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I have a brew that's at the end of primary now and am considering cold crashing. I've never done it before so am reading this thread with interest. I have a brew fridge currently at 24oC My plan is, finish primary, cold crash for a couple of days, transfer to secondary FV and add priming...

Never rely on the airlock alone to know that its finished. Get yourself a hydrometer.

That's what I do, although I must get hold of some more caps, they keep vanishing.

Stick it in plain water at room temp before doing anything. This should give a reading of 1 and will help you gauge how to read it.

If the 300 and 330 ml bottles had beer/fizz in them before, then they should be OK for your brew. Just remember to scale down 1tsp per 500ml.

I have heard that freezers don't take as well to the frequent switching on and off as well as a fridge does. If it's an old one then no harm in using it and see what happens.

You don't really need a tight seal. As you've discovered it will happily do its thing without being airtight. As long as it is covered well to stop any nasties falling in it will be fine without being airtight. Unless you like to just sit and watch the bubbles of course.

I made this mixed berry a while back. It's not sickly sweet and it also doesn't taste very strong, but at around 6% it packs a punch. Took a while to carbonate in the bottles though. Would probably do another one.

If it isn't broken, just turn it down to coldest and let the Inkbird do the work.

For those of you that use a fan, is it on all the time, or switched on and off with the heater?

Try and get one that doesn't have an ice box, save the hassle of trying to remove it. Or of you have the space, go for a taller larder fridge, you can then use the other space for extra storage, or 2 FVs if the mood takes you. Have a look around the forum for 'brew fridge', there are a few...

If the fridge stat is bust and you're using an Inkbird, why not just bypass the fridge stat and let the Inkbird stat do the work?

You are not alone. I read the forum every day or so, but I have five (almost) full 40 bottle crates in the garage so don't have the space to start another one at the moment. Doesn't stop me looking and thinking about what to do next though. Just reading the St Peter's Red Ruby thread, sounds...

Agreed, bottle it as soon as you add the sugar, as it will start to ferment again and you want this happening inside the bottles not the FV.

About as long as it takes to get everything ready to bottle. If you do stir, do it gently so as not to introduce any air.

Priming sugar is included in the kit.

Probably not worth getting anyone out to fix it, likely to cost as much as a replacement, unless you know someone handy that is. If you want to remove the thermostat and rely on the Inkbird for control, it should just be a case of joining the two thermostat wires together. You might want to...

Ditto, I have the same. Just finished bottling 40 pints of American Pale Ale. I quite enjoy bottling now, so much less of a chore.

I don't keg, I bottle everything and agree with Dan125 that since getting a bottle washer and wand it is so much easier. If I can do it for 40 bottles, half a dozen is going to be a breeze.

Or a shed/greenhouse heater does the job perfectly. I wouldn't use an aquarium heater out of water. They are usually marked with a minimum water level mark. Not sure what will happen but I wouldn't want to be around an overheated glass tube if it goes pop.