Halting Fermentation

[damianjthorpe]

G'day Brewers,

My current brew has been fermenting for 7 days. I used a powdered yeast nutrient to improve attenuation, but I fear it might dry out the beer too much. Can I stop the fermentation by cold crashing, then adding finings to limit the amount of unspent yeast entering the bottles? I don't want bottle bombs!

Looking forward to hearing from fellow brewers soon.

Cheers and happy brewing,
Damo

 

[Nick JD]

No - even filtering through a 1.0 micron filter will let the smaller yeast cells through.

You could, however heat your filled and capped bottles up to 70C for a minute or two then rapidly cool them like breweries do to pasteurise once carbed up ... but even then I'd store the bottles next to a pair of safety goggles.

 

[damianjthorpe]

Thanks Nick JD

Safest bet would be to let fermentation finish then.. Sounds like a plan. I guess with the cooler weather the fermentation process will take a bit longer anyway?

Cheers and happy brewing,
Damo

 

[Wolfy]

You can stop fermentation by adding chemicals, however the best option is to just let it ferment your beer as normal.
I use yeast-nutrient in every beer I make and I doubt you'll notice much difference at all, it should not dry out the beer at all (most commercial brewers also use yeast-nutrients).