Cold crashing

[arborman]

I have a spare refrigerator in the garage that is used for food, but also enough room for my carboy. Would typical refrigerator temps work fine for cold crashing?

Also, my recipe calls for dry hopping 7-10 days. Would I dry hop for that period and then cold crash? Would the extended time cold crashing while dry hopping be a bad thing? Thanks

 

[whiskeyjack]

Yes those temps are fine to lager..I don't have alot of experience dry hopping. I would think it would be fine.

 

[Neoprene]

You can dry-hop cold, but apparently it effects the extraction rate of the hop oils. Another option would be to dry-hop for 7-10 days and then cold-crash.
Try both and let us know how it works out!

 

[fishersfirst]

Dry hopping is best done after the fermentation has completed, typically after a week. Don't dry hop for more than 5-7 days as you might get excessively grassy flavours.

My typical regime would be: primary for 1 week, dry hop for 5 days, cold crash for 2-3 days.

 

[PAjwPhilly]

I have an ESB that I am dry-hopping now. I let ales in the primary fermentor for at least 3 weeks. This ESB has sat for 4 weeks.... 3 weeks + 4 days for dry-hopping. I bottle on the weekends so my brews are in week increments.

so... I would primary longer ~3 weeks for an ale. Dry hop for ~3 days. Then cold crash. Then bottle or keg.

 

[RM-MN]

A third option would be to leave the beer in the fermenter a bit longer before you dry hop to let more yeast settle out, dry hop for 5 to 7 days, then bottle. You can use a paint strainer bag secured around the end of the siphon tube that goes into the fermenter (sanitize it first) to filter out any hop particles that didn't get settled. Let the bottles have 2 to 3 weeks at room temperature and then chill them. You'll get the same clarity this way as by cold crashing and you don't have to chill the beer, let it warm up to carbonate, and then chill it again. The longer you leave it in the fermenter before dry hopping, the more yeast will settle out leaving you with less yeast layer in the bottle.