Conditioning temperatures

[jaquiss2005]

Done first brew with a brew fridge and currently fermenting at 20 degrees. Read somewhere about heating / cooling / crash cooling. What's this about and what do I need to do once fermentation finished. Been in fridge a week since brewing.

 

[donnyos]

I'd leave it just where it is for another few days at say 18 then drop it down to 14 for a day or two and finally take it down low to 4 degrees for a couple of days which will cause most of the yeast and crud to drop out and really clear up the beer. So 2 to 2.5weeks in FV is what i follow and it works for me but I go straight into cornies afterwards and finally some bottles from the cornies so I don't want much yeast in secondary. If you're looking for natural conditioning in a pressure keg or bottles there should still be enough yeast to do the work.

 

[Dutto]

Depends on whether or not you are bottling or kegging.

If it's bottling I recommend syphoning the brew off into a Bottling Bucket, adding sugar (dissolved in boiled water) as indicated in the Beer Priming Calculator (see above) and then bottling it.

If it's being kegged then I recommend syphoning the brew directly into the keg and then adding the sugar as above.

After bottling/kegging I return the brew to the brew fridge with exactly the same conditions that I used to ferment the brew (the reason being that I now want the carbonation sugar to ferment) for two weeks and then move the brew (bottles or keg) to a nice cool place to clear and condition for a further two weeks.

Some beers will carbonate, clear and condition more quickly, but most of them require the time set out above as an absolute minimum. :thumb:

 

[Brett74]

I go for a more patient approach, using fresh yeast, usually harvested from a previous brew or a starter, most brews reach FG in as little as 4 days, they get racked to secondary, yeast is harvested from the primary, they sit for at least another 3 weeks in secondary. I work offshore so depending on my work schedule they can often sit in secondary for as long as 4 or 5 weeks. It is not often they get cold crashed as I have too many brews on at the same time to have space in the fermenting fridge, I have 6 brews on now, two lagers in the fridge! I then put them in a new bucket for bottling, by this time it is usually crystal clear. I harvested from a brew when I was home last and after washing the yeast ended up with 4 portions, about 150ml each of good yeast, 150ml into a 2l starter is plenty imo. My biggest problem is what to do with all the beer!!

 

[deanobrfc]

I go for a more patient approach, using fresh yeast, usually harvested from a previous brew or a starter, most brews reach FG in as little as 4 days, they get racked to secondary, yeast is harvested from the primary, they sit for at least another 3 weeks in secondary. I work offshore so depending on my work schedule they can often sit in secondary for as long as 4 or 5 weeks. It is not often they get cold crashed as I have too many brews on at the same time to have space in the fermenting fridge, I have 6 brews on now, two lagers in the fridge! I then put them in a new bucket for bottling, by this time it is usually crystal clear. I harvested from a brew when I was home last and after washing the yeast ended up with 4 portions, about 150ml each of good yeast, 150ml into a 2l starter is plenty imo. My biggest problem is what to do with all the beer!!

Solution: Send the beer to me!!

 

[Bigcol49]

Done first brew with a brew fridge and currently fermenting at 20 degrees. Read somewhere about heating / cooling / crash cooling. What's this about and what do I need to do once fermentation finished. Been in fridge a week since brewing.

Hi!
Lots of advice! I assume you know about bottling/kegging based on your membership date.
I leave my brews for at least two weeks to ensure that all stages of fermentation have finished. Next, I drop the temperature to get the sediment to settle - basically, I turn off the heater and leave the fridge to do its job. This only takes a few days, but often it gets left for a week, or more, if I am too busy to give it my attention. I don't know whether this is "cold crashing" but it works for me.

 

[Aphid]

After bottling/kegging I return the brew to the brew fridge with exactly the same conditions that I used to ferment the brew (the reason being that I now want the carbonation sugar to ferment) for two weeks and then move the brew (bottles or keg) to a nice cool place to clear and condition for a further two weeks.

Will leaving freshly bottled beer in a spare bedroom for a couple of weeks (before a couple of weeks in a cold garage) suffice as the first part of conditioning? When the heating is on it's around 21c, down to about 17 when the heating is off?

 

[peebee]

... but often it gets left for a week, or more, if I am too busy to give it my attention. I don't know whether this is "cold crashing" but it works for me.

Hmm :hmm: ... you might be getting into the realms of lagering (long-term cold storage). Not that there's anything bad about that. "Cold crashing" (yak ... there's got to be a less crass name somewhere) just accelerates the clearing, "lagering" is supposed to make the flavour cleaner too.

For me the real advantage of "lagering" is you can avoid saying "cold crashing"!

 

[Pope]

I've never "cold crashed". I condition in the bottles at a cold temperature after carbonation.

If you cold crash in the FV before priming and bottling, is there a risk of killing off the yeast and in turn failure to carbonate?

 

[wfr42]

I put my fv out to the shed 24-48hrs before bottling. It appears to help things drop out and no issues with carbonation to date.

 

[geetee]

Hmm :hmm: ... you might be getting into the realms of lagering (long-term cold storage). Not that there's anything bad about that. "Cold crashing" (yak ... there's got to be a less crass name somewhere) just accelerates the clearing, "lagering" is supposed to make the flavour cleaner too.

For me the real advantage of "lagering" is you can avoid saying "cold crashing"!

The proper terms are warm conditioning and cold conditioning, the first is required for carbonation and the second for maturation.
I am not sure if the terms cold crashing and cold conditioning are absolutely interchangeable as it is possible to "cold crash" to a very low temperature for a day or so purely for the purpose of clearing the beer. The whole process of clearing and chemical maturation requires a bit longer to condition the beer completely but I would still regard crashing as only part of the cold conditioning phase!

PS you can actually cold crash after initial fermentation which will mainly drop out proteins and clear the beer but it will still leave enough yeast in suspension for the secondary bottle fermentation and conditioning. This cold crashing is still a maturation phase requiring time to turn green beer into mature beer for bottling.

 

[Dutto]

Will leaving freshly bottled beer in a spare bedroom for a couple of weeks (before a couple of weeks in a cold garage) suffice as the first part of conditioning? When the heating is on it's around 21c, down to about 17 when the heating is off?

The small fluctuations in temperature won't do any harm and in the garage, if there is any more carbonation sugar to be used up, the yeast will be fermenting so slowly that it won't stop the brew from clearing.

At this time of the year I dearly wish I had two fridges. With my previous "contraption" I could carbonate and ferment; but it did take up a lot of room.

My life wouldn't be worth living if I asked for another fridge ... :nono: :nono:

... but I may build another "one FV" contraption!! :whistle: :whistle:

 

[peebee]

The proper terms are warm conditioning and cold conditioning, ...

Okay... I proclaim (King Julien moment):

From now on everyone uses the term "short cold conditioning" in place of the nauseating "cold cras***g". (Perhaps the Administrator can enforce this by automatically editing out "cold cras***g" from future posts?).

 

[Aphid]

The small fluctuations in temperature won't do any harm and in the garage, if there is any more carbonation sugar to be used up, the yeast will be fermenting so slowly that it won't stop the brew from clearing.
... but I may build another "one FV" contraption!! :whistle: :whistle:

Thanks for that.
My brew fridge is set at 23C at the moment fermenting a Brewferm Kriek. Starting off a New World Saison on Sunday which will be fermenting at 28C. Either way, too high for conditioning the bottled Woodfordes Admirals Reserve...and I'd rather not interrupt the 'production line' if I can help it

 

[peebee]

... Starting off a New World Saison on Sunday which will be fermenting at 28C. ...

Just as a sideline, I also did a "New World" Saison recently (DIYDog #156 "Magic Stone Dog" - I guess the "New World" bit is all those American hops) and the recommendation was to start relatively cool (20C) and only then ramp the temperature up. I guess to keep the fruity esters under control?

As you can see from this graph (BeerSmith) I wasn't entirely successful with my new heat-belt (only got it up to 23C). Still ended up with an impossibly low FG (0.999).

 

[Aphid]

... the recommendation was to start relatively cool (20C) and only then ramp the temperature up. I guess to keep the fruity esters under control?
As you can see from this graph (BeerSmith) I wasn't entirely successful with my new heat-belt (only got it up to 23C). Still ended up with an impossibly low FG (0.999).

The temperature range for the NW Saison is quite wide - 20-32C fermentation temperature, so 23C and lower is quite acceptable. That said, the instructions recommend higher, something I discussed with the manufacturer (Youngsgroup) and also with another forum member who has already brewed the Saison. He had great results setting his brew fridge to 28C so that is what I plan to do myself and this is in line with The manufacturers own suggestion. All the same, the recommendation your were given to start 'cool' is interesting. What is the source?

 

[peebee]

... What is the source?

DIYDog (Brewdog). I might be a seasoned brewer but regarding Saison yeasts I'm a complete beginner. The 40L brew in the above graph comes ready at Christmas (along with 120L of other miscellaneous brews :drunk:).

 

[Aphid]

DIYDog (Brewdog). I might be a seasoned brewer but regarding Saison yeasts I'm a complete beginner. The 40L brew in the above graph comes ready at Christmas (along with 120L of other miscellaneous brews :drunk:).

Christmas will be just a blur! :lol:

 

[ericmark]

I will admit temperature control for me is something I got wrong. I thought I would only need heat, that was a mistake, I thought the cooler I held it but still fermenting the better, got that wrong as well. Problem is to work out what is required one has to do the same brew over and over again, otherwise there will be more than one variable. Maybe I have found the temperature range to brew kit beer Scottish Heavy but that does not mean it will also work with the next brew I do.

However I like I am sure many others will have three brews in the fridge/freezer at the same time. In the freezer is the brew just started, the refrigeration will stop it over heating normally set around 19C then it moves to fridge now I allow it to warm up a bit, say 24C and once bottled it fills the gaps in the fridge and freezer until next brew is ready to bottle, then it goes to shed.

To cold crash would mean the other brews will be effected, so will not cold crash. I also leave the brews well over time, brewing has to fit in with other things I am doing, I do not only brew, so I will avoid anything which means I have to do brewing on a set day.