Cold crashing questions

[drycreek]

You guys convinced me to skip the secondary fermentation and just go longer in the primary. I recently did an "Oktoberfest Ale" this way, that is now ready to be bottled. I was thinking about cold-crashing it to improve clarity, considering I skipped the secondary.

1) Can I cold-crash in an ice bath? I don't have a second fridge at this time to put my fermenter in. I think I could keep the temp in the 40s for about 24 hours, using the ice bath container that I normally use to control fermentation temps with. Would this temp range and duration be sufficient?

2) Will cold-crashing affect the yeast and slow the bottle conditioning process? I would really like to have this brew ready to drink by Thanksgiving, so that gives it about 3.5 weeks to carb up and bottle condition.

Thanks!

 

[pericles]

If you follow that procedure, your beer will be fine, and it won't be any less - or more - ready to drink in 3.5 weeks than it would have been otherwise.

In my opinion, picking a fermenter up, putting it in a bucket of ice, picking it up again, and bottling, will disturb more yeast and sediment than the cold crash causes to precipitate out. Also, if this is your first time skipping the secondary, this seems like a good opportunity to find out whether you can even see the difference. I'd skip the cold crash if it were me.