Cold Crash ?

[moderate order]

It's been about a year since I brewed from kit, and yep I can't recall having anything to add to help clear them. Someone may be able to suggest something, especially if you're going to lose the ability to CC. The brews I did with kits did take longer than my AG brews to clear, so you should be fine with longer conditioning time. However, if you are setting up a kegorater, does that mean you are putting your beer under pressure....I'm sure that will help with clearing? Again, someone else can help with that. Sorry, I'm just a bottler

Yeah I've got the CO2 etc, my plan is to force carbonate the corny, and assuming I have the amount of beer I'm supposed to, put the rest in a 5l mini-keg and add sugar to that.

 

[moderate order]

I agree, but please remember that the people who sell kits are desperate for you to buy another one!

This is why they promise stupid times for Fermentation and statements like “Ready to drink in 5 days!” i.e. It won’t kill you!

FWIW the kit I'm using specifies 21 days conditioning in the bottle / keg, so I think you're being a little unfair, at least in this case.

I’m sorry but I agree with your wife for the following reasons:

1. Drinking cold beer is an acquired affectation that became possible only when they invented fridges!

Sure, but my wife also only drinks beer when it is cold....

 

[Dutto]

Sure, but my wife also only drinks beer when it is cold....

Er … that rather supports my case doesn’t it?

 

[Dutto]

FWIW the kit I'm using specifies 21 days conditioning in the bottle / keg, so I think you're being a little unfair, at least in this case.

Muntons is one of the better kit producers and the Instructions for Gold Pilsner states:

“Fermentation will be complete when bubbles cease to rise (usually after 7-8 days), …”

… an optimistic time in my experience, and

“Finally, move the bottles to a cool place for at least 21 days, or until the beer is clear, before drinking.”

No mention of Cold Crashing, just patience!
:hat:

 

[Stuart Wilson]

The first brew I ever did cleared perfectly after about 2 weeks in bottles. The next 2 were cloudy as hell! No idea why.... spent ages googling, reading about finings and worrying what had gone wrong. Most got drunk as cloudy beer, but a few left over bottles remained in the garage. I found them 3 months later....absolutely clear.

I now routinely add 0.5 teaspoon of gelatine to a 20 L batch when bottling, but I'm also much more patient and prepared to wait 2 - 3 months for them to be ready to drink.

I've decided that patience is the best way to get really clear beer. I've now built up a stock of nearly 200 bottles in the garage....that was an important step. Easier to be patient if you already have a few brews ready to drink!!

 

[foxy]

The first brew I ever did cleared perfectly after about 2 weeks in bottles. The next 2 were cloudy as hell! No idea why.... spent ages googling, reading about finings and worrying what had gone wrong. Most got drunk as cloudy beer, but a few left over bottles remained in the garage. I found them 3 months later....absolutely clear.

I now routinely add 0.5 teaspoon of gelatine to a 20 L batch when bottling, but I'm also much more patient and prepared to wait 2 - 3 months for them to be ready to drink.

I've decided that patience is the best way to get really clear beer. I've now built up a stock of nearly 200 bottles in the garage....that was an important step. Easier to be patient if you already have a few brews ready to drink!!

It isn't just patience. Cloudy beer could be a number of things, poor milling, the mash, the sparge, the boil, the transfer from kettle to fermenter, even pH. Getting the process right eliminates clearing agents (dismissing rye and wheat) to get a clear beer within 2 to 3 weeks of bottling.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

If the beer’s not clear don’t bottle or keg. I usually “cold crash” in the 2FV/bottling bucket at my garages ambient temperature and it clears usually in 3-5 days. Never used finings but do use protofloc or Irish Moss. All my wheat beers are clear.
However if I don’t need the brew fridge for the next brew I turn the temperature down for 3 days when primary fermentation is complete. I don’t use the 2FV if I’m kegging so clear in the primary.

 

[Wrh]

Does cold crashing introduce oxygen into your finished beer ie I assume the beer and air space shrink when cold so does the water in your bubbler get sucked into your finished beer ? Thanks for any advice

 

[Agentgonzo]

Does cold crashing introduce oxygen into your finished beer ie I assume the beer and air space shrink when cold so does the water in your bubbler get sucked into your finished beer ? Thanks for any advice

Yes, it can. If you attach a CO2 reservoir or a balloon filled with CO2 to your fermenter, it'll prevent air being sucked back in

 

[Wrh]

Thanks agent gonzo I don't have any co2 so I'd better not try it lol , thanks for answering

 

[Agentgonzo]

I assume the beer and air space shrink

Whilst both the beer and airspace shrink as they cool down, I think that only has a marginal impact. what has a much bigger impact (from what I've read) is that the CO2 in the headspace is much more soluble in the cold beer and so more of the headspace dissolves back into the beer.

The end result is the same (suckback), but the explanation is subtly different. Science!

 

[Rodcx500z]

Does cold crashing introduce oxygen into your finished beer ie I assume the beer and air space shrink when cold so does the water in your bubbler get sucked into your finished beer ? Thanks for any advice

I take the airlock out and bung some rolled up tin foil in the hole

 

[Agentgonzo]

I take the airlock out and bung some rolled up tin foil in the hole

What does that do?
Edit: Oh, only to prevent the airlock liquid getting sucked back in... not to prevent oxygen getting back in. Gotcha

 

[Wrh]

Is the amount of oxygen that goes in a problem it doesn't seem to be if just stopping flies etc is enough ie the tin foil hole block lol , is it like every thing else it's best practice but nor necessarily a problem either cheers gents

 

[Rodcx500z]

What does that do?
Edit: Oh, only to prevent the airlock liquid getting sucked back in... not to prevent oxygen getting back in. Gotcha

If you get a good tight fit very little if any will get in, i even do it over night when i no chill never had a problem

 

[Agentgonzo]

If you get a good tight fit very little if any will get in, i even do it over night when i no chill never had a problem

Tin foil won't stop any oxygen getting in. I assume that "no problems" means that "whilst oxygen got in, it didn't cause any problems", which I think answers Wrh's point.

I don't cold crash, but I expect that oxygen getting in will be a problem for high hop beers, and 'traditional' levels of hopping can probably tolerate the ingress of oxygen.

 

[Rodcx500z]

All i can say is it works for me

 

[RoomWithABrew]

"I assume the beer and air space shrink"
The beer will probably expand below 4C, not sure that I can see how the space above the beer will shrink as the temperature drops. You'd have to look at the thermal expansion of your ferment vessel to work that out.
However solubility of CO2 increases in the beer as the temperature reduces, this lowers the pressure in the space above the beer and so atmospheric gas is pushed in.

 

[foxy]

Does cold crashing introduce oxygen into your finished beer ie I assume the beer and air space shrink when cold so does the water in your bubbler get sucked into your finished beer ? Thanks for any advice

First of I hope it is sanitised water in your airlock. I just use cling wrap over the top of the fermenter kept in place by an elastic band. I have been down the route of balloons and adding gas to the fermenter without any noticeable difference. Twice I have accidentally left a sealed lid on the fermenter while crash-cooling but the amount of co2 being sucked into the cooling beer just made a couple of big dints in the fermenter.
Cling wrap while fermenting allows CO2 to escape, so it obviously works in reverse in cold-crashing conditions. However, with good head space, it is doubtful the oxygen gets into the beer. If it does, I have never experienced it. It is much like bottling: When we bottle, there is air in the headspace of the bottle, so there is some oxygen. Does this small amount of oxygen oxidise the beer? Yes, but it can take years.
As homebrewers, we do our best to avoid oxygen but oxygen is more problematic for commercial brewers. Our bottles get filled and stored in a cool, dark place and not shaken around as do deliveries of commercial beer.
So don't worry about oxygen ingress during the cold crash it will turn out you are most likely worrying for nothing.
https://byo.com/mr-wizard/oixation-...l amount of,the headspace is relatively small.

 

[Jim Brewster]

I've got a pressure fermenter so wonder if that would prevent the drawing in of air if enough CO2 pressure was built up, though not sure I'd like to risk it collapsing if it became lower than atmospheric pressure.