# Cold Crashing Help



## Chookers (18/12/10)

I am interested in killing the yeast in my mead and cider, and know nothing about this technique.

Can someone explain it to me, I have searched this forum for the info but am having trouble finding it.

so would this work to kill the yeast but leave my drink carbonated or at least spritzy? or will I end up with flat.

Any help on this one would be massively appreciated..


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## earle (18/12/10)

Reports that I have read from other brewers indicate that even freezing a brew may not result in the death of the yeast.

If it was to kill the yeast I think you would end up with no carbonation.


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## stef (18/12/10)

As Earle said, CC'ing wont kill the yeast- it just knocks some of it out of suspension. If you want to kill the yeast, i believe pastuerisation is your best bet. Been a few threads on that recently. Involves immersing your bottles (once carbed) in hot water to kill the yeast. Heaps of info on it here somewhere though.


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## Chookers (18/12/10)

Thanks guys,

Yeh, I have been reading about the pasteurization method, but Im pretty nervous about doing it, thats why I was looking at cold crashing, but if its not going to kill'em then I guess I'll just have to take the plunge (so to speak) and just pasteurize them.

I will however try to under carb the bottles just incase.. I dont want to temp fate and end up with an explosion.. besides the result Im looking for is more of a sparkling than a fizzing..

Thanks for responding


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## Airgead (20/12/10)

Cold crashing 2will cause the yeast to floc out and settle to the bottom. Most of it anyway. It is more usually used to assist in clearing. It is not a reliable method of stopping fermentation unless you can keep the cider cold from the moment you crash it to the moment you drink it. All it takes is one cell still left in suspension (and there will be way more than one) to restart fermentation when it warms up.

Pasteurisation will work but, lets be honest, pasturing carbonated cider in the bottle is frankly insane. You are just asking for glass grenades and serious injury. Commercially, pasteurisation is done on uncarbonated cider and not in glass bottles - they run bulk cider through a heat exchanger then force carb and bottle.

The other way to reliably remove all yeast is sterile filtration. But again you can't do it on bottled cider only bulk which is then force carbed and bottled.

Cheers
Dave


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## brettprevans (5/1/11)

you can add chemcials to your cider that will kill the yeast. its what they sometimes do commercially. Sulphite and Sorbate will do the trick. though it depends on whether you want that in your cider.


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## Airgead (5/1/11)

citymorgue2 said:


> you can add chemcials to your cider that will kill the yeast. its what they sometimes do commercially. Sulphite and Sorbate will do the trick. though it depends on whether you want that in your cider.



There are chemicals that will kill yeast but used alone, Sulphite and sorbate are only yeast inhibitors. They won't actually kill the yeast. I think you have to use the two in combination and at quite high doses to be 100% certain that it isn't going to re-ferment. And with the chemical method you still end up with a still cider that you need to force carb which I think is what they were trying to avoid.

Most commercial processes (large scale anyway) either filter, flash pasteurise or centrifuge to remove yeast.

Either way they never pasteurise carbed cider in the bottle which is all kinds of crazy.

Cheers
Dave


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