Secondary in a fridge?

[ZWood15]

Hey guys,

I was talking to a friend of mine who works at Oskar Blues brewery in Lyons, CO and he brought up an interesting idea. When he was talking to a brewer there, the guys said that he puts his secondaries into a cooler to aid in the clarification of the beer. At first I thought it was a bad idea, but then I realized that it might actually work. Has anyone tried this technique and will it even work/be good for the beer?

-Z

p.s. The beers in question have been ales

 

[Nurmey]

I've not done it so I can't say but if you search crash cooling you should be able to read on how homebrewers do it.

 

[John Beere]

I leave my "secondary" at fermentation temperatures for at least two weeks, then move it to my beer cooler to crash cool and finish carb'ing.

 

[zoebisch01]

I think it is a matter of personal preference really. I believe cooler temperatures seem to expidite the clearing process, which is really one of the main reasons for secondary in the first place.

For most of my brews (since I bottle) they go about 10 days primary, 10 days in the bottle primed at ferment temp (or sometimes slightly above) to carbonate, and then to my cellar where the bottles sit until I have achieved the clarity I want. I have had excellent results allowing my beer to clarify in bottles, in the cool temperatures of the basement and see no reason to advise against what you are suggestion, in fact, I'd encourage it.

 

[Beerrific]

All my beers sit at 34F for at least a week before I bottled or keg. The cold temperatures encourage the formation of protein tannin complexes that will drop out of the beer. This along with the extra flocculation of the yeast will result in a clearer beer. Cold conditioning or lagering in combination with using a fining such as gelatin can produce a very clear beer without filtering. AFAIK, all breweries bring their beer down to these temperatures at some point during the conditioning process, either to cold filter, clear naturally, or in combination with some fining agent.

If you have the ability to do it, I would recommend trying it out.

 

[RichBrewer]

I've put secondaries into the fridge after I'm sure they are done fermenting and I've had some pretty good results. I've done some for and extended amount of time and it even reduced the chill haze.