Cold crashing in regards to the yeast cake

[jordanfrenzy]

Recently I made a simple pale ale that would generally need about 2 weeks to finish fermentation. My questions is, how early is too early to cold crash? I took a gravity sample after 5 days of fermentation and the beer is at target gravity. I understand that racking a beer off of a yeast cake can prevent the yeast from removing some off flavors, but if I were to start cold crashing now, would that effectively put all of the yeast to sleep and negate any cleanup they might do?

Two fold - if I plan on kegging the batch, I need a week or so to carbonate. Should I forget cold crashing and just count the carbonation week (at kegging temps) as a cold crash?

 

[captianoats]

I typically add gelatin to the keg and cold crash while carbing. It works great for me.

 

[daksin]

I like to give my beers 2-3 days after reaching final gravity to package, but that may just be superstition. My beers finish fast (O2 & pitching rates FTW) and lowish gravity beers can be at FG 48 hours after pitching. If your beer was properly fermented, it shouldn't take long for yeast to clean up after themselves. I would start your cold crash a week from your brew day and start carbing in the keg at the same time.