Planning to cold crash for the first time

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urg8rb8

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Making an IPA and looking for it to be clear. What temp do I cold crash and for how long? Also, what techniques do I use to prevent suck back?
 
You want to get her down somewhere close to 33*. And keep her there for a couple days. If you really want the clearest, hit her with gelatin after 24 hours.
I've never had suck-back problems (I use the 3 piece airlocks)but read plenty of posts from people that do. They tend to remove the airlock and replace it with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent.
 
To build on OP topic, if he leaves in primary for two weeks transfers to secondary for two weeks and then cold crashes for a week, will there be any healthy yeast left for bottle carbonation? Or would he need to add yeast during bottling process?
 
By the way, if you don't have a temp. controlled fridge, you can use a swamp cooler with plenty of ice bottles to get close.

Yes I have a temp controlled mini fridge. I'm interested to see how cold it can get. Wouldn't 33 be too close to freezing the water in the fridge?
 
Yes I have a temp controlled mini fridge. I'm interested to see how cold it can get. Wouldn't 33 be too close to freezing the water in the fridge?

33=no freeze, but 32=freeze (for water, but not for beer). If your controller is not fine enough, then shoot for 35-36. Really, anything below 40-45 works OK, it just works better at close to freezing.
 
To build on OP topic, if he leaves in primary for two weeks transfers to secondary for two weeks and then cold crashes for a week, will there be any healthy yeast left for bottle carbonation? Or would he need to add yeast during bottling process?

Definitely still plenty of yeast. I can still carbonate a lager that's been 'cold crashed' for 3 months without reyeasting.
On another point, there would be no need to rack to a 'secondary'. You can cold crash and hit it with gelatin in the primary and get the same results. And you don't run as big a risk of oxidization.
 
Put foil on to prevent suck back

Once the carboy has reached stable temp put airlock/blowoff back on
 
The one-piece, S-type airlocks work in reverse. So... no suck-back. That's what I use after the second time I sucked about a cup of starsan back into my beer.

Edited to Add: Since these can be hard to clean, I use a blow-off for the bulk of fermentation. When it's time to cold-crash I switch to the "S" type airlock.
 
Making an IPA and looking for it to be clear. What temp do I cold crash and for how long? Also, what techniques do I use to prevent suck back?

As close to beer-freezing point as possible (31F is what use but you could go lower)

Suck back avoided by eliminating the possibility.

Cold crashed Beer, Carboy cap / Tinfoil
Coldcrash.jpg

Stc.jpg

Cold Crashed Beer.jpg
 
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Do I need to worry about oxidation? Especially if I use tin foil?
 
Do I need to worry about oxidation? Especially if I use tin foil?

No. The amount of oxygen getting into the fermenter is minimal. After fermentation the beer is carbonated to around 1 volume with CO2. Air is only about 18% oxygen so it's really not a big concern unless you're splashing it pretty hard.

Source: thousands of people that cold crash and don't get oxidized beer, including myself.
 
Transfer the beer from your primary to your bottling bucket and cold crash in that. Just dont shake it up too much when moving out it out of your fridge and then you can bottle directly from the one vessel.
 
No. The amount of oxygen getting into the fermenter is minimal. After fermentation the beer is carbonated to around 1 volume with CO2. Air is only about 18% oxygen so it's really not a big concern unless you're splashing it pretty hard.

Source: thousands of people that cold crash and don't get oxidized beer, including myself.

Actually, the amount of O2 that gets in when cold crashing is significant. See my post here for a detailed analysis. You need to keep your cold crash time to the minimum and prevent agitation of the beer, then package promptly.

Brew on :mug:
 
Quite interested in the responses, so to sum up:
1. You don't need to transfer to a secondary fermenter. (So no off-tastes if the brew is kept in the same fermenter for 5 weeks?)
2. Cold crash as near to 32F as possible
3. You can use a S-shaped air lock to prevent suck-back
4. You don't need to add yeast after a cold crash for bottling
 
Quite interested in the responses, so to sum up:
1. You don't need to transfer to a secondary fermenter. (So no off-tastes if the brew is kept in the same fermenter for 5 weeks?)
2. Cold crash as near to 32F as possible
3. You can use a S-shaped air lock to prevent suck-back
4. You don't need to add yeast after a cold crash for bottling

Thanks for the summary!
 
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