Cold Crash ?

[Motorhomebrew]

Can someone explain to me when and why to cold Crash?

TIA

 

[Agentgonzo]

Once fermentation has finished. You do it so that the yeast and and dry hops will drop out of suspension at the bottom of your fermenter and you rack clearer beer off the top of it

 

[Dutto]

It speeds up the clearing of beer …

… something that time and gravity will achieve anyway!

With the current cost of electricity, I will probably not bother with CC over the next five months and just put the keg in a cool place for two weeks instead.

Looking back through my Brew Day files I didn’t CC for many years and still produced clear and tasty brews.
:hat:

PS
When siphoning from the fermenter to the keg I have cut a “V” into the bottom end of the 10mm copper pipe I use; and fit a “Stainless Steel Mesh Inching Siphon Filter” (purchased from Amazon) to the end.

This makes sure that the majority of the yeast and hops don’t get transferred to the keg.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I don't do it either. Just leave it a couple of extra days at fermentation temps

 

[Motorhomebrew]

Thanks for your replies.... If I'm bottling does cold crashing actually help? As they'll end up in the fridge once carbonation is done, so surely that's a form of cold crashing in the bottle no?

 

[Dutto]

As it speeds up clearing the beer, sticking a bottle into a 4*C fridge will help; but why?

IMHO, sticking to the 2+2+2 system works well enough without Cold Crashing.
:hat:

 

[Motorhomebrew]

As it speeds up clearing the beer, sticking a bottle into a 4*C fridge will help; but why?

IMHO, sticking to the 2+2+2 system works well enough without Cold Crashing.
:hat:

Sorry for my lack of knowledge... 2+2+2 ?

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@RobsHomebrew

I think that makes 6

 

[Eskdale]

Personally I cold crash at 0C degrees for 3 days drops everything out avoids to much lees going into the bottle, does seem to produce a clear pour.
2x2x2 is weeks I believe.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Sorry for my lack of knowledge... 2+2+2 ?

2 weeks fermenting
2 weeks carbonating in the bottle (often at around 18-20 degrees)
2 weeks conditioning somewhere cool (or in a fridge)

It's not scientific, but as a general rule, it has served me well in the past. For me, the 2 weeks fermenting is not rigid. I check mine using gravity readings looking for a stable gravity over a few days.
Also, for me, it ends up more like 2.5 weeks fermenting, 2 weeks carbing, 4+ weeks conditioning.

 

[Graz]

I only cold crash when using a dry hop. It just makes siphoning it out of the fermenter into the keg so much easier as everything drops to the bottom and becomes fairly compacted.

Added bonus with it is that if your kegerator has a spare space in it like mine did yesterday then the beer is already at the right temperature to start carbonating it.

 

[Motorhomebrew]

2 weeks fermenting
2 weeks carbonating in the bottle (often at around 18-20 degrees)
2 weeks conditioning somewhere cool (or in a fridge)

It's not scientific, but as a general rule, it has served me well in the past. For me, the 2 weeks fermenting is not rigid. I check mine using gravity readings looking for a stable gravity over a few days.
Also, for me, it ends up more like 2.5 weeks fermenting, 2 weeks carbing, 4+ weeks conditioning.

Thanks for clearing that up much appreciated

 

[Dutto]

Like @AnimatedGIF said.
:hat:

 

[Cheshire Cat]

The 2+2+2 rule is a good guideline when you start brewing but far to simplistic. Primary fermentation is finished when the FG is stable at around 1.010 for a couple of days. For me this is after 5-7 days. For bottle beers I transfer to a bottling bucket and cold crash for 3-4 days to clean up the beer. For keg beers I leave the beer in the primary and again cold crash.
For bottled beers 2 weeks to carbonate is not a bad guide but it’s temperature dependent as well a dependent on the amount of sugar added to each bottle.
Two week conditioning is not enough for bottled beers, I use the rule based on OG ie if the OG is 1050 then minimum of 5 weeks.
Kegged beers I carbonate in 7 days and condition for 7 days. These are mainly British bitters which I like fresh.

 

[Alan_Reginato]

Once, in a side by side batch, one I did cold crash.

At bottling, one more clear bottle for the cold crash batch, in 15. And it looks like more clear than the other batch.

After 1 month, there was no difference between bottles.

So, time works just fine. And your wife might not complain about space in refrigerator...

 

[Alastair70]

I always cold crash, even hefeweizens and stouts. That way I get less of the stuff I don’t want (yeast/hop matter etc) into the keg or bottles and I’m packaging clearer beer from the outset. The current session IPA will end up with 4 days at 1C before kegging due to work commitments this week.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Can I ask, is rate of clearing proportional to the tenperature, or is there a threshold below which cold crashing works best?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Can I ask, is rate of clearing proportional to the tenperature, or is there a threshold below which cold crashing works best?

I believe it mainly due to gravity and time. However a cold beer will have less upward movement as heat rises. I ”cold“ crash at the ambient garage temperature.

 

[Alan_Reginato]

I forgot to mention, I filter the wort with a hop bag while transferring to fermenter. That's make a lot of difference. This way all the kettle goes down and with minimal material. No whirflock, no gelatin, no cold crash



Picture of a saison I brewd recently.

 

[dcbrookes]

I have been brewing for over 50 years and I have never cold crashed - it is not necessary!