Crashing Beers

[BrewJedi]

What is the reasoning behind dropping the ferment temp prior to bottling?
Diacetyl absorbtion?
do you do it with all styles?

If you know, please inform me

Cheers

 

[under]

Dropping suspened yeast hence clearing.

 

[gunbrew]

Inittially tried it to get clear beer.
Have been doing crash chilling for the last 8 or so brews.
All the yeast and even any bits of hops sink to the bottom of the fermenter and it makes for really clear beer.
Just got to the end of a keg last night and was amazed to see no yeast at all in the bottom.
I crash chilled that beer in the fermenter at 2 degrees for anout 4 days.

 

[under]

I find 4 days works aswell. Chill overnight. Gelatine next day. Chill another 24hrs. Polyclar, 24hrs later keg.

 

[BrewJedi]

I find 4 days works aswell. Chill overnight. Gelatine next day. Chill another 24hrs. Polyclar, 24hrs later keg.

Awesome, very helpfull.

Cheers.

 

[unrealeous]

Dropping suspened yeast hence clearing.

And it not just yeast that settles out, you also drop out protein and tannins - which help both taste and stability.

 

[Bribie G]

For lagers (Euro, Aussie etc) a 10 day crash does it for me and on kegging and four or five days carbing under pressure, the beer is almost pub-bright from the first glass.

 

[Nick JD]

I often gelatine ales at 20C for a couple of days - works fine; you can get it crystal clear without the temperature drop if clarity is your only aim.

 

[cdbrown]

I usually chill to about 3C for over a day then rack onto gelatine in the secondary and leave it for another two days before kegging.

 

[Dazza_devil]

What's the general consensus with the length of the CCing period if you have dry-hopped?

 

[brucearnold]

It seems that 4 days is for those kegging the beer, but what about for bottling as some yeast needs to still be in suspension for carbonation?

 

[muckey]

just chilling the beer wont drop enough yeast out to make bottle conditioning a problem.

I tend to only chill few a few days to 1 week and that depends more on how busy I am and when I can find the time to keg the beer rather than how long it's been conditioning - obviously this is for ales but lagers definately need much longer

 

[brucearnold]

Thanks Muckey, my first AG (Lord Marples) has now moved to the chiller in preparation for bottling tomorrow.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Im cc'ing my IIPA at the moment, man its dropped some yeast out of it...the most ever, there was a good inch in the fermenter after i racked to 2nd and now 4days later there is another inch in the bottom of the 2nd.

Im the same as Muckey, the length of stay in CC is dependant when i can fit in the bottling... :huh:

 

[manticle]

I like to CC ales for 5-7 days but have occasionally done shorter with some beers.

I find it has a great impact on maturing the beer and making it need less conditioning once bottled.

Combined with gelatine it results in bugger all sediment in the bottles

 

[Dazza_devil]

I like to CC ales for 5-7 days but have occasionally done shorter with some beers.

What about if you have dry-hopped?
Any grassyness from leaving the hopsock in the fermenter while CCing?

 

[cubbie]

I usually chill to about 3C for over a day then rack onto gelatine in the secondary and leave it for another two days before kegging.

I don't keg, but i have gone away from using a secondary vessel recently with gelatine into my before vessel. It is so much less hassle and has had no impact on my beer (good or bad). In fact less transfer less chance for problems. If I am going to larger for a long time I would use a secondary vessel.

 

[manticle]

What about if you have dry-hopped?
Any grassyness from leaving the hopsock in the fermenter while CCing?

Firstly I don't use a hopsock when I dry hop.

Secondly, I don't dry hop that often.

thirdly, given the above, I have found that both time and variety of hop have an influence on grassiness. Saaz is not something I would dry hop with ever again.

You can dry hop while cold conditioning. Pretty sure (based on cooking exp not specific brewing knowledge) that cold temps retard extraction of flavours so CC + dry hop you are probably safe from grass if it's just a week. Last couple of brews I've dry hopped this way have no grass and a wonderful hop flavour.


If you are concerned, you could either remove the hopsock at a particular point or rack to another vessel (in cases like mine where no bag is used).

 

[Bribie G]

European lager breweries don't dry hop as far as I am aware. Dry hopping into the cask is a British thing, and the hops go through the spile hole of the barrel and spice up the ale during the few days it gets ready to be served. No place for this in lager beers and hence many Euro hops not being suitable for dry hopping. Interesting that Styrian Goldings (as Euro as you can get) is a good dry hopper and is popular in the UK - the signature hop of TTL. However Saaz and Hallertau etc I personally wouldn't use them for this purpose. I recently hop tea'd with Tettnang and it was grassy as hell, mellowed out after a month in the keg. Since the US renaissance in ales, they dry hop to buggery along the UK model using their intense aroma hops.

 

[manticle]

Love tett but my one and only experience dry hopping (admittedly completely out of place in the brew) was not something I'd repeat.