Question about cold crashing and bottling

[kenmcchord]

I've just begun using a glycol chiller and I'm looking to cold crash my batches before packaging. Question I have is if I cold crash a batch does the yeast completely drop out? If so, and I want to bottle some of this latest batch I have, will there be enough yeast remaining in suspension to eat up the additional bottling sugar I add? I'm planning on kegging 3 gallons and bottling the remaining 2 to 2 1/2 gallons of the imperial saison I got in the fermenter, and I want to be sure I've got the bottling sugar and yeast squared away properly.

thanks in advance!

 

[VikeMan]

I've just begun using a glycol chiller and I'm looking to cold crash my batches before packaging. Question I have is if I cold crash a batch does the yeast completely drop out? If so, and I want to bottle some of this latest batch I have, will there be enough yeast remaining in suspension to eat up the additional bottling sugar I add?

There is almost always enough yeast left in suspension (even though it may not be visible) to carbonate. Some people add some yeast for insurance, but IMO it's rarely really necessary.

 

[day_trippr]

Agreed, when I used to bottle crashed ipas they never failed to condition...

Cheers!

 

[kenmcchord]

Thanks to both of you! Been a busy few days, sorry for the late reply. I'll be cold crashing my pumpkin saison and bottling. Last batch (first batch after taking some time away) was an ipa that I cold crashed then bottled about a gallon. Apparently I didn't put enough conditioning sugar in the bottles and they're pretty weak in the CO2 department. Using 22oz bottles, I ended up using 4.6 grams priming sugar directly added to the bottles. I'll need to adjust something with this next batch; what I've been trying to do, or rather what I think I'd like to do is brew 6 gallons to fermenter, bottle 2 gallons and keg up four-ish.

Anyway I inquired about cold crashing and yeast activity as my ipa didn't bottle very well. Most likely there just wasn't enough sugar for the yeast to consume, need to figure that part out. Thanks again for your help, this site is amazing because of guys (or gals) like you.

 

[VikeMan]

Most likely there just wasn't enough sugar for the yeast to consume, need to figure that part out.

There are lots of priming calculators out there, like this one:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[chipmunk]

When using the calculators it’s a bit of a judgement call on what to use for the temperature of the beer. I had some under carbonated batches when I used the cold crashed temp instead of the fermenting temp. I think it depends on the extent to which the co2 gets reabsorbed into the beer when you crash.

 

[kenmcchord]

There are a few cold crash and bottling threads in here, and after reading a good bit one this is for sure, I didn't fully understand the temperature question in the priming calculators. But more importantly I think that by measuring the exact amount of sugar for each bottle leaves me open for some room for error. If I'm measuring in tenths of a gram it seems that the margin of error could be so tight that any bit of sugar that, say sticks to the funnel or stays in the measuring cup could have a serious impact on the amount of carbonation.

I think instead I'll be using a bottling bucket, pour out three gallons and mix up a water sugar solution for that volume, then bottle from there. Hoping that gives me better results. My concern has always been oxidation, but since the yeast will be eating up the sugar in the bottle I suspect the oxidation risk is minimized. Let me know where you think I'm wrong!