Rethinking the logic of cold crashing

[cheezydemon3]

My beers get 6 weeks warm, usually in primary, minimum.

(except for the rare lager)

Cold crashing or kegging and chilling before that inhibits or flat out stops valuable conditioning, that by my estimations, leaves a beer 10-15% "less good" tasting than it could have been.

2 weeks and cold crash is insane to me, even with warm storage after.

Secondaries are fine, but seldom necessary. I have had beer in primary 4 months that turned out great.

 

[user 19629]

Yea when someone asks "is my beer ready to cold crash?"
or "is my beer ready to bottle?" the answer should be
I don't know? What does it taste like and what does it look like?
Along with the usual "what was the the OG and FG?"

 

[jeffmeh]

I chose my schedule (3-4 weeks plus 1 week dry hop, 1 week cold crash) based upon reading here, and figured that patience would provide me with excellent beer. I have not been disappointed. That being said, I must admit that I have never accelerated the schedule, so it is certainly possible that a couple of days after final gravity and then a few days cold crash to clear could yield the same result. Perhaps I will take a sample earlier on my next batch, and if it tastes good, give the shorter schedule a try.

 

[jeffmeh]

Of course, back to the original post, cold crash is meant to accelerate clearing of the ale, and is not a substitute for conditioning.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

The way I look at it is if your beer requires extended warm conditioning, it's because there was something problematic in the primary fermentation already. Elevated diacytel for example. If you've already got a nice clean ferment that is throughly completed with no real biproducts (fusels) then it's time to get the beer clear and start drinking. My impression is that most of what people call "green" flavors in beer is due to suspended yeast and other particulates. To test this theory, take two beers that have been bottle conditioned and have sat undisturbed in a fridge for 2 weeks. Gently swirl and invert one of them a few times, let it sit for 5 minutes, then pour both. The one with junk swirled in reminds me of young beer. Commercial guys can accomplish this by filtering or homebrewers can do it by cold crashing or extended warm aging. Of course this is just my opinion on the matter. My cold crashed beers are always drinkable sooner and I don't feel like I'm sacrificing quality at all.

How long do you primary a typical gravity beer Bobby? Any secondary? How long a cold crash at what stage at what temp? Thanks, I just usually see Revvy and Noobs argue these points and you are another experienced brewer whose opinion I trust.

 

[beerloaf]

I was thinking of cold crashing my current brew which is a Belgian Abbey Blond however I think I will just leave it in the secondary for an extra week and call it even. It's currently in the 2nd week of the secondary. It's actually clearing up really nice and is looking like it's supposed to (according to pics I found online.) Being my 1st batch, I wanted to bottle quick but the more I read the more I learned. 1 week in primary, 3 weeks in secondary should hopenfully alleviate the need for cold crashing. Then I was going to bottle condition for 3 weeks. Plus I think that style is supposed to be a little hazy anyways.

beerloaf

 

[Bobby_M]

How long do you primary a typical gravity beer Bobby? Any secondary? How long a cold crash at what stage at what temp? Thanks, I just usually see Revvy and Noobs argue these points and you are another experienced brewer whose opinion I trust.

Trusting me is dangerous. I change my mind a lot. I primary for 2-3 weeks, only secondary for a week if I dry hop with pellets (leaf hops would go right into the keg). This is what I do for 80% of the beers I brew because they're all under 7% abv. The cold crash is at about week 3, for one week at 33F then package it. If I'm dry hopping in a secondary, I cold crash it after about 3-5 days and I find it locks in the aroma nicely.

 

[rycov]

just curious. why would the leave hops go into the keg but not the pellets? (bear with me, im learning)

 

[Chad]

just curious. why would the leave hops go into the keg but not the pellets? (bear with me, im learning)

I'm not Bobby, but I'm guessing that he dry hops in the keg with whole (leaf) hops because they filter easily. Pellet hops turn into hop sludge, which doesn't taste very good when sucked up the dip tube and into your frosty pint.

 

[Chad]

Let me post a couple of caveats to my fermentation schedule above, which is usually 10 to 12 (sometimes 14) days on the yeast plus 2-5 days in the spare fridge in my garage to drop bright.

• I brew low to moderate gravity beers, rarely above 5.5% ABV
• I use a big pitch of healthy yeast, usually a 2L starter with the spent wort decanted
• I control my fermentation temperatures within a couple of degrees (fewer esters & such to clean up)
• As a result of the above, I get clean, moderately fast ferments
• I brew mainly British-style beers, i.e. I want some yeast character. Too much cleanup time reduces the "British" (fruity) character
• I taste my hydrometer samples and know when a beer needs to sit a little longer and when it is ready to cold crash

So if you brew barleywines or Belgians, can't easily control your fermentation temperatures, don't have the time or inclination to make starters, or don't want yeast character as part of the flavor profile, by all means let your beer sit on the yeast as long as it needs. It will be all the better for it. For my beers and the way I produce them, 10-12 days is plenty.

And as someone said above, to get back to the original question, cold crashing allows your beer to drop bright. The yeast and many proteins flocculate and drop to the bottom very quickly, leaving you with clean, sparkly beer to keg and condition.

 

[Bobby_M]

Exactly what Chad said in both posts above.

 

[aidan]

Well, looks like there is no one answer to my question. I guess I'll just have to experiment with different approaches myself and see what works for me. Similar to Chad I brew moderate gravity ales and since a I brew in a fridge I can maintain fairly tight temperature control so perhaps all the stuff I've been reading about extended periods in the primary is not that applicable to my type of brewing. Anyway I think I'll go ahead with my plan of skipping the cold conditioning on my current batch and see if I notice any issues with clarity or excessive yeast in the bottles.