Cold crashing prior to kegging?

[carlk47]

My 2.5 gal kegging system should be here this week(very excited), and I plan to keg for the first time either this weekend or next. I've read a ton about cold crashing prior to kegging, but I don't have fridge space to fit a 6.5 gal bucket in to cold crash. What I was thinking of doing was purchasing a 3 gal carboy and racking to it to fit that in the fridge to cold crash prior to kegging.

Is this worth the effort or should I just rack directly to the keg and just deal with the trub that ends up in the bottom of the keg?

I was also thinking of times in the future when I may want to take the 2.5 gal keg to a party.. Cold crashing would create a cleaner beer I assume? Especially when it has to be transported and may shake up the trub.

 

[Grizzlybrew]

can you cold crash in the kegerator? that would be fine. If you let the beer condition for an extra week and the rack off, leaving 1/2" - 1" of beer above the trub, you should have a fairly clear beer running into the keg. I feel like a number of people let the racking can rest on the bottom of the fermenter when racking, picking up extra trub and transferring it to the next vessel.

 

[carlk47]

Unfortunately I don't have a kegerator or have space for one. I picked up the 2.5 gal keg because my wife was cool with me keeping it in our kitchen fridge.

In the future I'm sure ill move onto 5 gal kegs even if I have to keep them at room temp, and then just transfer to a 2.5 gal keg to bring it to serving temp. However for now I'm going to keg half and bottle the other half.

 

[carlk47]

I guess what I'm also wondering is.. Does cold crashing have the same effect as just leaving the brew in the primary fermenter for a longer period of time?

 

[kblankenship11]

Whether you cold crash in a keg or cold crash in a carboy you still get trub. I cold crash right in my keg. It limits the beers contact to oxygen when racking. If you were to cold crash in a carboy you'll have an extra racking step (and cleaning). When I pour the first couple pints it's cloudy, from sucking up the remnants of cold crashing--but it's not undrinkable (I drink it).

 

[carlk47]

I'm a huge fan of simplifying and not doing extra steps if I don't need to. If I could just leave it in the primary fermenter for longer than right to the keg, I'm good with that!

 

[billl]

For me, cold crashing doesn't make clearer beer, but it does keep a ton of sediment out of the keg/bottle. The beer will clear with time either way.

The other benefit is that it really compacts the yeast cake and any trub. That makes racking easier and minimizes beer loss.

 

[kblankenship11]

With ales that I"m not adding any spices or anything to secondary that's what I do. Primary until gravity finishes dropping ~3 weeks, siphon to keg, carb with 40-50% the sugar you would when bottling, let it sit for 2 weeks at room temp, put in keezer, burp the pressure, put on gas, chill, drink. Works like a charm and it's super easy.

 

[Jon73]

Why not cold crash in the primary? I don't see a need to dirty a second carboy.

 

[carlk47]

Why not cold crash in the primary? I don't see a need to dirty a second carboy.

No room in the fridge to cold crash the 6.5 gal bucket unfortunately. The wife wouldn't be happy if we didn't have room in the fridge for a gal of milk or bottle of apple juice..

 

[billl]

If it is cold enough where you live, you can just leave it out on the porch overnight.

 

[carlk47]

With ales that I"m not adding any spices or anything to secondary that's what I do. Primary until gravity finishes dropping ~3 weeks, siphon to keg, carb with 40-50% the sugar you would when bottling, let it sit for 2 weeks at room temp, put in keezer, burp the pressure, put on gas, chill, drink. Works like a charm and it's super easy.

I think this will work out real well when I expand my kegging setup. I plan to get two 5 gal kegs and then I can fill 1 per batch, condition in the keg at room temp, then do a transfer to my smaller keg that will be in the fridge.

For now all i have is my 2.5 gal keg

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Since kegging i stopped bothering, i just transfer to keg and then everything cold crashes automatically in the keg while its carbonating.

First pint or two pull all the trub, dump them and drink!