Cold crashing, bottling and priming

[ben2904]

hey, I have a question that has to be answered pretty fast...
I have a blonde ale (OG 1.054 and FG 1.010).
I put it in the fridge for cold crashing for like 40-44 hours.
My questions are:
1. Is 40-44 hours in fridge are enough for clarity?
2. when I bottle, let it warm up in room temperature? If I should, so how long in room temp?
3. How much corn sugar I need to add? how much if its still cold and how much if its warmed up.

Thank you.

 

[Mobeers]

That time frame would be fine. I usually do 2-3 days and then go straight to bottling without any problems. I usually have food success this way. just be carefull not tobdisturb rhe trun when you mive the bucket. A far as the corn sugar I don't know off the top of my head. 🍺

 

[Mobeers]

Ok so my last post was a bunch of scrambled words. My apologies. Basically I have good success after 2-3 days of cold crashing and not letting the beer warm up before bottling. Just try not to disturb the trub or it will float up. As far as the sugar I don't know off the top of my head but I bet it can be found on a sticky. Good luck.

 

[ben2904]

Ok so my last post was a bunch of scrambled words. My apologies. Basically I have good success after 2-3 days of cold crashing and not letting the beer warm up before bottling. Just try not to disturb the trub or it will float up. As far as the sugar I don't know off the top of my head but I bet it can be found on a sticky. Good luck.

is there any change in the amount of corn sugar if I prime at cold temp or warm temp? by any case I let it condition at room temp

 

[BigFloyd]

I like to let mine cold crash 5-7 days at 35-36*F, but that probably a couple days longer than needed. I'm not normally in very much of a hurry.

Prime and bottle cold. Don't let it warm up. The cold crash does not effect at all the amount of priming sugar to use. If you use a priming calculator, enter as the temp the HIGHEST temperature that your beer saw during ferment.

A good rule of thumb to get about 2.4 volumes of CO2 (a nice drinking carb) is 0.8 ounces (by weight) of corn sugar or 0.75 ounces of table (cane) sugar per gallon of beer. The only thing I do differently when priming cold beer is to give it a very, very gentle stir (no splashing) with a sanitized spoon to evenly distribute the sugar.

 

[501irishred]

The only thing I do differently when priming cold beer is to give it a very, very gentle stir (no splashing) with a sanitized spoon to evenly distribute the sugar.

To prevent any catastrophes, to clarify, gently stir once you have racked into a bottling bucket/onto your previously dissolved priming sugar. I know that was assumed, but just in case..........

 

[Hjandersen]

Prime and bottle cold. Don't let it warm up. The cold crash does not effect at all the amount of priming sugar to use. If you use a priming calculator, enter as the temp the HIGHEST temperature that your beer saw during ferment.

NO..? That could create bottle-bombs..
Use a carbonation calculator and enter the temperature of the beer WHILE bottling! That temperature determines the volume of CO2 in the beer at the time..

If you use highest fermentation temp you could end up over-carbonating with 50-90%!

 

[sweetcell]

NO..? That could create bottle-bombs..
Use a carbonation calculator and enter the temperature of the beer WHILE bottling! That temperature determines the volume of CO2 in the beer at the time..

If you use highest fermentation temp you could end up over-carbonating with 50-90%!

nope - you enter the max temp that the beer has ever been at, not the temp of the beer at bottling.

the reason the calculators ask you for the temp is to figure out how much residual CO2 is in the beer. the warmer the beer, the less CO2 is still in there. a beer at 75*F will have less CO2 in it than a beer at 65*F. it doesn't matter that both beer have been chilled down to 40*F, the 75* beer will still have less CO2 in suspension.

if you lowered the fermentation temp of a beer and it continued to ferment actively (not a recommended strategy), you should use the second, lower fermentation temp since CO2 would have had time to reestablish equilibrium at that lower temp (because of the active fermentation, new CO2 is being produced and "replaces" the CO2 lost at the higher temps). but most folks increase temps as fermentation moves along, and as temps increase the ability to hold on to CO2 decreases - so your highest temp determines how much residual CO2 you have in your beer.

as long as fermentation is over and no new CO2 is being produced, lower the temps - such as cold-crashing - isn't going to change how much residual CO2 is in there. the crashed beer has the ability to hold more CO2, but no new CO2 is being produced.

 

[Hjandersen]

nope - you enter the max temp that the beer has ever been at, not the temp of the beer at bottling.

the reason the calculators ask you for the temp is to figure out how much residual CO2 is in the beer. the warmer the beer, the less CO2 is still in there. a beer at 75*F will have less CO2 in it than a beer at 65*F. it doesn't matter that both beer have been chilled down to 40*F, the 75* beer will still have less CO2 in suspension.

if you lowered the fermentation temp of a beer and it continued to ferment actively (not a recommended strategy), you should use the second, lower fermentation temp since CO2 would have had time to reestablish equilibrium at that lower temp (because of the active fermentation, new CO2 is being produced and "replaces" the CO2 lost at the higher temps). but most folks increase temps as fermentation moves along, and as temps increase the ability to hold on to CO2 decreases - so your highest temp determines how much residual CO2 you have in your beer.

as long as fermentation is over and no new CO2 is being produced, lower the temps - such as cold-crashing - it's going to change how much residual CO2 is in there. the crashed beer has the ability to hold more CO2, but no new CO2 is being produced.

I suppose that make sense.. Thanks! Isn't it a bit weird that so many carbonation calculators are misleading (at best) in this relation?

Hmmm, are you guys sure that not only very minute amounts of CO2 can saturate the beer at low cold crashing temps??
(i.e. extremely very low yeast activity will be adequate)

 

[Yooper]

NO..? That could create bottle-bombs..
Use a carbonation calculator and enter the temperature of the beer WHILE bottling! That temperature determines the volume of CO2 in the beer at the time..

If you use highest fermentation temp you could end up over-carbonating with 50-90%!

I comment, daily it seems, on how much I dislike the recommendations for the priming calculators. First, they are confusing to use (like in this case), and often they simply are wrong.

For example, say I want to prime an English bitter. The priming calculator says something like ".75-1.5 volumes". Well, that may be so in an authentic cask ale, but the reality is that is flat. Worse, a geueze will be 4 volumes (or more). That's bottle bomb territory!

Most people who are accustomed to buying bottled beer are used to a pretty standard 2.4-2.6 volumes of carbonation.

For me, I use 1 ounce of corn sugar (by weight) for most beers, but will go to .75 ounce/gallon for lower carbed beers. That means 4-5 ounces of corn sugar per 5 gallon batch, always. I've never had an undercarbed beer, or a bottle bomb, ever- so this has worked well for me.

 

[BigFloyd]

Hmmm, are you guys sure that not only very minute amounts of CO2 can saturate the beer at low cold crashing temps??
(i.e. extremely very low yeast activity will be adequate)

Quite sure. I cold crash everything whether it's going into the keg or the bottles. I always use the highest temp that the beer saw during fermentation. I haven't had an over-carbed batch.

I don't bother any more with the "style specific" levels given with the priming calcs, but just shoot for 2.4-2.5 volumes of CO2 for "drinkin beer". If you run the numbers through one of the calcs and you let the ferment finish up at about 68*F, you're going to end up really close to the 0.8 (corn) and 0.75 (table) ounces/gallon numbers I stated earlier to get to that level. Of course, you have to weigh the priming sugar to have any hope of consistent accuracy and be able to adjust it to your taste on later batches.

 

[Hjandersen]

Quite sure. I cold crash everything whether it's going into the keg or the bottles. I always use the highest temp that the beer saw during fermentation. I haven't had an over-carbed batch.

I don't bother any more with the "style specific" levels given with the priming calcs, but just shoot for 2.4-2.5 volumes of CO2 for "drinkin beer". If you run the numbers through one of the calcs and you let the ferment finish up at about 68*F, you're going to end up really close to the 0.8 (corn) and 0.75 (table) ounces/gallon numbers I stated earlier to get to that level. Of course, you have to weigh the priming sugar to have any hope of consistent accuracy and be able to adjust it to your taste on later batches.

I followed this approach the last time I bottled and they haven't become bombs yet (3 weeks +)..

 

[wstehling]

I always use the highest temp that the beer saw during fermentation.

Old thread I know, but gonna ask anyway. What is defined as "during fermentation?"

Here is what I mean, I have a batch that has primaried for 3 weeks, some would say that it's been fermenting for 3 weeks. Reality is that it was done fermenting by day 7 according to my gravity readings. This batch was kept at 64-68F during the 7 day active fermentation. Then it sat in primary for 2 more weeks and was allowed to move up to 72-75F for the duration.

So which temp to use in the priming calc?

 

[Zoidberg]

If temp goes up I've always assumed it would let off co2 because at warmer temperatures is able to hold less dissolved co2. Therefore when the temp goes up after fermentation you should use that higher temp. If its cold crashed for only a day, two, or three then use the highest temp from before crashing.

However, say it's fermented and stands at 67* for three weeks then cold crashed to 40* for three weeks. I would be inclined to use the 40* as the bottling temp. Because of this uncertainty, if I do cold crash, I let the beer come back to room temp for a day before bottling.

 

[BigFloyd]

Old thread I know, but gonna ask anyway. What is defined as "during fermentation?"

Here is what I mean, I have a batch that has primaried for 3 weeks, some would say that it's been fermenting for 3 weeks. Reality is that it was done fermenting by day 7 according to my gravity readings. This batch was kept at 64-68F during the 7 day active fermentation. Then it sat in primary for 2 more weeks and was allowed to move up to 72-75F for the duration.

So which temp to use in the priming calc?

Wherever it was in the 72-75*F range.

 

[sweetcell]

However, say it's fermented and stands at 67* for three weeks then cold crashed to 40* for three weeks. I would be inclined to use the 40* as the bottling temp.

in the above case, you should use 67*F even after the cold crash. as mentioned above, the warmer a beer is, the less residual CO2 it will have. the warmest temp it was at was 67, so use that assuming you bottle the beer colder than 67.

if you let the beer warm up to, say, 72*F after the cold crash then use 72.

 

[wstehling]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

[BigFloyd]

By letting the beer warm back up after a cold crash, you're undoing some of what you achieved by crashing. The trub layer won't be as firm. Bottle/keg it cold.

 

[wstehling]

If I bottle it cold then, which temp do I use for the priming calc based on my scenario above?

 

[plankbr]

Bottle the same way. ~5 oz priming sugar (for 5 gallon batch), transfer to bottling bucket, bottle. Then store wherever you normally store your bottles. About 2-3 weeks they will be carbed up nicely.

 

[kombat]

If I bottle it cold then, which temp do I use for the priming calc based on my scenario above?

Like we said - the warmest temperature it achieved.

It helps if you understand WHY the calculator is asking for this. If you ferment your beer at 65° F, it produces a bunch of CO2 which vents off out your airlock. But some of it stays in solution. If you then allow the beer to warm up to 72° F, some of that CO2 will come out of solution, because it's not as soluble at warmer temperatures.

If you then chill it down to 40° F, then the amount of CO2 in solution doesn't change. It's not like as you cool it down, the beer "sucks back in" some of the CO2 it vented off at the warmer temperatures.

The calculator is asking you for the warmest temperature so it can account for CO2 that is already in solution, and calculate the correct amount of priming sugar to get you up to the desired volumes of CO2. A beer that was fermented at 65° F the entire time and then bottled will have more CO2 in it than a beer that was allowed to warm up to 72°F, so will need less priming sugar. The fact that both beers were later chilled down to 40° F doesn't change that calculation at all. They will still have the same amount of CO2 in solution as they did when they were at their warmest temperatures.

 

[BigFloyd]

Bottle the same way. ~5 oz priming sugar (for 5 gallon batch), transfer to bottling bucket, bottle. Then store wherever you normally store your bottles. About 2-3 weeks they will be carbed up nicely.

+1 except that I never do a full 5oz in 5 gallons. I find that 4.3-4.5 ounces gives me the normal drinking carb level (2.4-2.6) I'm shooting for.

 

[sweetcell]

If I bottle it cold then, which temp do I use for the priming calc based on my scenario above?

whatever you max temp was before crashing - so "72-75F" per your post.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

OK, so here's another slight twist. I have my Oktoberfest that fermented 2 weeks at 50F followed by a 3 day d-rest at 64F and then lagered at 35F for a month. Even though a majority (80%) of the fermentation took place at 50F, I'm assuming I still prime it for 64F. Correct?

 

[BigFloyd]

OK, so here's another slight twist. I have my Oktoberfest that fermented 2 weeks at 50F followed by a 3 day d-rest at 64F and then lagered at 35F for a month. Even though a majority (80%) of the fermentation took place at 50F, I'm assuming I still prime it for 64F. Correct?

Yes.

 

[sweetcell]

what floyd said.