Intro and a carbing/cold crash question.

[brew_heel66]

Hey all, first time poster (as will likely be painfully obvious) but I've been lurking and reading for a couple of months now. Been wanting to home-brew for years and my gf was fantastic and got me a Mr. Beer for xmas this year to finally push me over the edge (don't worry the brown plastic keg has already been retired and everything is in 3 gallon glass carboys now). The beer style of the first isn't exactly my preference but my passion for brewing has grown rapidly, with much of my education coming from lurking around this forum. In fact my first batch is looking near perfection and has been ready to bottle for almost a week now.

This brings me to my first "problem" with brewing though. I have noticed that after several weeks of waiting and a bit of extra patience, I had a beautifully clear beer in my carboy but it had a bunch of unsightly and unpleasant looking particulates floating around on the top and suspended within the beer itself. They refused to drop out of suspension with time and thus, with a little guidance from this site, I ultimately decided to cold crash them out of suspension. I gingerly set the carboy into an attic/storage space covered in a few old dark t-shirts to keep light from destroying the beer and overnight it seems to have done the trick.

My worry is that I have heard mixed reviews on how much, if any, yeast will be viable for carbonating/bottle conditioning my beer. My GUESS was few to none and that I should rack it to my bottling bucket while cold and add yeast and priming sugar there. So issue #1: is that a correct assumption or viable method? And issue #2: If that is a good idea, how much yeast should I add to a cold crashed (it is still sitting in the storage space) 2 gallon batch of american "ale"? FWIW I have a "fresh" packet of champagne yeast on hand and was thinking somewhere around 1 tsp. but the last thing I want to do is under carb or create bottle bombs.

Sorry for the extra long post but I know the devil is truly in the details with home brewing and figured the better informed others were, the more they could help. Thanks again in advance for any and all help. Prost!

 

[uatuba]

You'll have enough yeast. There is rarely a need to add more for bottle conditioning.

 

[beersnblues]

After one night of cold crashing there will still be billions of yeast ready to carbonate your beer. Prime, bottle, wait, and enjoy.

 

[BigFloyd]

The answer isn't "few to none", it's plenty.

I cold crash all of my beers, ales and lagers alike, for 5-7 days at 35-36*F. It does a very nice job of clearing them up. I now keg just about everything, but have bottled (while still cold) several crashed batches in the past. I've never added any yeast at bottling and they all carbed up just fine.

There will still be a little bit of yeast trub in each bottle after carbonation, but it will be much less than if you don't cold crash.

Priming tip - weigh the priming sugar on a digital kitchen scale (a must-have tool for brewing, inexpensive on Amazon). As a general rule of thumb, 0.8 to 0.83 ounces of corn sugar works well to carb a beer to typical drinking levels (about 2.4-2.5)

 

[garcia]

You are worrying too much.

I've cold crashed about 3 days, and no big deal. Still worked.

 

[brew_heel66]

Wow, y'all are certainly quick around here

Thanks, it certainly got the gears turning in the head of my LHBS guy and I've read a few posts where guys said TO repitch yeast so I just wasn't sure. I really just wanted to get those big ugly particles out of my otherwise gorgeous beer.

BigFloyd,
when you say .8-.83 ounces of sugar, is that per gallon?

 

[Puddlethumper]

I finally got the second fridge so I can start cold crashing my beer and maybe try my hand at a lager. In the meantime something occurred to me:

When you drop the temperature it creates a negative pressure in the headspace above the beer. What do you do to prevent that from drawing the liquid out of the airlock down into the beer?

 

[BigFloyd]

BigFloyd,
when you say .8-.83 ounces of sugar, is that per gallon?

Yep.

I finally got the second fridge so I can start cold crashing my beer and maybe try my hand at a lager. In the meantime something occurred to me:

When you drop the temperature it creates a negative pressure in the headspace above the beer. What do you do to prevent that from drawing the liquid out of the airlock down into the beer?

Excellent. You will value having that second unit.

I use S-airlocks and put StarSan in them. The crash pulls back just a little through the airlock, but that type doesn't cause the liquid to get sucked back like the 3-piece.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Yep.



Excellent. You will value having that second unit.

I use S-airlocks and put StarSan in them. The crash pulls back just a little through the airlock, but that type doesn't cause the liquid to get sucked back like the 3-piece.

Super! I just happen to have one of those. Thanks!

 

[brew_heel66]

Fwiw, having the same discussion with the lhbs expert he had a pretty fun tip. He said with most of his beers he uses vodka in his s-airlocks. If any does get sucked in it won't have any negative side effects or add water/sanitizer to your beer (who really wants to drink that) and when you are done brewing you get an interesting "hopped" shot of vodka. The alcohol will also kill most bacteria that come in contact with it and act as a "sanitizer" of sorts.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[BigFloyd]

Fwiw, having the same discussion with the lhbs expert he had a pretty fun tip. He said with most of his beers he uses vodka in his s-airlocks. If any does get sucked in it won't have any negative side effects or add water/sanitizer to your beer (who really wants to drink that) and when you are done brewing you get an interesting "hopped" shot of vodka. The alcohol will also kill most bacteria that come in contact with it and act as a "sanitizer" of sorts.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Works for me. I'm usually too lazy to go fetch the big plastic bottle of el super cheapo Kamchatka vodka I keep around for brewing needs. The airlock is normally floating around in the StarSan bucket when I need it anyway and I just grab it.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Fwiw, having the same discussion with the lhbs expert he had a pretty fun tip. He said with most of his beers he uses vodka in his s-airlocks. If any does get sucked in it won't have any negative side effects

Great idea if I could keep vodka around! Stuff keeps getting sucked up before I can use it in my airlocks!