few layers of paper toweling wetted with starsan over the opening to filter/sanitize any air that will be pulled into the fermenter and try to keep my worries about sanitation in perspective. I tend to freak out alot over imagined vectors for infection. When I struggle with sanitation panic it helps to think about the folks here who depend on wild spontaneous fermentation to produce excellent beers, leaving their bare-naked newborn wort outside all night with nothing but cheesecloth to protect it from bears. Remember, beer is inherently an easy thing to make, otherwise we never would have made it out of the stone age.
 
That’s a good point, my timeline was in reference to ~5 gallons in a chest freezer, should have clarified that.

But my point holds that extended cold crashing, especially non-dry hopped beers, is not necessary and likely causes more harm than good.

Under "conventional" home brewer conditions I totally agree with that.
That is to say, cold wort is like a sponge, an "air lock" doesn't actually prevent the atmosphere from entering a fermentor, and the longer one allows that to continue the greater the deleterious effects.

Otoh, cold-crashing under low pressure CO2 has no such exposure and increased clarification can be obtained if desired sans risk of oxidation...

Cheers!
 
Fill a balloon with CO2 from keezer. Pull blow off hose out of sanitizer solution, put balloon on end of blow off hose.

Might have to refill the balloon once if it totally deflates in the freezer while crashing.

Worked great for my last neipa.
 
Anything wrong with something simple? sanitize piece of aluminum foil and it's easy to make a tight seal that will give.
 
This happened within three hours of cold crashing. I’m still pretty bummed out, as sad as it sounds, this is all I’ve been looking forward to for the last two and a half weeks. I have another batch fermenting now that will probably be done later this week. It’s a bitter pill to swallow as I’m finishing my keezer today/tomorrow and I have a friend that just got into town yesterday and more that come next week.
 
I also forgot to mention I’m paying $1.80-$1.90 for base malts and $3.00 for specialty grains.
 
I just recently got back into brewing after a 4 year lapse. Today I was about to rack my second batch, a pale ale that I was dry hopping and wanted to give cold crashing a try for the first time to settle the hop pellets.
The cold crash definitely helped settle the hop pellets, but today I learned that doing this creates low pressure in the carboy resulting in my Starsan solution being sucked through my blow off tube, and now I have a nice inch layer of Starsan on top of my beer. I tried to siphon it off and anything that could go wrong went wrong. To make a long story short, I lost my cool and started dumping and even half way through dumping, threw my carboy off the deck into some bushes. I haven’t lost my cool like that in a while and now I’m super bummed out.
Next time I cold crash, how do I prevent this?View attachment 562869

Bummer. You had a pretty distinct stratification between the StarSan and beer...if you were careful I bet you could have racked the StarSan off and saved the beer.

Next time switch to a standard airlock after the danger of a fermentation blow off has passed.
 
When i cold crash i remove the airlock and replace the white cap back on the orange carboy cap. If you are using a 1" tube or whatever fits the opening then you can remove and either replace with a carboy cap or use foil.
 
I just put the soft rubber style stopper prior to cold crashing. Some people worry about breaking the carboy but I've never had a issue. When I take it out there is a VERY small amount of suction but it's not alot. I've also done over 50 double batches this way with no problems. I feel the stopper would get sucked into the carboy before it broke anyway
 
Cold crashing for anything more than 24 hours is a complete waste of time (at best) and at worst, well see your pic

Extreme temps aren’t needed to drop hop debris either, 45-50F will do the trick too.

My insanely clear Helles says you're wrong. In fact, *most* lagered beer does. Cold crashing isn't just about dropping hops, it's about dropping yeast and chill-haze forming proteins out, as well as some other undesirable elements. That takes longer than 24 hours, even with gelatin fining.

That’s a good point, my timeline was in reference to ~5 gallons in a chest freezer, should have clarified that.

But my point holds that extended cold crashing, especially non-dry hopped beers, is not necessary and likely causes more harm than good.

No, it doesn't, if the proper precautions are taken. Easiest way to avoid suckback? Make a CO2 balloon. If you don't keg or have a source of 'canned' CO2, you can fill it with CO2 from fermentation. I make a 'balloon' out of a 1-2 gallon ziplock bag, with the corner cut off just enough to let tubing slide into it and stretch the bag out slightly. Then put a wrap or two of good quality electrical tape around the junction. The other end of the tubing can go into a bung. With a CO2 filled bag, when you cold crash and the beer begins to absorb what's in the headspace, it pulls in the CO2 from the bag.

attachment.php



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...ashing-and-a-poss-remedy.595332/#post-7775072
 
...
No, it doesn't, if the proper precautions are taken. Easiest way to avoid suckback? Make a CO2 balloon. If you don't keg or have a source of 'canned' CO2, you can fill it with CO2 from fermentation. I make a 'balloon' out of a 1-2 gallon ziplock bag, with the corner cut off just enough to let tubing slide into it and stretch the bag out slightly. Then put a wrap or two of good quality electrical tape around the junction. The other end of the tubing can go into a bung. With a CO2 filled bag, when you cold crash and the beer begins to absorb what's in the headspace, it pulls in the CO2 from the bag.
...

The balloon idea is brilliant! Some guys come up with the most expensive/complicated way to fix things, but every now and then there are brilliant nuggets like this. Love this hobby!
 
My insanely clear Helles says you're wrong. In fact, *most* lagered beer does. Cold crashing isn't just about dropping hops, it's about dropping yeast and chill-haze forming proteins out, as well as some other undesirable elements. That takes longer than 24 hours, even with gelatin fining.



No, it doesn't, if the proper precautions are taken. Easiest way to avoid suckback? Make a CO2 balloon. If you don't keg or have a source of 'canned' CO2, you can fill it with CO2 from fermentation. I make a 'balloon' out of a 1-2 gallon ziplock bag, with the corner cut off just enough to let tubing slide into it and stretch the bag out slightly. Then put a wrap or two of good quality electrical tape around the junction. The other end of the tubing can go into a bung. With a CO2 filled bag, when you cold crash and the beer begins to absorb what's in the headspace, it pulls in the CO2 from the bag.

attachment.php



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...ashing-and-a-poss-remedy.595332/#post-7775072


Lagering =/= cold crashing

If you aren’t kegging and really don’t like having a bit of yeast in your bottle, I could see going to all the trouble of rigging up a setup to prevent oxidation. Otherwise, your keg = lagering.

Keep in mind, my comments above said extended. The vast majority of what you need to drop out is done within 24 hours (in my experience).
 
I just recently got back into brewing after a 4 year lapse. Today I was about to rack my second batch, a pale ale that I was dry hopping and wanted to give cold crashing a try for the first time to settle the hop pellets.
The cold crash definitely helped settle the hop pellets, but today I learned that doing this creates low pressure in the carboy resulting in my Starsan solution being sucked through my blow off tube, and now I have a nice inch layer of Starsan on top of my beer. I tried to siphon it off and anything that could go wrong went wrong. To make a long story short, I lost my cool and started dumping and even half way through dumping, threw my carboy off the deck into some bushes. I haven’t lost my cool like that in a while and now I’m super bummed out.
Next time I cold crash, how do I prevent this?View attachment 562869

That’s a lot of head space in your fermentor. The more head space the more you have to worry about suck back. With that much head space you need a plan to deal with changing gas volumes. Lacking some way to add CO2 during the cold crash I’d say you would be better off not doing it at all.
 
My insanely clear Helles says you're wrong. In fact, *most* lagered beer does. Cold crashing isn't just about dropping hops, it's about dropping yeast and chill-haze forming proteins out, as well as some other undesirable elements. That takes longer than 24 hours, even with gelatin fining.



No, it doesn't, if the proper precautions are taken. Easiest way to avoid suckback? Make a CO2 balloon. If you don't keg or have a source of 'canned' CO2, you can fill it with CO2 from fermentation. I make a 'balloon' out of a 1-2 gallon ziplock bag, with the corner cut off just enough to let tubing slide into it and stretch the bag out slightly. Then put a wrap or two of good quality electrical tape around the junction. The other end of the tubing can go into a bung. With a CO2 filled bag, when you cold crash and the beer begins to absorb what's in the headspace, it pulls in the CO2 from the bag.

attachment.php



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...ashing-and-a-poss-remedy.595332/#post-7775072
Who makes that plastic conical?
 
Happens to the best of us. I remove the blowoff tube assembly and then put on an s-shaped airlock (has to be s-shaped and make sure the fluid is below the max line) before cold crashing.
 
Especially a plastic fermenter, no matter how sturdy, will need a good counter pressure system for cold crashing. I bought these lids from Norcal. Supplied my own ball jars and silicone tubing. Works great.
CO2-Harvester-Kit-Logo.jpg
 
Sorry to hear, i appreciate your candid post. I wish i wasnt like that when i get frustrated, but i am too. You will work it out next time. Sorry again and best of luck. Your question above is answered already. I would take tube off and put airlock or foil.
 
Also, did your carboy survive being dropped into the bushes or will you be finding glass shards for years doing yard work?
 
Wasn't there a thread: "cold crashed with a solid stopper... How do I get the stopper out of my carboy?"?

Slip a plastic bag into the carboy with the handles hanging out. Turn carboy upside down and let the bung fall between the bag and the side of the carboy. Pull bung out with bag using friction. Google it, it's awesome.
 
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