Cold Crashing - How Fast and How Cold?

[brew-in]

Hi,

Assuming one is fermenting an ale.

Fermentation is complete, and temp inside the conical is about 68 degrees

To Qualify as 'Cold Crashing":

1) How Low of a temp does one need to go to?
2) How fast do you need to get from 68 Degrees to the "Cold Crash" Temp?
3) For optimum clarity, how long do you maintain the low temp?

Thanks

 

[kombat]

1) As low as you want, but ideally, as low as you can get without freezing. 30-32° F.
2) I don't think speed matters, but there's no reason to do it slowly either. Just put it in the cooling chamber and let it go.
3) The longer you leave it, the clearer it will get, until after a few weeks it's crystal clear. But you can accelerate the process greatly with the addition of a fining agent. I find gelatin clears my beers in just a couple of days.

 

[brew-in]

Thanks, I am testing my new chilling setup. A Brew Jacket on the conical with 39 degree water supplied by an Aquarium Chiller....Hoping to get the beer to about 42 degrees....so far so good...the system has lowered 12 gallons of beer (in the conical) from 68 to 60 in about 90 minutes.

 

[CGish]

I use a BrewPi for fermentation control, and cold crash comes at the end of two to three weeks in the primary. I set the chamber temp to 33 degrees and let it sit three days. I then lift the fermentors out of the chamber and set them where they can warm up and be racked into the bottling bucket.

Like kombat says, longer times produce a clearer product - at least in theory - but I haven't had any trouble with clarity. I usually crash light or clear beers, but don't bother with dark beers.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, also using BrewPi (but was the same with a Love TSS2-2100) it takes almost 40 hours for my 17cf top-freezer ferm fridge to drop ~10.5 gallons from post-fermentation clean-up/dry-hop temperature of 68°F to 34°F.

No speed control required - it's just that slow to happen

Cheers!

 

[specharka]

It's the same idea as lagering. The longer and closer you stay at freezing temperatures, the clearer your beer will get. I'd say most ale yeast will flocc within a week.

I typically only cold crash for pale ales and lagers, of which I make almost zero. I brew Belgian strains almost exclusively, which are not really meant for cold crashing.

 

[brew-in]

My Aquarium Chiller setup has so far dropped my 12 gallons of "beer" from 68 to 44 in about 18 hours.....