Cold Crash Vessel Sizes

[Louz]

I use the two vessel method as you can see in the picture. Vodka instead of starsan.

The issue I keep running into is no matter how large my vodka vessel is, it drains itself dry.
I started my cold crash yesterday afternoon, and this morning I wake up to a dry vodka bottle.

How can I remedy this?

 

[SanPancho]

Get rid of blowoff and put light co2 pressure on fermenter when you crash.

 

[TechFanMD]

Especially with a 2 vessel method....I don't know why you wouldn't use Star-San. Vodka is comparatively very expensive for something that should never touch your beer (unless something went REALLY wrong). That's kind of the whole point of chaining the vessels together.

Instead of the vodka bottle, put on a deflated mylar balloon while fermentation is winding down a bit, then when you get suckback it is all CO2. You could put the balloon on the end of a piece of tubing so you can position somewhere in the chamber that has room for it.

 

[Louz]

I have seen this method work well for people. I just want to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Maybe its the height of the two vessels, or their sizes in relation to each other? I have seen people use small mason jars successfully. Which seems odd to me since I'm having trouble with these large bottles

Star san can freeze, leading to more problems.

 

[Alex4mula]

Star san can freeze, leading to more problems.

Starsan freezes above 32F?

 

[EDF713]

I've read the cold crash suckback can be as much as 2 Litres. If you have less than 2 L of liquid in the second bottle, it will suck all of that back and then air. I've used 2 quart sized juice bottles in a similar arrangement and have considered re-doing it with 64 oz bottles for the same reason. I'm also considering the mylar balloons, I still haven't decided.

 

[EDF713]

Starsan freezes above 32F?

I've had this happen when I cold crashed from 60s to 33 as fast as I could. My mini-fridge gets in the upper 20s while the beer is still cooling down, and the starsan freezes before the beer is cooled down. I now bump down more gradually and it doesn't freeze.

 

[Louz]

I've had this happen when I cold crashed from 60s to 33 as fast as I could. My mini-fridge gets in the upper 20s while the beer is still cooling down, and the starsan freezes before the beer is cooled down. I now bump down more gradually and it doesn't freeze.

Yeah i have had that happen as well. My starsan jar froze solid pretty quickly.

During cold crashing I hang my inkbird probe inside my chamber so it measures air temp instead of beer temp. This stops overshooting and maintains a constant air temperature inside of the chamber

 

[Louz]

Instead of the vodka bottle, put on a deflated mylar balloon while fermentation is winding down a bit, then when you get suckback it is all CO2. You could put the balloon on the end of a piece of tubing so you can position somewhere in the chamber that has room for it.

I'm gonna try something like this. Thanks

 

[LittleRiver]

... I wake up to a dry vodka bottle.
How can I remedy this?

A mylar balloon works very well for me. There's some photos of how I have it rigged in this post.

 

[Louz]

A mylar balloon works very well for me. There's some photos of how I have it rigged in this post.

Thanks for that link. Some interesting info in that thread