To cold crash or not

[markley]

Ok..So i'm close to bottling my second brew..Chinook IPA

My first brew turned out ok..most of my bottles were not carbonated and some too much..chalking it up to not mixing the priming sugar

Anyway, back to my question. I dry hopped with pellets (no bag) 5 days ago and plan on bottling in the next few days. I did not use a secondary. My question is should i cold crash?? I have a spare fridge with plenty of room for my fermenter. My only concern is that I read that this could affect the carbonation by dropping the yeast prior to bottling?? Is that so?

I would hate to have another batch with carbonation issues...what are your thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Moose1231]

You will have enough yeast in suspension to allow you to carbonate your beer. Just make sure that the bottles are at room temperature. For more efficiency on clearing your beer, use gelatin.

I've never dry hopped with pellets, but I think you will loose some beer, especially if you didn't use a bag

 

[jflongo]

Just rack it into a bottling bucket, and do your best to not suck up very much of the hops, then bottle.

 

[Moose1231]

Oh yeah, like jflongo said, if you are only concerned about the hops, you don't need to cold crash really. If you want a crystal clear beer, cold crashing is the way to go

 

[Smellyglove]

But you have to be very careful with the siphon (if that's what you're using) and handle the fermentor very gently, or you'll disrupt whatever has fallen to the bottom and it will swirl up again.

 

[markley]

Yeah..my main concern is the hops, and carbonation..although crystal clear beer sounds like a good reason alone.

 

[markley]

Also, if i do cold crash..would 1-2 days be okay?

 

[DonMagee]

I could crash about 48 hours before I keg. 24 hours is probably good enough though. Don't worry about the yeast though, you won't ever be able to remove all the yeast with just a cold crash. You would need some kind of filter to do that.

 

[PDX_T]

+1 for cold crash!

cold crashing is best practice. You'll have plenty of yeast in suspension.

 

[Moose1231]

24 hours seems a little bit fast though, unless you use gelatin.

Add 1 tsp of unflavored gelatin to a cup of hot, but not boiling water and gently mix it into your fermenter. Again, wait a few days before bottling or racking to allow the gelatin to clear the beer.

From : http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/12/30/fining-agents-improving-beer-clarity/

 

[markley]

Thanks for the suggestions! I may try the gelatin...will throw in the fridge for a few days at least!

 

[DocScott]

Here's what I suggest

For lighter colored beers that you want to be clear (like an IPA) I would suggest cold crashing. This drops much of the yeast and hop particles and other sediment and helps create a compact yeast/trub layer at the bottom of the fermenter. It will leave plenty of yeast in suspension to carbonate your beer. In order to allow enough time for the yeast/etc to drop, I would suggest at least 2 days, but 4-5 would be better. (It will take 24 hours just to drop the temp of your 5 gallon batch down to 37*F).

If you want to use gelatin to further clear the beer, I would add it when the beer is cold. Make a solution of 1tsp gelatin and 2/3 cup of cold water. Stir it, and heat it slowly until it reaches 155*F or so. Make sure its completely dissolved, then add into the cold beer. Give it another 2 days at fridge temps and bottle away.

Cold crashing alone will greatly clear your beer, and the more time the better (to a limit - after 5 days, I don't see much change). I use gelatin in most of my batches because the people I share my beers with tend to like the crystal clear appearance of a commercial beer.

In terms of pellet hops, I dry hop often with pellets. You'll have mild loss due to absorption but I find it to be negligible, even with 5-6 oz of dry hopping. I do not use a bag either, the hops will settle on their own and will certainly drop when you cold crash.

 

[markley]

Thanks...Just threw it in the fridge. I plan on bottling Sunday evening, which will be 2 days...guess it couldn't hurt even if not long enough.

think I'll try the gelatin next time.

 

[BigFloyd]

Keep in mind that it takes some hours for the whole 5 gallons of beer to assume the colder temp. I typically will cold crash a batch in the primary at 35-35*F for 5-7 days. I probably wouldn't want to do less than 3 days.

As mentioned already, be really gentle when moving the beer to position it for transfer into the keg or bottling bucket so as to not slosh it around and stir stuff up off the bottom.

Another nice side benefit of crashing is that you'll have less yeast trub in the bottoms of your bottles. There's still plenty to carbonate, but you avoid having an excess.

 

[markley]

So would it be bad to only do for 2 days? Figure it'd be better than nothing.

 

[BigFloyd]

So would it be bad to only do for 2 days? Figure it'd be better than nothing.

No worries. It will help. It's not bad at all to do it for two days if that's all you have in the brew/bottling schedule.

Oh, when priming cold beer, give it a very gentle stir with a sanitized spoon to evenly distribute the sugar throughout the solution.

 

[whoaru99]

So would it be bad to only do for 2 days? Figure it'd be better than nothing.

No, it won't be bad.

I wasn't thinking clearly and cold crashed a hefeweizen for around 2 days before turning the temp back up.

The beer no longer resembles a hefe, now it's more or less like a kristallweizen from an appearance standpoint.

 

[Devilsnight]

Is it necissary to leave your air lock in when cold crashing? Or can you replace it with a plug? I've read of 'suck back' due to the temperature change, seems like a good solution to me. maybe?

 

[markley]

Yeah..I was wondering about 'suck back'...so far my air lock is still full (3 piece), although it's only gotten down to 50 deg overnight. Guess I'll keep an eye on it throughout the day.

Also, do i have to let it warm back up prior to bottling??

 

[whoaru99]

No, but it'll warm up some as you transfer to bottling bucket, etc.

 

[BigFloyd]

Yeah..I was wondering about 'suck back'...so far my air lock is still full (3 piece), although it's only gotten down to 50 deg overnight. Guess I'll keep an eye on it throughout the day.

Also, do i have to let it warm back up prior to bottling??

No. Prime and bottle it cold. It will warm up in the bottles to room temp and the yeast will go back to work.

I use StarSan in an s-airlock. I haven't had a problem with suck-back

 

[DocScott]

Also, if you use a priming calculator to determine the amount of priming sugar to add, the temp that you input should be the temp the beer was at the end of fermentation (NOT your cold crash temp or temp at bottling)

ie. if your schedule was: temp fermented at: 64. Raised temp to 70 to finish attenuating. Cold crash to 37 for 5 days then bottle. You would input 70*F as your beer temp in the priming calculator.

I learned this the hard way with a few undercarbed batches!

 

[BigFloyd]

Also, if you use a priming calculator to determine the amount of priming sugar to add, the temp that you input should be the temp the beer was at the end of fermentation (NOT your cold crash temp or temp at bottling)

ie. if your schedule was: temp fermented at: 64. Raised temp to 70 to finish attenuating. Cold crash to 37 for 5 days then bottle. You would input 70*F as your beer temp in the priming calculator.

I learned this the hard way with a few undercarbed batches!

Exactly. Glad you mentioned that.

 

[PDX_T]

Is it necissary to leave your air lock in when cold crashing? Or can you replace it with a plug? I've read of 'suck back' due to the temperature change, seems like a good solution to me. maybe?

you'll get suck back and a dry airlock if you have too much headspace or if the temperature changes rapidly. if you have a bung type stopper that won't get sucked in, use that. i'm wary of rubber stoppers getting sucked in. only happened once, but once is enough. if you can, lower the temperature slowly, about 5 F a day to avoid suck back.

 

[BigFloyd]

you'll get suck back and a dry airlock if you have too much headspace or if the temperature changes rapidly. if you have a bung type stopper that won't get sucked in, use that. i'm wary of rubber stoppers getting sucked in. only happened once, but once is enough. if you can, lower the temperature slowly, about 5 F a day to avoid suck back.

If I lowered at a mere 5*F per day to avoid suck back, it would take me 7 days just to get down to crash temp. No thanks.

I move my buckets from the fermenter chamber straight into a 35*F cold crash freezer. Using an s-airlock, I've not had an issue with suck back.

 

[PDX_T]

If I lowered at a mere 5*F per day to avoid suck back, it would take me 7 days just to get down to crash temp. No thanks.

I move my buckets from the fermenter chamber straight into a 35*F cold crash freezer. Using an s-airlock, I've not had an issue with suck back.

good math! I meant to write 5 C. I use a blowoff tube, hardly ever get suck back, but I still won't take it down to freezing overnight.

 

[JustLooking]

you'll get suck back and a dry airlock if you have too much headspace or if the temperature changes rapidly.

Time has nothing to do with it. If dropping the temperature slow helps with suck back, you have a leak.

 

[markley]

Just threw mine in the fridge..using a 3 piece airlock..no suck back at all.

Though it did take at least a day to get down in temp.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

ie. if your schedule was: temp fermented at: 64. Raised temp to 70 to finish attenuating. Cold crash to 37 for 5 days then bottle. You would input 70*F as your beer temp in the priming calculator.

I learned this the hard way with a few undercarbed batches!

Totally makes sense! Can't add more CO2 into suspension if none is being generated. <slapping forehead>

 

[kombat]

To avoid suckback, I replace my airlock with a piece of sanitized aluminum foil, folded over on itself (to make it 2-layers), tightly shaped around the mouth of the carboy and held in place with 2 elastic bands. This will allow air in slowly to replace the air that is contracting due to being chilled, while still providing some protection against contaminants (and, of course, avoiding suckback).

 

[twofocused]

2 days @ 40 degrees will clear it up and leave enough yeast to carb.

Me and my brew buddies haven't had a problem yet.