Cold break

[occasional_brewer]

Hi-
I have a 1 gallon batch pretty much done fermenting and I wanted to do a cold break (read about it on this forum). All I do is put it in the fridge for three days?
Thanks

 

[McKnuckle]

Cold crash is what you're referring to. Cold break occurs when you chill the wort after your boil.

And yes, it simply means to drop the finished beer's temp down near freezing and hold it there for a few days to encourage settling and clarity. The beer must be done fermenting, though, because otherwise you'll stop it prematurely with the cold crash. That's a problem if you plan to eventually bottle the beer, because you may then get more carbonation than you bargained for and have the risk of exploding bottles.

 

[occasional_brewer]

thanks.
My wife will kill me. You think if I leave it outside that should suffice? I live in central massachussetts and its pretty cold here (~30s), might even freeze overnight (~15).

 

[McKnuckle]

You want it to be cold, but not turn into ice. And if you do put anything outside, make sure it's very well covered for both sanitation reasons and (especially) to keep out light. I use my garage for cold crashing in winter because it's around 40F.

 

[mrgrimm101]

They say that a good cold crash temp is just above freezing. The mid 30s - low 40s. Beer will freeze as it gets down closer to 28F. I've read that freezing doesn't necessarily hurt the beer, however I would definitely try to avoid it from happening.

As long as your fridge is around 40, you should be fine to put it in there.