How cold is too cold?

[Crystal_Ball]

I have bottled Milestone Donner and Blitzed since 25/10/14, which has been kept at 16C or there abouts (basically under the stairs). I have held some of the bottles to light and can see it isn't clear yet. Next step is to move it to drop the yeast etc. Problem i have is i don't have anywhere indoors that is "cold".

Would the shed be too cold which is currently 2C when i looked an hour ago?

 

[MyQul]

2C will be fine to cold crash as it wont freeze the beer and therefore break the bottles. The problem may come at 3 in the morning when it's minus feck me its cold

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Ill keep the thermometer in the shed for a couple of days as it records the min and max temp. That way i will know how "safe" it might be regarding the temperature.

 

[Jono_Leeds]

Be nice to hear peoples opinions and experience on this... Put my first brews worth of bottles in the garage last week after two weeks in the warm. I too was worried it might be too cold in there but share your problem. Hope I haven't ruined them as they were tasting pretty reasonable before I stuck them in the there!

 

[MyQul]

. Hope I haven't ruined them as they were tasting pretty reasonable before I stuck them in the there!

As long as it doesn't get get cold enough to freeze the beer and break the bottles, your just essentially cold crashing so they'll be fine

 

[Jono_Leeds]

Cheers for the reply MyQul! The temp that beer freezes surely depends on the ABV% though? BBC forecast predicts it will be as low as 0 C tonight, although my bottles are boxed in the garage and covered with a blanket, I'm keen not to risk ruining them though I'm sure they could handle lower temps than this. Do you or anyone else think it would be more effective to store in the garage through the day and transfer to colder areas of the house through the night this time of year? Or does anyone have experiences of bottles freezing? Cheers Jono

 

[Brewtus]

You'll be amazed at the temp difference between outside the garage and inside, my range is about 10*C so 2*C outside temperature is keeping my lager bubbling in FV at about 12*C inside (I have checked this at midnight and 0600 and it hasn't dropped below 10*C.

A box will add even more insulation and a blanket more again. Though I realise I may be tempting fate, I'll go out on a limb and say you'll be fine unless we have a 2010 winter!

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Apparently it was -0.5C in the shed last night according to the thermometer so just about acceptable.

 

[Jono_Leeds]

Good to hear that guys! I came to the conclusion that I leave beer outside in a box for days (so I don't get a grilling for hogging the fridge). As I have had no issues with storing the bought beer there I can't imagine my home brew would differ in the garage :drunk:

 

[ericmark]

My location is North Wales but not up in the hills only Mold. I worried about beer freezing in the shed not really enough ABV to stop freezing if it gets really cold but up to now no problems.

I think there are two things which help. Quantity the more mass the longer it will take to freeze. And two is use of plastic bottles I know I would freeze pop in Algeria before going into the desert so 5 hours latter it was still cold. Plastic bottles did not burst.

As anyone of my age will remember milk even in glass bottles did not break the bottle it just forced the top off and pushed out the cream. I am not sure how beer would react but unlikely to have the same force as pure water.

When we used alcohol as anti-freeze in cars there were two figures given. Safe to drive and safe for engine as once it freezes it becomes a slush first which will still move so would not pop the core plugs but would not move fast enough to cool the engine.

One way to remove alcohol is to freeze it and drain the alcohol from the water. So at some point it will result is ice crystals in alcohol these crystals can still move which is the important bit. It's not one solid block.

In the main my beer is around the 5% ABV which will fair better than 2.5% ABV but I have never found any ice in my shed.

 

[Joeyriles]

I'm living dangerously on this one, boys. My beers have been in the shed (more like a wooden outhouse) now throughout this cold snap and so far no ice.
It has helped with the crash cooling, though. Some of them have a chill haze and others need to be brought into the house and left to warm up a little before I pour them.

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

cold crashing beer with certainly help somewhat, however there are various things you can do all the way through the brewing process to help further

Hard boiling the wort if you use LME for example, Irish moss or whirlfloc for the last 15 minutes, achieving the cold break by using a worm to reduce temp quickly, ice cold water if brewing short and topping up with cold, ice cubes etc