Help with Cold Crashing

[dshay]

I'm trying to decide wither or not I should cold crash a pale ale that I plan on brewing this week. I did a little research to find out that it helps to settle out the proteins and yeast towards the bottom of the fermenter leaving a clearer beer.

My questions are for my first timing trying this is:


Should I slowy lower the temperture, or is just putting the carboy in my fridge for two days straight okay?

Will this have any affect on the taste or is it just for the clearity of the beer?

Also, do u have to let the beer warm up to room temperture when waiting to bottle it?

The beer will not be sunky having it cold then warm then cold again right?

Oh, I plan on dry hoping the beer also so should I remove the hops before i cold crash or are they fine left in the fermenter?


Cheers

 

[Kmcogar]

I just cold crashed a banana ale. First one for me. I was using 3680 wyeast brand which usually turns out cloudy. I really wanted to clear it up. It's been 4ish days in the fridge. It's lookin a lot better. I won't know any answers to your questions for another two weeks. I'm kegging Saturday.

Cheers and good luck

 

[pericles]

Should I slowy lower the temperture, or is just putting the carboy in my fridge for two days straight okay?

No. Slowly lowering the temperature will give the yeast time to adjust to the temperature change, and they will take longer to go to sleep and fall out of solution. You want to get the beer cold as fast as possible, hence the phrase cold "crash."

Will this have any affect on the taste or is it just for the clearity of the beer?

Yes. By decreasing the amount of yeast in solution, the yeast flavor will diminish. Sometimes yeast glom on to hop matter, too, so it may slightly decrease the bitterness of your final beer. Most people agree that the change in flavor is, on the whole, beneficial.

Also, do u have to let the beer warm up to room temperture when waiting to bottle it?

If you intend to allow bottles to naturally carbonate, then it's a good idea to bottle at room temperature. In any event, you will eventually need to warm the bottles back up to room temperature, or the yeast will remain dormant and will not carbonate the beer.

If you intend to force carbonate the beer and bottle from a keg, you will not need to bring it back to room temperature.

The beer will not be sunky having it cold then warm then cold again right?

Whether the beer is skunky will depend on your recipe, brewing process, and the beer's exposure to sunlight. Crash cooling it, warming it for bottling it, and then cooling it to serve will not cause it to be skunky.

Oh, I plan on dry hoping the beer also so should I remove the hops before i cold crash or are they fine left in the fermenter?

The chemical reactions that cause hop flavor to diffuse into the solution during dry hopping will slow markedly as the temperature of the liquid falls. As a result, you will not notice unpleasant hop flavors ("grassy" or "vegetal" flavors) caused by extended dry-hopping if you leave the hops in during a cold-crash. In other words, although the normal rule of thumb is not to dryhop for more than a week or two, you can dryhop for considerably longer if the beer is kept at low temperatures.

 

[dshay]

KM hope you beer turns out great! You will have to keep me posted on how well the cold crashing works.

Pericles thank you for the information! I really appreciate you taking your time to answer the many questions I had, and the information you gave was what I was looking for. I plan on cold crashing my pale ale for 2 days and then just leaving the dry hops in it while it is cold crashing.

Thank you again for your information!

Cheers

 

[heckler73]

I think I'll give this a try on my traditional ale I'm making for a friends wedding.

It's currently been 11 days in primary, and forecast for tonight is 2 degC outdoors - perfect...

Does one cold crash the primary, prior to racking to secondary, or cold crash the secondary prior to bottling?

 

[pericles]

Cold crashing can be done anytime after fermentation has ended. If you secondary, you can crash then, or in primary. If you don't secondary, you can do that in primary. If you keg, well. . . kegging beer is basically the same thing as cold-crashing.