Should I cold crash or rack to secondary, before carbonating in a keg?

[TsunamiMike]

Alright so I have a couple questions for the brain trust. I just brewed and finished fermenting an American Light Lager Extract, current temp is 68 degrees should I:

1. just rack it to a secondary and then rack it into the keg for carbonating?

2. Cold Crash it for the next 2 weeks to clear it up and then rack it directly to the keg to carb?

3. Cold Crash then rack it to a secondary and then the keg to carb?

Then when employing the week long set and forget carbing can I just set it to "X" pressure and disconnect the CO2 and put it in my 37 degree fermentation chamber?

Thank you for your input, I truly appreciate it as this is my first set an forget and my first American Light...

 

[day_trippr]

1. "Don't Do That". Avoid the use of "secondary" vessels and the attendant risk of significant oxidation.

2. Do this. BUT, cold crashes should be as short as possible - just enough to do the job. More time than necessary just puts more time on the beer, and for most styles, time is not their friend. I rarely crash for more than 48 hours - it takes most of that time just to drop 10 gallons of beer down to 34°F (from 67~68°F, typically).

3. See "1".

Cheers!

 

[NGD]

@day_trippr Unless TsunamiMike has a way to control oxygen ingress into his fermenter wouldnt it be better to transfer to purged keg first and then cold crash and pour out a pint or two? Asking out of ignorance.

 

[day_trippr]

That is certainly an option - and as you mentioned, sans O2 ingress avoidance with the fermentor during the cold crash, it'd probably be the better choice.
Nicely done

I was expecting this thread to end up with the O2 ingress avoidance thing soon

Cheers!

 

[LittleRiver]

... week long set and forget carbing can I just set it to "X" pressure and disconnect the CO2 and put it in my 37 degree fermentation chamber?

You need to have the CO2 connected for the entire carbonation period.

 

[NGD]

Guess I had to be “that guy”

I ask because I’m finally setup for closed transfers from my speidel and have had bad luck with cold crashing and oxidation. Now I’m considering shortening my crash time as well. Cheers!

 

[McKnuckle]

I never cold crash in the fermenter, unless it is a sealed keg (and even then...). Better to transfer from warm primary to the serving keg, move it to the cold, put it on gas at serving pressure, and condition it there. Leave for 2 weeks and you'll have "good" carbonation, clarity, and flavor. After 3 weeks, all of those will be noticeably better.

You'll have some sediment to remove in the beginning, but smooth sailing from there. Alternately, you can use a floating dip tube and have no sediment til the keg is nearly empty.

 

[Yooper]

@day_trippr Unless TsunamiMike has a way to control oxygen ingress into his fermenter wouldnt it be better to transfer to purged keg first and then cold crash and pour out a pint or two? Asking out of ignorance.

That's what I do. Transfer and then lager in the keg.

 

[TsunamiMike]

Ok so any issues with leaving the beer in the fermentor until I kick a keg out of my kegerator?

I do not have another reg and tank to keep the pressure on so I guess I have to wait?

 

[day_trippr]

What sort of time frame are you looking at? And what kind of chamber is this beer in now?
You could go ahead and keg, seal the keg up, and set it in the coolest spot in your home until a slot frees up.
At the least it'd start the clock on settling any yeast 'n' stuff...

Cheers!

 

[Angell]

When preforming an open transfer (exposed to some amount of oxygen, racking cain etc) which beer picks up more O2? A beer at 34 or 68 degrees? Does that matter?

 

[TsunamiMike]

What sort of time frame are you looking at? And what kind of chamber is this beer in now?
You could go ahead and keg, seal the keg up, and set it in the coolest spot in your home until a slot frees up.
At the least it'd start the clock on settling any yeast 'n' stuff...

Cheers!

It is in my fermentation chamber. So I have a freezer attached to an inkbird, also a fermotech electric unit that wraps around the vessel. I used it to lager my last oktoberfest.

If I were to do that would I worry about pressure while in there as I do not have a second co2 tank at this time.

 

[LittleRiver]

Ok so any issues with leaving the beer in the fermentor until I kick a keg out of my kegerator?

Assuming your kegs get empty in about a month or two (which seems reasonable), I think leaving it in the fermenter will be fine. Some styles (porters, stouts, etc) will probably improve in that time, while other styles (hoppy IPA's, etc.) may degrade a bit.

I do not have another reg and tank to keep the pressure on so I guess I have to wait?

As already mentioned above, you can transfer it to a purged and sanitized keg. It will be fine at room temp outside your kegerator until a slot opens up.

You have the option of adding priming sugar to the keg, so it can naturally carbonate while it's waiting for the slot to open up. If you do this, make sure you keep it at room temp long enough for the yeast to consume the priming sugar.

 

[NGD]

Assuming your kegs get empty in about a month or two (which seems reasonable), I think leaving it in the fermenter will be fine. Some styles (porters, stouts, etc) will probably improve in that time, while other styles (hoppy IPA's, etc.) may degrade a bit.

I disagree with this part if your fermenter is plastic. Edit: depends on plastic your using. I’ve tried aging cold in both a bucket and a spiedel for a month. Beer ended up oxidized pretty bad. If your working with stainless then your probably fine. Just backfill with CO2 as the beer chills and you should be good. If you have a spare keg, I would say purge, fill and add pressure. No oxygen ingress to he had and your probably fine for a month or so.

Or add priming sugar like Littleriver suggested and have a naturally carbed brew ready to serve after chilling.

 

[LittleRiver]

I disagree with this part if your fermenter is plastic. I’ve tried aging cold in both a bucket and a spiedel for a month. Beer ended up oxidized pretty bad....

All plastics are not the same.

A fermenter molded from PET is much better at blocking oxygen than an HDPE bucket. I've aged in PET fermenters for up to two months with no oxidation problems.

 

[NGD]

Oh geez, completely forgot. That was one of the reasons I almost went with a fermzilla over the spiedel. Thank you for the reminder.

 

[yowzers]

#2. But you can cold crash for only 48 hours and add gelatin to speed the whole process up. Then keg right away and carbonate while chilled.

 

[day_trippr]

Gelatin is best added to fully chilled beer. Assuming Option 2 is performed, I would wait til the beer is kegged and chilled back down...

Cheers!