Should you leave the lid open while cold crushing?

[Beginnier927]

I read somewhere that you should leave the lid open while cold crushing your brew.
Does it oxidize the wine/beer?

 

[lumpher]

It would suck in oxygen, bacteria, all kinds of nasties as it cools and condenses. Insects, spiders... I don't leave my beer open at any time except when it's in my mug and I'm drinking it.

 

[rmr9]

The beer/wine will contract when you cool it I think that’s where the advice comes in - but no, do not leave it open. Oxygen will still get in when you cold crash if you don’t take some mediation steps like a cold crash guardian, Mylar balloon or similar. You can even have a long tube into sanitizer and hopefully not suck any/too much up. Using a 3 piece airlock will also prevent suck back of sanitizer.

 

[odie]

cold crush? lol...you mean crash.

Yeah, ideally, the less oxygen the better. anything you can do to reduce that is helpful.

The last of my bucket fermenting, I used a solid lid just barely snapped on. CO2 could force it's way out. But during cold crash the lid just sucked down tight.

depending on your equipment there are various ways to try to keep oxygen out. But in the end, there will be some during the bottling or kegging process.

but priming sugar will help eat that oxygen and with kegs you can purge the headspace a few times.

But no one is preventing 100% of all oxygen. Maybe ferment and serve in the same keg but even then, I have my doubts.

 

[wdavis2003]

Anyway you can list your fermentation equipment? (e.g., fermentation vessel, fermentation chamber, etc.) The obvious answer is, hell no, don't leave the fermenter open when cold crashing. But if you can provide some detail on what you're working with, the community could be more helpful.

 

[JAReeves]

If you can't set up a good closed-transfer system to avoid O2 as you cold-crash, try either the Cold Crash Guardian ($$) or get a decent sized party balloon, rinse it out with StarSan, fill it with CO2 and drop that puppy on top of your bubbler/vapor lock.

 

[pvtpublic]

Always keg before cold crashing. That way, you'll always have positive pressure no matter how much it contracts.

 

[WesBrew]

If it can hold pressure you can pressurize with CO2

 

[wsmith1625]

Ideally you want to cold crash in your fermenter so you can transfer clear bear to your keg or bottling bucket. Are you bottling or kegging your beer?

 

[wsmith1625]

For the bottlers out there who don't have co2 at home, I wonder if a mini co2 regulator would work for cold crashing. Might not be a bad investment.

https://www.amazon.com/MRbrew-Dispe...70&sprefix=mini+co2+regulator,aps,105&sr=8-45

 

[pvtpublic]

Ideally you want to cold crash in your fermenter so you can transfer clear bear to your keg or bottling bucket.

Or use a floating diptube in the keg.

 

[day_trippr]

A 16 gram CO2 cartridge should provide roughly 1/3 cubic foot or 2.3 gallons of gas at STP.
Should be enough for say a 15 gallon vessel or a few carboys...

Cheers!