cold crashing necessary?

i live in nyc and dont have a large fridge and def. not enough room for an extra fridge for the purposes of beer brewing to do a cold crash.. is this a necessary step?

thanks!

Nope.

Cold crashing is not necessary but does lead to clearer beer. If you are bottling, just leave bottles in the refrigerator longer for clear beer.

No.

It's just part of the never-ending effort to make better beer. Cold crashing your finished beer can make it superclear. But if you bottle, just put the bottles in a fridge for a few days (or more) before you drink it, then pour carefully, and you can get very clear beer anyway.

I'd guess less than 10% of homebrewers cold crash their beer. Those 10% probably are responsible for 75% of the posts in this forum, though So, it probably seems more prevalent than it actually is.

passedpawn said:

I'd guess less than 10% of homebrewers cold crash their beer. Those 10% probably are responsible for 75% of the posts in this forum, though So, it probably seems more prevalent than it actually is.

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OK. I wanna see some hard numbers to back that one up.

To answer the OP- No, it's not necessary at all, but it is helpful for clarity. Since many of us can do it simply by pushing a couple of buttons and waiting a few days, why not?

I've never cold crashed, don't have an extra fridge. Good beer

you don't need a fridge to cold-crash.

i use a large tub filled with ice to cool my carboy down to the low 40's for two or three days. i call it "cool crashing". works just as well as "true" cold crashing (which is typically down to the mid- to low 30's), just take a wee bit longer.

I used to never cold crash but I did read allot about it on here. Then one magical day I converted a chest freezer to a Ferm-Chamber and with the turn of a knob I get clear beer.

sweetcell said:

you don't need a fridge to cold-crash.

i use a large tub filled with ice to cool my carboy down to the low 40's for two or three days. i call it "cool crashing". works just as well as "true" cold crashing (which is typically down to the mid- to low 30's), just take a wee bit longer.

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I was actually going to give this a try on my next batch, glad to see that its been done before.

So how long does it take? I've seen a few days to a few weeks...

BigFloyd said:

OK. I wanna see some hard numbers to back that one up.

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99% of all statistics are made up on the spot

Maybenaut said:

So how long does it take? I've seen a few days to a few weeks...

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It happens pretty quickly. Probably two days does quite a bit. Longer may do more, but there will certainly be diminished returns.

As long as we are all making up statistics, lets say you remove 60% of cloudiness per day cold crashed. After a day, 60% of clearing is accomplished. After two days, 84% is accomplished. After three days, 93.4% (did that math in my head, impressed?).

Totally factual and backed up by legitimate experiments, as far as anyone here knows .

If you are bottling, can you still cold crash? I have a temp controlled fermenter so it would be easy enough, but i wonder what this would do to carbonating and bottle conditioning.

What about after bottle conditioning, would you let your beer sit at fridge temps for some time to cold condition or would you leave them at room temps to further condition.

SPECIFICALLY: I have a dry stout (BCS recipe) that has an unpleasant after taste I am worried about. second sample of it was yesterday after 11 days conditioning. I realize this is young, but then again it is a small-ish beer. How would you go about conditioning this beer?

Cold crashing won't help a beer that is young. I leave my beers in primary for a month so the yeast can clean it up and it can condition. After that, I cold crash (which I've only done once). Cold crashing would slow down conditioning and drop out the yeast that does the work.

"If you are bottling, can you still cold crash? "

Yes. You drop most of the yeast, but there is still plenty left to carbonate.

To answer the original question NO...cold crash is not necessary. I think most people agree that it makes beer clearer, but has negligible effect on taste, if any at all. Theoretically I suppose anything that settles out has an effect on mouth feel as well. I don't cold crash. I don't have the space, nor do I take the time. I am also not sure that bottled beer will clear up in the fridge either...not for me. I think 'stuff' settles to the bottom of the bottle and I think that is what people mean when they say that. I don't pour carefully enough to try to maintain that clarity since the stuff that makes your beer slightly cloudy is tasty, nutritious and natural.

Cold crash is a step that might help people that think homebrew 'looks weird, so I don't want to drink it' get over it if you have any whiny friends like that. I think it is just a matter of personal taste. Worth it if YOU think it is, not necessary if you don't. Also I am a boring homebrewer. I almost always brew just 2 styles right now..my American IPA, and Hefeweizen. Hef is supposed to be cloudy and my APA is only slightly cloudy. Both have a great mouthfeel and me me all warm and fuzzy.

Main reason I do it is because I keg and force carb. The beer takes the co2 better when cold so I just crash then carb.