Cold Crashing - Can I put fermenter in the fridge?

[trustyrusty]

Hi I was reading up about cold crashing - I have not seem to see anything about putting fermenter in the fridge... all seems to be about putting cube or other container...

I am sure I can ?

What are the advantages other than getting a clearer beer, because yeast drops out to bottom.

I also want to recover the yeast - will this effect it?

Thanks

 

[droid]

I cold crashed for a while with ales but didn't like the extra waiting and couldn't see a benefit personally. I did the gelatin thing too once, yes it was clear but brew-brite does the job.
Here, lagers are fermented at a lower temp, raised to a higher temp to clean up then <edit - transferred to kegs> cold crashed until served.
There is a fermenter/cube in the fridge right now (lager) sitting at 16 which was raised from 10. I am going to let it sit for another day before quietly racking it to a keg and then getting the yeast off the bottom for a much larger batch next week.
Personally I also found cold crashing a bit tricky if priming in bottles, I could never get the carbonation right.
I have an ale pumping away at 20 right now and i will only transfer that to serving vessels when terminal gravity is reached...and then grab the yeast off the bottom of that one too.

hope that helps and doesn't muddy the waters, so to speak

 

[Coodgee]

Most people here probably brew with temperature control, which means they have the fermenter in a fridge already. Cold crashing then simply entails setting the fridge to 0 degrees or as cold as it can go. You want the beer to chill as fast as possible which removes a lot of suspended particles and results in clear beer. you can reuse the settled yeast no worries.

 

[manticle]

Fermenter in fridge = fine.
Clearing the beer of yeast and other particulate matter affects flavour.

Yeast at the bottom can be re-used.

 

[trustyrusty]

Thanks -

Clearing the beer of yeast and other particulate matter affects flavour.

Thanks

So are you saying cold crashing will clear the yeast better...

To be honest I never use clearing agent / gelatin and beers actually quite clear.... I am not sure if that effects that flavour by not clearing?

cheers

 

[manticle]

Yes cold will help yeast go dormant and drop quicker/better.
Drink the sediment in the bottle and tell me if it tastes the same as clear beer.

 

[droid]

are you using extract?

 

[trustyrusty]

Just kits at the moment....
Is a kit hopped extract brewing

 

[droid]

cold crashing does clear the beer quicker and from a time perspective ~ then you could say it's better in that regard but you won't be drinking it sooner, unless you're looking for an ultra clear lager for a comp or something, just bottle or keg and drain the yeast off the bottom
cold crashing also means not as much yeast is left in suspension so priming with sugar is harder to get right because you've pulled the yeast out of the beer
that's my personal experience - i wouldn't bother

 

[trustyrusty]

cold crashing also means not as much yeast is left in suspension so priming with sugar is harder to get right because you've pulled the yeast out of the beer
that's my personal experience - i wouldn't bother

That is what I was thinking....

Can you cold crash after carbonation? I cannot really see the difference. If you put the keg or bottles in fridge for a week or so. In the Keg the first pour might be a bit 'dirty' ...Sure this happens every time someone puts a keg in the fridge while waiting for carbonation?

cheers

 

[Tropico]

It is standard practice for me. I have enough fermenters, so I do not need to transfer to another container to free up a fermenter.

I keg just about all my beer, so it goes into the keg cold and allows me to do a quick forced carbonation straight away. Then cold carbed keg goes into the serving fridge.

I usually save some of the starter when I add it to the fermenter. This lets me make another starter without having to harvest from the fermenter after it has been transferred to the keg.

I could be called lazy, but I always prefer the quickest easiest way.

 

[wereprawn]

The main reason i CC is to drop the dry hops out of the beer. If you're using a hop sock its less of a problem but ,as many of us like our dry hops to swim free, there can be a **** ton of hop debris suspended in the kegs /bottles without a few days crashing . I find 3 days does the trick. Not much longer to wait really .

 

[manticle]

That is what I was thinking....

Can you cold crash after carbonation? I cannot really see the difference. If you put the keg or bottles in fridge for a week or so. In the Keg the first pour might be a bit 'dirty' ...Sure this happens every time someone puts a keg in the fridge while waiting for carbonation?

cheers

If you cold condition after packaging, all the stuff that drops out remains in the package.
I've never encountered issues carbonating with priming sugar after up to 3-4 weeks in the fridge.

 

[pcmfisher]

are you using extract?

Does it matter?

 

[earle]

I cc most of my beers but it doesn't add any extra time to primary. E.g. For ales, before I cc'ed I would leave for 3 weeks in the fermenter before bottling or kegging to let the yeast clean up a bit, now I still wait 3 weeks but drop the temp for the cc for the last 4 or 5 days. Haven't really noticed bottles taking longer to carb after cc compared with no cc.

 

[Rocker1986]

No issues with carbonation in bottles here either after cold crashing. It doesn't drop out enough yeast to cause any in the first place, unless you leave it for months or something. Have cold crashed up to 5 weeks in the past and had perfect carbonation in the bottles.

Yeast is fine to re-use. I don't use the yeast from the FV though, I steal it from my yeast starters before they are pitched into the main batch. However, they are crashed for a day or two after harvesting some and prior to pitching in order to drop the yeast out so I can decant off the spent beer. Then I just pitch them cold straight into the wort. No dramas at all.

Another reason I do it is to add finings to drop more **** out than would happen without them, mainly yeast, although I do add Polyclar to piss off the chill haze as well. It's purely vanity on my part really :lol:. Not necessary to do but I like the clear appearance. I get very little yeast in the bottom of kegs too, maybe about as much sediment as you'd get in a couple of tallies, although I don't naturally carb them either.

 

[stewy]

A 3-5 day crash will have zero effect on carbonation. Still plenty of yeast there to do the job. It will only cause your beer to be clearer

 

[droid]

this is from beersmith
http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/10/20/improving-beer-clarity-and-finings-in-depth-part-4/

but i prefer to base my thoughts on my own experiences <edit and will ad that priming with sugar after bottling at cold crash temps ~ 2or3C caused inconsistent carbonation)

 

[rude]

Ales 2 weeks for me at 18 c then cc to 2 c or lower if it will go (old fridge)

3 days or when ever I can keg it 1 week or more

Never had a prob carbing the extra beer in botts

 

[droid]

Does it matter?

i wouldn't of thought there was a need to cold crash an extract ale, unless it had steeped grains or dry-hops - shouldn't it be pretty clear? sorry it's been a while but i thought my extract brews were all pretty clear
wasn't getting on the AG pom pom waving club or anything