Cold Crashing Compressed Carboy!

[Paulgs3]

^^ Seriously!

First time cold crashing with whirfloc, its been about 24 hours @ 32C and I noticed my better bottle carboys had their sides caving in.

I decided it was best to equalize the pressure so I opened up the airlock. I had planned on letting it go another day at 32C, but since I had to let a crap load of air in there, should I keg a bit earlier?

Thanks in advance.

 

[samc]

I would have pumped some CO2 in. I guess you could still do that but I would just keg it assuming it's at final gravity.

 

[nathani]

I agree. Next time you're cold crashing, hook up 1psi of CO2 to the better bottle (that is if you have multiple regulators). Otherwise there's nothing to do except deal with the air.

As for kegging, it's going to be a trade off between oxygen uptake and staling, and getting clear beer. If you're happy with the clarity, keg it! If not, then you'll have to decide which is more important.

A side note CO2 is heavier than air, so as long as you had enough in there, it should settle out and cover the surface of the beer preventing the oxygen from exchanging with the surface of the beer. Hard to tell if you had enough though.

 

[Paulgs3]

The gravities were fine when I put them in my chest. I really wanted them to clear up some more.... I wasn't ready to keg either. Well, at least I can FC and have fresh beer tomorrow!!

Anyone ever have this happen to them? I'm no where near the FP of ETOH, and water expands as it freezes.... gotta be something simple I overlooked.

Also, how are you guys adding co2 to your carboys?