Cold crash with bottle conditioning?

[dendron8]

So this is probably a dumb question but something I can't get my head around.. If I bottle condition, I want a little yeast in there to carb.. But if I cold crash, aren't I dropping the yeast out of suspension, and (i guess?) out of what would go into the bottle?

 

[kh54s10]

I don't cold crash but I think there is plenty of yeast left in suspension to bottle condition without adding any new yeast. Most of what drops is suspended sediment, proteins etc.

 

[xpops]

lots of people cold crash and are still able to bottle condition.

cold crashing drops a lot of misc stuff out of suspension, but by no means clears out your yeasties as if you were filtering it.

you should be fine!

 

[SlitheryDee]

I've heard that cold crashing can make carbonation take longer, but even that hasn't been my experience. I'm assuming those beers were crashed for far longer than I typically do. I do it to get all the clarity I reasonably can, but it does seem to ultimately make more sense to do it when you're kegging.

 

[GoeHaarden]

Sometimes I cold crash, sometimes I don't...just depends on my brew schedules. Honestly, I don't really see that big of a difference in clarity. If you leave your bottles in the fridge you are essentially doing the same thing, and with a good pour technique your beer will be clear. Either way I never have carbing issues, and I just opened an IPA (which I cold crashed at 35F for 2 days) that has only been conditioning for a week and it already seemed fully carb'd.

 

[beermanpete]

You will be fine. There is plenty of yeast in the beer after cold crashing to ferment the priming sugar.

 

[Incubus2112]

I believe, and those in the know can correct me here, that one only cold crashed after the yeast has entirely flocculated, or fallen out of the suspension after fermentation is complete. The cold crash essentially sinks everything else to the bottom. Yeast is still in the suspension, however. It is just sleeping at those temperatures. Not dead.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I believe, and those in the know can correct me here, that one only cold crashed after the yeast has entirely flocculated, or fallen out of the suspension after fermentation is complete. The cold crash essentially sinks everything else to the bottom. Yeast is still in the suspension, however. It is just sleeping at those temperatures. Not dead.

I don't think it's strictly necessary for you to wait until the yeast has entirely flocculated. Depending on the strain of yeast that could be a very long time after the beer is technically finished. You do want to wait until the beer has fermented completely because chilling it essentially puts fermentation on pause until the beer warms back up. You don't want to cold crash an unfinished beer and then have it resume fermenting in the bottle.

 

[Revvy]

One of the most asked questions...

The answer is- you're going from billions of cells down to millions... and you will be fine.

 

[mattdee1]

Sometimes I cold crash, sometimes I don't...just depends on my brew schedules. Honestly, I don't really see that big of a difference in clarity. If you leave your bottles in the fridge you are essentially doing the same thing, and with a good pour technique your beer will be clear. Either way I never have carbing issues, and I just opened an IPA (which I cold crashed at 35F for 2 days) that has only been conditioning for a week and it already seemed fully carb'd.

^ this

I tried cold crashing a few times and didn't see any noticeable benefit to the aesthetics of the beer. I think most of the stuff that drops out during the fermentor cold crash is not the stuff that's causing you clarity problems anyway. Clarity problems in young beer come mostly from chill haze, and that takes quite a while to drop out--which is why I don't think a 2 day or whatever cold crash prior to bottling is doing much of anything.

It's especially frivolous (IMO) if you have enough fridge space to store large numbers of bottles at once (preferably the whole batch) after they're carbonated. This is what I do, and my first few samples always have some chill haze, but they improve in clarity day over day. After around 2-3 weeks they are very clear. After 4-5 weeks, they look pretty much crystal clear. Of course, if you guzzle your entire batch in a week this doesn't do you much good... which is why if I have a big family event or whatever I make sure I factor in a few weeks of fridge time for the bottles if I can swing it. If I have to serve hazy beer, I do... it still tastes fine.

 

[Lefou]

I have a batch of blonde ale carbing right now.
It's been about three weeks in the bottle and the plan was to have it ready by the first day of summer. A few bottles will be put in the freezer for about an hour, then into the refrigerator to settle for a few days before drinking.
This is my "cold crash" method. Most of my beers are low ABV ales, so it's is consumed quickly and I don't really plan on aging them ... that, and I have a few Founder's porters on hand with extra goodies to help curb my lack of patience.