Cold Crash Procedure Clarification

[PTG]

Hi All
Long time stalker first time poster. Firstly thanks to you all for the wealth of good information posted on here.

I'm interested to know what process everyone uses when Cold Crashing. As the name implies it sounds like everyone drops from ferment temp to 0C or near as quickly as possible. I've searched on here extensively and can't seem to find a direct reference to the timeframe people use, just the use of the term cold crashed.
From the reading I've done on fermenting it was my understanding that it needed to be done at a slower pace i.e 1 to 3 degrees a day, otherwise you can cause thermal shock and the yeast cells will release fatty acids and other lipids which can create stale flavours.
I'm not experienced enough yet to have tried both methods to see if there is any difference.
Thanks for any feedback.

Cheers SoO

 

[Drewgong]

I can only speak from my own experience. I cold crash to clear my beer and firm up the yeast cake and trub. My process is just to unplug temp controller and let the fridge drop it to 2 degrees and after 3-4 days I keg it. The only difference i see from when i wasn't cold crashing is less sediment in my beer

 

[mongey]

I have a crappy old brew fridge fridge so it takes 48 hours for the beer to cool down to crashing temp .sometimes more

my fridge def ain't shocking anything.

 

[Schikitar]

I have a followup question, if bottling do people just bulk prime and bottle cold or do you wait for the beer to warm back up? I've never bothered to cold crash but have noticed that I end up with a lot of mini-trub in the bottom of my bottles once they've conditioned so I'm thinking I should maybe use finings and a CC to reduce the mess in the bottom of the bottles? One day I'll get around to kegging!

 

[breadenhound]

I have never cold crashed, but I would say that the benefits of the CC only last whilst it is still cold. If you let it warm up, the yeasties would kick off their slow subdued party again.

I believe that most of what is on the bottom of the bottle will be yeast from secondary fermentation and Cold crashing wouldnt stop that.

 

[Exaybachay]

I thought one of the main purposes of CC'ing was to drop those yeasties out of suspension so that they weren't getting into your keg/bottle?

 

[mongey]

yeah bottle cold. that was the trub is solid on the bottom and you get more usable beer out of the fermenter

main time I do it is when I dry hop with pellets. I just chuck em in so cold crash helps settle out more of the hop matter

If i don't dry hop a beer then I can take it or leave it depending on the beer



and as a bonus bottling cold makes a bit of a tasting while bottling more enjoyable

 

[brewgasm]

Hi All
Long time stalker first time poster. Firstly thanks to you all for the wealth of good information posted on here.

I'm interested to know what process everyone uses when Cold Crashing. As the name implies it sounds like everyone drops from ferment temp to 0C or near as quickly as possible. I've searched on here extensively and can't seem to find a direct reference to the timeframe people use, just the use of the term cold crashed.
From the reading I've done on fermenting it was my understanding that it needed to be done at a slower pace i.e 1 to 3 degrees a day, otherwise you can cause thermal shock and the yeast cells will release fatty acids and other lipids which can create stale flavours.
I'm not experienced enough yet to have tried both methods to see if there is any difference.
Thanks for any feedback.

Cheers SoO

As far as I understand it the temperature shock issue if there even is one comes about when you re-pitch yeast from a beer that has been cold crashed. You would have to crash the beer in less than 6 hours to to cause the yeast temperature shock (at least to the extent of undesirable proteins/esters)

 

[captain crumpet]

I have a followup question, if bottling do people just bulk prime and bottle cold or do you wait for the beer to warm back up? I've never bothered to cold crash but have noticed that I end up with a lot of mini-trub in the bottom of my bottles once they've conditioned so I'm thinking I should maybe use finings and a CC to reduce the mess in the bottom of the bottles? One day I'll get around to kegging!

Bulk prime and bottle while still cold. Using finings during cold crash will reduce the amount of crap in the bottle, but carbonating in the bottle is always going to give you a yeast deposit in the bottle. If you want zero crap in the bottle you need to artificially carbonate and use counter pressure fillers or something similar.

Yeast shock with cold crashing is actually a problem when lagering. That is a whole other discussion.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Two days at minus 1 or 2 depending on the ABV yeast will compact on the bottom draw off into primed bottling bucket and bottle.

 

[PTG]

Yeast shock with cold crashing is actually a problem when lagering. That is a whole other discussion.[/QUOTE]

 

[PTG]

Your exactly right Captain Crumpet. I don't think it's a whole other discussion that's exactly the point. What experience has anyone had with this?
Lager after all is real beer!

 

[brewgasm]

I have only done one true larger because it ties up my gear for so long. It was worth it tho, a great beer. I didn't run a stepped temp schedule just let the fridge do its thing. I am planning to do some largers over winter because I can do the largers in the fridge and ales on the counter top with heat belts and temp control

 

[Dranny]

I just turn the temp. controller of and let the fridge cool it down to about 4 degrees. You can bottle or keg cold. A cold keg will make carbonation process quicker. The bottles will take longer to condition because there is less yeast in the brew.

 

[themonkeysback]

Your exactly right Captain Crumpet. I don't think it's a whole other discussion that's exactly the point. What experience has anyone had with this?
Lager after all is real beer!

It depends what you are trying to achieve with your cold crash. I suspect most people are just doing it to drop as much yeast as possible out of suspension. For this it is simple - once you are happy fermentation is complete just drop it as cold as you can manage as quick as you can manage (short of freezing things obviously). Lagers are a different story if you are actually planning to 'lager' them - dropping temp slowly is optimal for this to allow the yeast to remain active as the temp drops.

My general approach is:

Ales: Ferment out and add a diacetyl rest if required. Leave it a ferment temp for a day or two once terminal gravity is reached then drop quickly (as fast as the fridge can manage) down to around 2 degrees and then move to keg once most yeast has dropped out (approx 48hrs, or much longer if I am feeling lazy).

Lager: Ferment out and add a diacetyl rest if required. Then drop temp by 1 degree a day until down between 2-4 degrees and move to a keg before sticking it in my kegerator to carbonate/lager/drink. If I were bottling I would bottle at the point of kegging above, then leave at room temp a fortnight to carbonate before putting all bottles in the fridge. Others approach will no doubt be different.

Adam.

 

[jackgym]

I'm not too bothered with having crystal-clear beer, so I don't cold crash unless I late hop commando style. I don't late hop very often.
Once you fridge the bottles ready for drinking the beer develops a chill haze.
I find leaving the wort in the fermenter for 14 days before bottling allows most of the stuff to drop out.
Cooper's commercial beer is a cloudy drop anyway.