Cold Crashing Wine Necessary?

[M4rotku]

Hey guys,

As a little intro, I transitioned into wine making from cider, so I had always cold crashed in the past and used to see it as necessary unless you want your cider to taste like yeast. When I started doing wines, I cold crashed them as I was used to doing. My question is if (1) a wine is relatively clear and (2) the yeast used does not create a strong yeasty taste, is there any reason to cold crash a wine? The yeast used is Lalvin 71B-1122 and I do not expect it to impart the same yeasty flavor that Notty tries to gift my ciders. Any thoughts are very appreciated.

Many thanks,
M4rotku

 

[vNmd]

I have done 20+ batches of wine (kits) and mead and have never had to cold crash. I do beer as well and cold crash every batch before kegging. I think with wine you don't really have to because of the time it sits. There is also the clairifiers that are typically added to wine kits that help everything fall out, but time is the big difference. I try to bulk age in carboy a couple months after the instructions say I am done.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Cold stabilizing white wine is fairly important, not so much so the yeast can drop out, but if the wine becomes cold it will (in most cases) trigger a reaction where the causes tartrates to crystallize and precipitate out of the wine also known as wine crystals or wine diamonds. When this happens the PH can shift making the wine taste a little out of balance, I've never had this happen, but there is always that possibility.

 

[bernardsmith]

But I think the cold crashing of white wine to remove tartaric acids is very different from the brewers cold crashing to help the yeast flocculate and drop out of suspension.
I may be very wrong but I suspect that since beer is likely to have some protein molecules and since the protein chains will reduce the clarity of the beer and if cold crashing beer is what helps the particulates in the ale drop out of suspension then there is good reason for this practice. Cider or wine or mead will have few - if any proteins - and the yeasts we use tend to flocculate and drop out of suspension and in any event, for most wine makers (cider and mazers included) aging and multiple rackings all help to remove particulates in the wine (or cider or mead) then cold crashing to produce a yeast free wine is unnecessary. But that said, when I rack from my primary into a secondary I tend to have a pint or two of extra wine which I put into mason jars or the like and cold crash and within a few days the yeast and fruit drop out of suspension leaving me with several inches of near clear wine that I can use to top up my carboy at the next racking...

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Cold Stabilizing wine will still help to drop yeast and any solids in suspension and will help to clearify the wine, this is usually performed on white wines, not reds.

 

[Yooper]

Cold Stabilizing wine will still help to drop yeast and any solids in suspension and will help to clearify the wine, this is usually performed on white wines, not reds.

I sometimes use cold stabilization on my reds, though, as my cellar can get to 48 degrees in the late winter, and I hate wine diamonds in my bottles! I always use cold stabilization on my wines heavy to malic acid, like native grapes, as well.

I don't cold crash my beers, though, as it's not at all necessary for me to do so to get clear beers. I think that it's one of those things that some brewers do, but others don't think about (like me).

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Yooper,
My reds go through cold stabilization as well, mother nature does it for me, just like you, my cellar gets real cold during the winter, and I agree, I'm not a big fan of the wine diamonds in my bottles, so I welcome it!

 

[M4rotku]

Wow, these are very thorough answers. It is a peach wine, so no concerns regarding red wines. I think I am going to cold crash still because it has not been in secondary very long. I am bottling it earlier than normal in order to free up the carboy for cider. Thanks for the advice!

 

[i-am-bear]

Is the wine then bottled after crashing? Can it be cold crashed, racked and allowed to sit in a carboy for bottling later?

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Absolutely, after fermentation, after you've racked off the lees a few times, I'd cold stabilize while still in the carboy, after this you can rack to a clean carboy and continue to age the wine.

 

[i-am-bear]

Does the temp difference from cold crashing and putting back into a carboy have any effect on the wine?

 

[pumpkinman2012]

no, not really.

 

[marco5150]

Cold crashing does help to remove all the unwanted solids. How well does it remove extra sugars ???