How Many Days Do You Cold Crash?

[GmanNJ]

"Why is there any trub left when you are putting it in the bottling bucket?"

After primary fermentation what falls is a yeast cake which can be reused. After cold crashing what falls is all the precipitate that can make your beer cloudy. Hence the reason to cold crash.

"Just my opinion, but all that racking!!! A risk for oxygenating your beer."
I use siphonless food grade fermentors. If you use a hose long enough to reach the bottom then you get very little splashback. So I get clear beer that shows no sign of oxygenation

The sooner you get the beer off the yeast cake after fermentation the less risk of Autolysis (off flavors from the dead yeast in the cake). So 1 week in primary is more than enough time to complete fermentation then you have to get the beer off the yeast cake to reduce any risk of Autolysis. Then 2 weeks cold crash lets the beer fall clear. Then you want to get the beer off the precipitate so you rack to a bottling bucket and immediately keg or bottle.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I crash to 30 for 2-3 days (won't freeze), hit it with biofine, and in the worst case (2 times in 10 years) I'll even push through my plate filter.

 

[SGTSparty]

Not to hijack but related question. I just got my fermentation fridge up and running and can now cold crash, so i'll be using everyone's input but my questions is how do you transfer from your cold crash fridge? My fridge isn't tall enough to get a full pump on an auto-siphon, I have/do ferment in bottling buckets but in the fridge the spigot would be too low. Could move it from the fridge to my work table but doesn't that run the risk of mixing everything I just crashed back into solution?

 

[brewcat]

"Why is there any trub left when you are putting it in the bottling bucket?"

After primary fermentation what falls is a yeast cake which can be reused. After cold crashing what falls is all the precipitate that can make your beer cloudy. Hence the reason to cold crash.

"Just my opinion, but all that racking!!! A risk for oxygenating your beer."
I use siphonless food grade fermentors. If you use a hose long enough to reach the bottom then you get very little splashback. So I get clear beer that shows no sign of oxygenation

The sooner you get the beer off the yeast cake after fermentation the less risk of Autolysis (off flavors from the dead yeast in the cake). So 1 week in primary is more than enough time to complete fermentation then you have to get the beer off the yeast cake to reduce any risk of Autolysis. Then 2 weeks cold crash lets the beer fall clear. Then you want to get the beer off the precipitate so you rack to a bottling bucket and immediately keg or bottle.

Autolysis isn't a problem. It may be months down the line, but over a week or two or three it isn't going to happen.

Rack out of fermenter into keg. Racking after a cold crash to a bottling bucket to a keg is a complete waste of time.

 

[GmanNJ]

"Rack out of fermenter into keg. Racking after a cold crash to a bottling bucket to a keg is a complete waste of time."

I dont want to get anything that falls out of the cold crash into the final product. Although if one was careful enough I guess anything that falls from cold crashing wouldnt transfer. I guess my OCD gets the better of me

 

[3puttpete]

Most cold crash fridges or freezers are too low to siphon from anyway. Just move it slowly and gently. It won't stir up too much. I also use gelatin which compacts the yeast cake.

On my work table, I tilt the fermenter, put the autosiphon at the low point resting on the bottom, then catch the first pint or so and dump. I also purge my kegs with CO2 prior to filling.

Hope that helps

 

[SGTSparty]

Most cold crash fridges or freezers are too low to siphon from anyway. Just move it slowly and gently. It won't stir up too much. I also use gelatin which compacts the yeast cake.

On my work table, I tilt the fermenter, put the autosiphon at the low point resting on the bottom, then catch the first pint or so and dump. I also purge my kegs with CO2 prior to filling.

Hope that helps

It does thanks :rockin:

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm on my second batch of beer, first cold crash. The last one I didn't do it because I was brewing a NEIPA. I realized that it's gonna get cold in the keg anyway, so why worry about it. I had some issues with my siphon getting clogged when transferring the keg so I decided to CC this batch. I dropped the temp Wed to 38 and it's still nice and hazy (another NEIPA).

This batch will be transferred with CO2 push. Gonna do that tonight.

My routine so far:
Brew on Sat or Sun. First dry hop at 72 hours. Second dry hop 3-4 days after that (take hydrometer reading, it's been done both times at that point with 1318 and a nice starter). Raise the temp to 69 the day of the second dry hop...let sit for 5 days, CC for 48 hours and keg. That puts the brew day and the kegging on a weekend and light work (dry hopping, temp adjustments) on week days.

I'm kegging tonight and it'll be ready to drink Monday. If the hydrometer sample is indicative, it's gonna be a good one.