Cold crashing

[stmou984]

Is cold crashing a common method for all styles of beer? I'm planning on doing it to my porter this week once its in secondary. What about an ipa or bitter or others?

 

[Hammy71]

I usually only crash cool beers that I have dryhopped. After a day in the fridge all the hops fall to the bottom and make racking so much easier. I wouldn't even bother with a porter or a stout. Crash cooling is used to "clear" the beer, kinda a wasted effort for a dark beer since you won't be able to tell anyway. Just my 2 cents....

 

[WoodlandBrew]

I crash all my beers to reduce the yeast flavors and clear some of the protein. Even a brown beer can be cloudy or clear.

 

[stmou984]

I'm cold crashing the porter as per directions. It's not a dry hopping issue even though I see that would work. I'm just trying to clear my beer a little better

 

[TwoGunz]

I've taken to cold crashing everything after an extended primary. Helps pack the yeast down and let me leave it behind when I keg.

 

[stmou984]

How long is good for cold crashing? I assume the entire secondary is too long. A day? Two? Three?

 

[jwalker1140]

I like to cold crash around 35F-40F for 2-4 days. I don't keg or do a secondary and I find that cold crashing really helps to reduce the amount of crud on the bottom of my bottles. I could be wrong but it does seem like my cold crashed beers take a few extra days to carbonate.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Two days works great for me.

 

[thebeginnersbrew]

Do you bottle straight from cold crashing or would it be ok to cold crash- stick in a closet and bottle later? Would this basically negate the effects of crashing?

Jus curious- don't plan on actually doing it

 

[BrewingGunner]

I cold crash them all.

 

[redd1982]

I would like to know the answer to beginnersbrew's question. I have a batch of strong pale ale cold crashing right now, and wonder if I should let it sit at room temp before bottling.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jwalker1140]

Last year I tried letting a batch warm up from 40F to 70F and the yeast cake kind of loosened up and bits started floating around. Fermentation was definitely done so it's not like it started back up or something. It wasn't a major deal, but I think I get a cleaner transfer when I bottle at crash temp so that's what I do.

 

[R2-D2]

I always allow my beer to warm back up to room temperature after cold crashing and before bottling. That being said I don't take a temp. I just pull it out of cold crashing the night before I'm going to bottle.

 

[jedheuer]

I like cold crashing and leaving it cold for kegging or bottling. The yeast cake seems to stay more compact when its cold and is less likely to get sucked into your keg or bottling bucket.

 

[Mr_T]

BeerSmith just pushed an article to me about clearing beer and it said not to refrigerate beer that would be bottle conditioned since the yeast could die or it would reduce ability to condition. Is this really a concern?

 

[TrickyDick]

Is there really a difference between "cold crashing" a beer after secondary fermentation (with or without dry hops) and just kegging or bottling, and then after carbonation, chilling before serving? You could chill for a few days to cold crash in the bottle or keg anyway, and during forced carb kegging, it takes a good 10-14 days for decent carbonation unless you're using a diffusion stone or shaking. Also, if bottle conditioning and carbonating, you're going to develop some sediment no matter what.

TD

 

[jwalker1140]

BeerSmith just pushed an article to me about clearing beer and it said not to refrigerate beer that would be bottle conditioned since the yeast could die or it would reduce ability to condition. Is this really a concern?

I normally get those emails but I haven't seen that one yet. Obviously, you don't want to refrigerate the beer while it's conditioning, but I wouldn't be concerned at all about crashing to 30-40F for a week or more before conditioning. Plenty of people on here lager for a month or more before bottle conditioning. Some will add some dry yeast to the bottling bucket, but others don't and it seems to work fine. Just may take a little longer than normal.

 

[redd1982]

That's good to know. I just bottled up the beer I was referring to when I started this thread. It was crystal clear. I cold crashed for 6 days (@ 40 degrees)...then let it rest at room temp for about 29 hrs. Here is the pic.

Thanks for all the tips. This is the first time I have cold crashed, and it worked perfectly.

 

[redd1982]

That picture kinda sucks. Sorry, thought I was a better photographer with my iPhone.

 

[stmou984]

If I cold crash a beer but still don't plan on kegging/bottling for awhile is it a problem to let it warm up? Or should I just keep it cold until then?