Cold Crashing too high maintenence...

[libeerty]

I used to host a monthly poker game at my place and I usually had a couple beers on tap. I can tell you that almost everyone tastes a scary homebrew for the first time with their eyes before it ever hits their lips. Once I started producing very clear beers I overheard comments like "I can't believe you can make beer like this at home." and the guy said that before even taking a sip. Needless to say he enjoyed the beer. Back when my beers were pretty cloudy I regularly collected half-full glasses from around my basement. Not so much once my beers were clear. It's annoying that it makes such a big difference to so many people, but it does.

Well said.

 

[mcangeli]

Also a good call...I wasn't utilizing a sac for the hops additions but might start. ..jusy dump my mini mash out of the mesh and toss hops in during the boil portion...I'm guessing a rolling boil doesn't allow the bag to stick to bottom or side.

Before you brew pick up a small paint strainer bag from HD or lowes. Use that for the hops. The muslin bag that is used for the grains is too loose (the holes are too big) for the hops. The paint strainer will contain the hops but allow the water through at the same time.

 

[ballsy]

Before you brew pick up a small paint strainer bag from HD or lowes. Use that for the hops. The muslin bag that is used for the grains is too loose (the holes are too big) for the hops. The paint strainer will contain the hops but allow the water through at the same time.

The mesh bag I have is a much finer mesh than the "cheese cloth" style muslin bags that come with extract kits so I think it will probably contain the hops well. Will be utilizing on the Oatmeal APA I will be doing in a couple weeks....although SWMBO just said the other night (after brewing a batch and bottling a batch same day) that I "can only brew one batch per month from now on"....hahahaha....what did I get myself into!! (brewing I mean, not marriage...)

 

[m3n00b]

The mesh bag I have is a much finer mesh than the "cheese cloth" style muslin bags that come with extract kits so I think it will probably contain the hops well. Will be utilizing on the Oatmeal APA I will be doing in a couple weeks....although SWMBO just said the other night (after brewing a batch and bottling a batch same day) that I "can only brew one batch per month from now on"....hahahaha....what did I get myself into!! (brewing I mean, not marriage...)

1 a month? Usually I brew and bottle every weekend so that's 3-5 batches in a month. Trying to stock up on ale before switching to lagers here in a month.

 

[VonAle]

View attachment 138705

Ballsy, try this.

if you want to try the swamp cooler thing again, try getting either Blocks of ice or fill some empty 2 liter soda bottles with Ice and freeze them (You could substitute the one gallon freezer bags if you don't have bottles laying around).

Speaking from personal experience, The larger blocks of ice the bottles(or bags) provide will melt slower than a bag of ice chunks and you shouldn't have to switch them out as much.

have a few bags/bottles on hand for when you do need to switch them out.

I crash my IPA's in my swamp cooler. My goal is to drop the hop matter before racking.
I wrap/ insulate the tub with a carpet remnant.
I most recently had mine in the 95 degree garage.

Step 1: Add 10lb ice cubes, top with water to beer level, place frozen bottles on top of the fermenter lid. Cover with beach towels.
Step 2: About 4-5 hours later, siphon out some of the water, add a second bag of ice and cover. This is usually just before I go to bed.
Step 3: (Next morning), there will still be ice in the tub. Repeat step two and replace fresh frozen bottles on the lid, cover and go to work.
Step 4: (When I get home from work, 9 hrs or so), There will still be ice floating in the tub yet. Replace frozen bottles on top, which are also still mostly frozen yet.

At this point I figure my beer is down in the low 40 or upper 30's. I don't need to add any more ice, just frozen bottles on the lid.

I usually bottle about 48 hrs after Step 1. The hop matter is completely dropped, and I get very clear beer into my bottling bucket without screening it.

The finished bottles are also almost devoid of sediment.
The beer is still a little cloudy, but I actually prefer that. Craft brews should be cloudy, right?

 

[ballsy]

1 a month? Usually I brew and bottle every weekend so that's 3-5 batches in a month. Trying to stock up on ale before switching to lagers here in a month.

Married with young kids?? If so then I have some ammunition next time I brew if she says something!! Man, you make me jealous brewing every weekend....although even if I could, I would be unable to w/ current equipment. Also means bottling weekly as the beers become ready...that's a busy schedule combined with cleaning, prepping, etc....hopefully you are kegging?!?

 

[ballsy]

View attachment 138705

I crash my IPA's in my swamp cooler. My goal is to drop the hop matter before racking.
I wrap/ insulate the tub with a carpet remnant.
I most recently had mine in the 95 degree garage.

Step 1: Add 10lb ice cubes, top with water to beer level, place frozen bottles on top of the fermenter lid. Cover with beach towels.
Step 2: About 4-5 hours later, siphon out some of the water, add a second bag of ice and cover. This is usually just before I go to bed.
Step 3: (Next morning), there will still be ice in the tub. Repeat step two and replace fresh frozen bottles on the lid, cover and go to work.
Step 4: (When I get home from work, 9 hrs or so), There will still be ice floating in the tub yet. Replace frozen bottles on top, which are also still mostly frozen yet.

At this point I figure my beer is down in the low 40 or upper 30's. I don't need to add any more ice, just frozen bottles on the lid.

I usually bottle about 48 hrs after Step 1. The hop matter is completely dropped, and I get very clear beer into my bottling bucket without screening it.

The finished bottles are also almost devoid of sediment.
The beer is still a little cloudy, but I actually prefer that. Craft brews should be cloudy, right?

Too much work for me personally....aka high maintenance!

 

[bleme]

I keep a load of 1 liter bottles in the freezer. I ferment in a swamp cooler. I let it primary 3-5 weeks. When I am ready to bottle, I just load the tub with those frozen bottles and all my ice-maker ice and wrap a couple of sleeping bags around it for a day. It is amazing how much less sediment ends up in the bottle this way! Before, I alway had to leave a half inch of beer in the bottle. Now I can often pour it all as the sediment layer is so thin that it sticks to the bottom if the bottle.

The bottles are also handy when I take my beer somewhere. I can just toss a few of them in my ice chest with my beers. Pop them back in the freezer when I get home.

 

[m3n00b]

Married with young kids?? If so then I have some ammunition next time I brew if she says something!! Man, you make me jealous brewing every weekend....although even if I could, I would be unable to w/ current equipment. Also means bottling weekly as the beers become ready...that's a busy schedule combined with cleaning, prepping, etc....hopefully you are kegging?!?

Married but no kids and my wife works every Sunday! I get an entire day alone every week. I guess I'm blessed! I still bottle but I plan to start kegging as soon as I have some extra coin.

 

[PistolaPete]

I use to worry about cold crashing but I usually don't bother anymore and I don't bother with secondaries either and my beer is always clear. Letting it sit in the fridge for a few days to a week before serving seems to drop out most of the sediment just fine. If you really want to use swamp cooler to cold crash maybe you could just use those reusable frozen ice blocks or just plastic water bottles with frozen water inside.

 

[VonAle]

Too much work for me personally....aka high maintenance!

Time spent preparing the recipe, procuring the ingredients, 5 hour brew day, managing fermentation temps, racking and packaging is a lot of work / maintenance too. Crashing in the swamp cooler is just another small part of it all.

Be easier to run up to BevMo and back.

 

[RCCOLA]

Here's an example of what gel can do for you on bottle conditioned beers. Double brewday, same yeast. Left primaried 14 days and then bottled. Right cold crashed to 34F, racked to secondary with gel for a few days.

 

[m3n00b]

Here's an example of what gel can do for you on bottle conditioned beers. Double brewday, same yeast. Left primaried 14 days and then bottled. Right cold crashed to 34F, racked to secondary with gel for a few days.

Wow! Was that the same batch?

 

[RCCOLA]

Wow! Was that the same batch?

The left one was an amber ale fermented at 58F, the right one was a summer(light) Vienna lager fermented at 52F. Both used harvested S-23 lager yeast. The left beer never did clear like the right one--even after months in the fridge. It cleared, but not crystal clear like the gelled one.

ETA: I have gently stirred gel into a cold crashed primary with similar results. I only do this if I don't plan to harvest the yeast though.

 

[butterpants]

What type of gelatin? Commercial product like Sparkelloid or DIY grocery store?

 

[m3n00b]

The left one was an amber ale fermented at 58F, the right one was a summer(light) Vienna lager fermented at 52F. Both used harvested S-23 lager yeast. The left beer never did clear like the right one--even after months in the fridge. It cleared, but not crystal clear like the gelled one.

ETA: I have gently stirred gel into a cold crashed primary with similar results. I only do this if I don't plan to harvest the yeast though.

You used lager yeast to make an amber ale?

 

[RCCOLA]

What type of gelatin? Commercial product like Sparkelloid or DIY grocery store?

Knox gelatin from the grocery. 1/2 tsp per 5 gal batch. Dissolve in 3/4 cup of 120F water, let sit covered for 20 mins, heat to 170F, then gently stir in hot--do not chill it. Or add to secondary and rack on top of.

ETA: This needs to be added to cold beer. The cold makes the proteins clump together. The gel clings to them and they fall out, leaving the beer clear.

You used lager yeast to make an amber ale?

I do this all the time. I brew mostly lagers and use the yeast for any ale style that has a clean yeast profile. My starter for a lager is usually a 6 gallon batch of beer fermented at 58-60F.

 

[m3n00b]

I do this all the time. I brew mostly lagers and use the yeast for any ale style that has a clean yeast profile. My starter for a lager is usually a 6 gallon batch of beer fermented at 58-60F.

Wouldn't this make an amber lager?

 

[RCCOLA]

Wouldn't this make an amber lager?

Yep.
Deleted the rest out of respect for the OP's thread. OT.

 

[butterpants]

Knox gelatin from the grocery. 1/2 tsp per 5 gal batch. Dissolve in 3/4 cup of 120F water, let sit covered for 20 mins, heat to 170F, then gently stir in hot--do not chill it. Or add to secondary and rack on top of.

ETA: This needs to be added to cold beer. The cold makes the proteins clump together. The gel clings to them and they fall out, leaving the beer clear.
.

Excellent, thanks!

 

[ballsy]

So is it safe to say cold crashing is only worth it if ur also adding gelatin?

 

[BigFloyd]

So is it safe to say cold crashing is only worth it if ur also adding gelatin?

No. That's not correct at all.

Cold crashing by itself is beneficial and I have gotten much clearer beers using it even when I've either forgotten to use gelatin (when kegging) or chosen to not use gelatin (when bottle carbing).

 

[m3n00b]

No. That's not correct at all.

Cold crashing by itself is beneficial and I have gotten much clearer beers using it even when I've either forgotten to use gelatin (when kegging) or chosen to not use gelatin (when bottle carbing).

So you wouldn't use it while bottle conditioning? Why?

 

[Jobe5217]

This may be a noob question but is it possible to significantly reduce the sediments in bottles when bottle conditioning? I thought that was just the cost of dong business when bottle conditioning.

 

[cheezydemon3]

This may be a noob question but is it possible to significantly reduce the sediments in bottles when bottle conditioning? I thought that was just the cost of dong business when bottle conditioning.

You can reduce it, but only so far. You want some yeast in there to eat the priming sugar.

I don't see the big deal. You pour it in a glass, right?

 

[brewfreeordie]

I'm of the opinion that cold-crashing before secondary or before bottling is not entirely necessary, but will speed things up. Lowering the temp will get the yeast to drop out quicker, but I'm getting better at being patient. I just leave it for an extra week or two in the fermentor (no secondary for ales) and let the yeasties do their thing. I bottle all my brew so the cold crash inevitably comes.

I have both a fermentation fridge ($50 and well worth it IF you've got the room) as well as a lagering/storage chest fridge ($20 if you don't count the new freezer I had to buy my wife to get the old one) so it's not really work to do it. I just think it's better to let the yeast tell you when the beer is done.

 

[beaksnbeer]

I don't see this as an issue, It's part of brewing for me it's just part of the process no different then crushing your own grain. If it makes my beer better I will go that route "IF" it's affordable. I don't use gelatin (vegan friends) Irish moss at the end of boil and cold crashing and you can read through most of the beers. Wheats, stouts, and porters by style of course.

 

[Jobe5217]

You can reduce it, but only so far. You want some yeast in there to eat the priming sugar.

I don't see the big deal. You pour it in a glass, right?

I don't mind it too much, it's not a big deal. Just curious if it was possible. This is the first I've heard of using "gel", I think I am going to read this thread all the way through.

 

[BigFloyd]

This may be a noob question but is it possible to significantly reduce the sediments in bottles when bottle conditioning? I thought that was just the cost of dong business when bottle conditioning.

I've noticed that the bottles of brews that I've cold crash have a thinner layer of yeast trub in the bottom. They're carbed just fine, so there's enough yeast present after crashing, but you avoid a thick layer of gunk in the bottle that can more easily pour into the glass and cause it to be cloudy or taste yeasty. Since most of my bottled stuff gets given away to non-brewers who aren't experienced at pouring home brew, that's important to me.

I know that some folks do gel the bottled batches and report no issues. I don't do it simply because I'm a bit afraid of taking too much of the yeast out of suspension. I also harvest liquid yeast out of the primary, so I don't want to gel there.

 

[RCCOLA]

On Gel:

I brew a lot of light colored(and flavored) lagers. I have 7 lagers on tap right now and 5 are 4 SRM or less. Lager yeast is not as flocculent as ale yeast and will greatly affect the flavor of these beers. The pic I posted above is of a recipe I regularly brew, my house lager.

That was the first time I've gelled it and the difference between it and the non-gelled version is striking--Both in clarity and flavor. It tastes like a commercial, filtered beer and will be gelled from here on.

I've been brewing a series of lagers with the new Mangrove Jack's M84 lager yeast. That stuff is hazier than wheat beer. I didn't gel one batch with it and it's not as clear or clean tasting as one brewed 3 weeks later. Here's the gelled Helles at 36F serving temp 4 weeks from brewday: