Do you Cold Crash? (everyone vote! especially if you don't)

[Randy_Bugger]

I just had an instance where CC didn't clear my beer as well as it normally does. I used wy1318 London ale yeast II which is supposed to be highly flocculant.

Fermented for 2 weeks. CC for 3 days. Transferred to secondary for a week of dry hopping and then 2 more days of CC. The beer was fairly cloudy at bottling. I used whirlfloc too. Not sure what went wrong.

 

[J343MY]

I cold crash in the winter when I can put my fermenter in the cold storage and get it really cold. In the summer I don't have this ability. I only really cold crash so I can dump yeast from my conical, or to make transferring from a carboy easier. I really don't care about clear beer. Making sure it tastes good is my main concern.

 

[drawdy10]

Once a crasher always a crasher except on those highly flocculant strains of yeast that drop so clear it is unnecessary

 

[govya]

I CC because I have more refrigeration space than keg space... It's easy to get ahead of yourself and have more beer than you can drink in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Clonefan94]

I have, but I don't do it on a regular basis anymore. I use whirlfloc and my beer always sits in primary for at least 3 weeks, so, it's already pretty clear by the time I go to transfer anyways. I have a kegerator that can hold 3 cornies and another fridge behind the bar thast was supposed to be soley a beer fridge. Well, since I switched to homebrewing, my wife has started to put extra milk and other foods in that fridge, so I don't have the room I used to. So, I don't get the opportunity to cold crash I would have liked to.

Now I just keg from primary. The beer usually sits in the keg for 2-3 weeks before it ends up on tap and that actually clears it pretty good. Then the first couple of pints are a bit cloudy. It usually only takes about a week and a half in the fridge though to get crystal clear. There is a little bit of sediment at the bottom of the keg when it's empty, but I was actually expecting a lot more crap in the bottom the first time I kegged. I am also very careful not to pull up any trub or disturb it though when I do my transfers.

Anyways, I picked the 3rd option from up above, mainly because I have cold crashed, probably will again, but I am not positive I will as I'm getting good results with doing what I do now.

 

[RuffRider]

I always cold crash before I keg. Always...for 24 to 48 hours. It's not that hard (as long as you have the fridge space which I do) and, in my experience, it does help clear the beer a bit. Plus, my beer is already chilled going into the keg which gives it just a wee bit of an extra leg up on the force carb.

BTW, I promise that if I was going to vote 'no' in your poll, that I would've voted! Haha!