Cold Crashing experiment with my Home made chiller

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by the_owl, Oct 14, 2019.

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  1. the_owl

    the_owl Initiate (0) Feb 21, 2019 New Mexico

    I have a kegerator I use to cold crash my brews usually, but this time I got ahead of myself.
    I started an Oktoberfest in September and im 2 weeks into a 30 day lager. Im using my kegerator to do this. Got it sitting at 31 degrees. Well I made a BIG DIPA in the meantime and its been sitting on Dry hops in the secondary for 10 days now. Fully fermented. This recipe must be cold crashed. I thought Id try my home made chiller, a SS Brewtech Brew Bucket with chiller/heater option and regular water.
    The amazon purchased 1/4HP pond chiller is max 39 degrees chilling. Thats not quite where Id like to cold crash, but I dont want to leave this in the secondary any longer. 38 is the highest Ive ever crashed at and would prefer 32.
    Well I ran it overnight at 39 degrees, and used the turbo option (2 hours of super temp)
    and the lowest I got it to was 42.2
    I guess we'll see how the beer comes out.
    [​IMG]
     
    #1 the_owl, Oct 14, 2019
  2. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    Why do you think this is so important? And why 32? I wonder if you can challenge those assumptions and accept this as a significant deviation in practice that does not have a significant deviation in results.
     
    #2 pweis909, Oct 14, 2019
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  3. the_owl

    the_owl Initiate (0) Feb 21, 2019 New Mexico

    Not sure if snarky. The reasons for cold crashing dont need to be reposted, or argued for that matter.
    Ive found the colder I crash the more clarity in the beer. Not a lot, but enough to notice.
     
    #3 the_owl, Oct 14, 2019
  4. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    Funny that you said that, because I first typed something and decided it sounded snarky, and started over. But sometimes I am less noble and get a little snarky, so I guess misinterpretation is payback.

    I was trying to come across as skeptical (not snarky), and was challenging your process strictly in the spirit of keeping things simple. I wondered if getting things down to 32 is really all that important. I may simply be a little more tolerant of the imperfections you hope to reduce. I haven't cold crashed in years; everything goes from fermenter at fermentation temp to keg.
     
    #4 pweis909, Oct 14, 2019
  5. the_owl

    the_owl Initiate (0) Feb 21, 2019 New Mexico

    Well I have only cold crashed at 32.
    My favorite local brewer was talking to me about his IPAs and gave me info on his grain bills, and mentioned I should always cold crash these big IPAs. Im not a fan on Lazy IPAs.
    Im honestly moving to a 10gallon Brite tank in 2020.
     
    #5 the_owl, Oct 14, 2019
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  6. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Which is it?
     
    #6 VikeMan, Oct 14, 2019
  7. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    So I went to Brulosophy, that great decider of all homebrew debates (note: now I am being snarky) and they did indeed do an experiment that seems to compare my technique to cold crashing.

    http://brulosophy.com/2017/11/20/th...ous-beer-characteristics-exbeeriment-results/

    In this study, cold crashing was not a significant issue to their blind tastings. But they did discuss reasons one might want to use cold crashing in hoppy beers. Since my last hoppy beer clogged a diptube, maybe I need to reconsider, although I think that floating dip tube gadget could solve that issue, too.
     
    #7 pweis909, Oct 14, 2019
  8. the_owl

    the_owl Initiate (0) Feb 21, 2019 New Mexico

    Well I should have clarified (nyuk nyuk). I've only crashed at 32. Except for a Mexican lager at 38 but I don't think that's really crashing. But I have hijacked the wife's wine fridge and put the fermenter in there. It goes to 47 ( but probe says 50).
    I don't really consider that a crash. And that is the difference I'm comparing. Clarity is the reason, not so much taste as I don't have enough data to compare.
     
    #8 the_owl, Oct 15, 2019
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