I have been brewing for a little over a year. Started stove top extracting now I have an all grain all electric brewery. The beer I am producing is clear, and tastes great. I have not starting kegging yet. I still bottle condition. I'm thinking of cold crashing my next patch in the primary then bottling. But i'm worried all my suspended yeast will settle and it wont carb. Surley I'm wrong, I mean people bottle lagers. Thoughts?
Cold crashing then bottle conditioning
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iijakii
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Yes, surely you are wrong. People bottle lagers.
Well, you are right. People DO bottle lagers. And they carb.
So have no fear, you CAN cold crash and then bottle. The only consideration would be adjusting the priming sugar to account for the CO2 that very likely already in the beer. Here's why:
When you ferment the yeast create CO2 and alcohol. The CO2 generally bubbles up out of solution, for the most part, at room temperature. But when you cold crash, some of that CO2 remains in solution due to the density of the wort and CO2, just like when you start kegging you will find that a cold keg of beer will accept CO2 into solution at a lower pressure.
So the part you have to calculate is approximately how much less priming sugar you need to ADD TO THE CO2 ALREADY IN THE BEER. I think there's a chart out there somewhere somebody put together. I usually just decrease the priming sugar by a small bit. I've never had a problem with undercarbing, but before I understood about priming when cold crashing, I had a couple of batches that gushed a bit. They can get pretty fizzy!
So have no fear, you CAN cold crash and then bottle. The only consideration would be adjusting the priming sugar to account for the CO2 that very likely already in the beer. Here's why:
When you ferment the yeast create CO2 and alcohol. The CO2 generally bubbles up out of solution, for the most part, at room temperature. But when you cold crash, some of that CO2 remains in solution due to the density of the wort and CO2, just like when you start kegging you will find that a cold keg of beer will accept CO2 into solution at a lower pressure.
So the part you have to calculate is approximately how much less priming sugar you need to ADD TO THE CO2 ALREADY IN THE BEER. I think there's a chart out there somewhere somebody put together. I usually just decrease the priming sugar by a small bit. I've never had a problem with undercarbing, but before I understood about priming when cold crashing, I had a couple of batches that gushed a bit. They can get pretty fizzy!
Thank you Homercidal. I use a priming sugar calculator and I have to input the current temperature when doing this. As I have learned like you said residual co2 will very depending on the temperature. Here's my follow up question. If my beer ferments at its normal fermenting temperature (always 67. the only yeast I use is safale 05) for a full 28 days then it is done fermenting. How can lowering the temperature add co2? if the beer is done, the yeast is no longer producing co2?
Correct. So use 67 degrees for the calculator.
Most lagers are fermented at far below 67 degrees, though. Normally 48-52 degrees is a lager fermentation temperature. That's when there would be a difference.
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