Cold crashing and bottling

[felipefranco]

Hey guys,

I have a English Pale Ale in the primary fermenting for 13 days now.
It's done fermenting and has reached the FG expedted.
I'd like to cold crash it to make it more clear but I'm not very confident about it.
-How long should I cold crash it for?
-Should I bring it back to fermenting temperature before bottle or bottle it cold?
-I usualy have the beer well carbonated in 2 weeks, would that change if I bottle it cold?
-At wihch temperature should I cold crash it not to damage the yeast?
-Since I don't have another bucket to transfer it to, can I cold crash it in the same bucket I used to ferment it?

I don't have a homebrew supply store in my city. I buy it all over the internet, so pitching more yeast before bottle is not a possibility for me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[slarkin712]

-How long should I cold crash it for?
If you just want to drop most of the yeast and settle hop and trub I think 2-3 days is long enough. I do this for 2 days when I dry hop to settle all the hops.

-Should I bring it back to fermenting temperature before bottle or bottle it cold?
You are fine to bottle it cold, as it will not hurt anything. It will warm up while you rack to a bottling bucket and when you add your priming sugar anyways. When I cold crash I often rack and by the time I start bottling it is near 55F after starting near 40F.

-I usualy have the beer well carbonated in 2 weeks, would that change if I bottle it cold?
Little to no change if you bottle it cold. Just keep the bottles in a warm place as you normally would.

-At wihch temperature should I cold crash it not to damage the yeast?
First, the cold will not damage the yeast unless you freeze them, which will most likely kill the yeast. I would cold crash between 40-45F, but even 50F might be low enough - just take longer to clear. If you want to help clear up chill haze you'll need to chill to around 34F and keep it there for a week or more. That's basically lagering.

-Since I don't have another bucket to transfer it to, can I cold crash it in the same bucket I used to ferment it?
Keeping it in the same bucket is the best thing to do. Transferring to another bucket would just introduce more oxygen to the beer.

If you do this you will have enough yeast left in suspension to carbonate your bottles. If you're really concerned about this than when you rack to your bottling bucket pick up a little bit of yeast with your siphon and you'll be guaranteed to have yeast in your bottles for carbing.