Cold Crashing

[Root Skier]

Walk me through the basics of Cold Crashing please? Why Cold Crash (or why not)?

I'd like to know what I need to do to the wort/beer, but I'd also like to understand from a more technical perspective what effects this process does to the beer.

[RickBeer]

I'm sure someone can provide much more scientific than I, but...

Cold crashing has several benefits.

1) Causes things to fall out of suspension, like yeast, hops particles, fruit additives, etc. This results in a clearer beer.

2) Solidifies the trub. This results in more beer that you can bottle. As you tip the LBK, you'll see the trub barely moves towards the spigot, unlike when it's nice and warm. I routinely get a bottle or more beer out of an LBK with cold crashing.

I cold crash most of my batches because I'm not in any hurry due to pipeline and I want to maximize the amount of beer I get out of each batch. Usually go around 18 - 19 days, then 3 days cold crashing.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Pretty damn good answer, Rick.

It's Brewmaster's Descretion TM.

[jpsherman]

I have only cold crashed a few times, but the difference is dramatic!

I generally only use hop sacks when dry-hopping, bittering and flavor additions go straight in, and a good cold crash will knock all of those hop fragments out of suspension.

But I rarely have room in the fridge for that!

Less sediment in the bottle means you get to drink more of the beer in each bottle as well!

[Root Skier]

Well, I don't have room in my refrigerator either, but it's around 40*F in my garage, so I'm thinking that I'll just move the fermenter in there for a few days before bottling.

[Kealia]

Absolutely - that would work just fine.

Damn Detroit fans avoiding paying me my trademark fees

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Mwah-hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[Root Skier]

Thanks for the education everyone. I feel less ignorant now, hopefully this will help others.

[Chuck N]

Thanks for the education everyone. I feel less ignorant now, hopefully this will help others.

I kinda do like you do; I don't have room in the fridge for a five gallon bucket. But I built a strrofoam fermentation chamber and for the last week of fermentation I put in ice packs to bring the temp down as far as I can. Then I siphon the beer out on the fermenter and into the bottling bucket taking it from the top as I go.

[Root Skier]

Thanks for the education everyone. I feel less ignorant now, hopefully this will help others.

I kinda do like you do; I don't have room in the fridge for a five gallon bucket. But I built a strrofoam fermentation chamber and for the last week of fermentation I put in ice packs to bring the temp down as far as I can. Then I siphon the beer out on the fermenter and into the bottling bucket taking it from the top as I go.

Great idea!!! I just happen to have a 4x4x8' piece of 1" styrofoam lying around. The will come in handy during the warmer months.

[BrownstotheBone]

I am completely on the cold crash bandwagon. If there are any good reasons why to use an LBK to ferment in at this point for me, I believe this is it. I can always make room for 1 LBK in my fridge.

I am a firm believer in sticking that trub to the bottom of the keg and emptying all the beer from there into a 2nd LBK for batch priming. I think it gives me the best results I can get from my current equipment.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

I started cold crashing on my third batch and always took the results for granted and did it "just because."

When we moved in June, the new house didn't have a full sized "beer fridge" in the basement. I made three batches before I bought one and all three had a LOT of floaties in the brew......way more than I was used to seeing (or not seeing).

That convinced me to get a dedicated beer fridge for the lower level and I cold crashed the St Pats Vanilla Porter for three days at 34/36 degrees and man, I saw NOTHING going down the bottling wand except clear brown beer. I'm 100% convinced now.