Cold Crashing

The clearer your beer/less yeast in it will cause the beer to take a longer time to carb.

 

As for carbing, it may take another day or two . . . but you are now serving commercial-level clear beer. So what if it takes 12 days instead of 10 days? For my IPAs I routinely give it a week of cc before I add the hops, then another week or so after hop removal. I split batches between kegs and bottles. Obviously the kegs make this easier.

I also cold crash everything. My Belgians (wits excepted) will get 3-4 weeks at kegerator temps and are dazzling.

 

OP I use the single piece S style airlocks. They prevent most of the suckback from a normal cold crash. You can also use cheap vodka in the airlock if you are worried about starsan solution getting in your beer. Cold crashing is ideal if you plan to keg your beer. If you plan to bottle your beer it will help the appearance but it will (in my experience) take longer to bottle condition as the colder temps cause the yeast to enter dormancy. There will certainly still be enough yeast in suspension after cold crashing to bottle condition, but expect some extra time in bottles before you reach optimum carbonation.

 

What temp do you cold crash? I now have the ability to cold crash in a refrigerator. I use an ale pail and the 3 piece air lock. Until I read this thread I was just going to throw the pail in the fridge as is.

 

I cold crash at 36 F and just use the primary fermenter, which for me are 6.5 gal Better Bottle carboys. Just replace the drilled stopper with a sanitized non-drilled stopper before moving or lowering the temp to cold crash.

Lately, I have been brewing all Brett & Saison beers that I ferment at room temp of 70 F. My keezer acts as kegerator/cold crash.

 

I cold crash in kegerator at ~39F, usually in kegs. If I use a one gallon carboy I use kegerator or fridge (40F) and replace airlock with screw cap. Randomly I'll release a little pressure. Occasionally I'll use the primary bucket to cold crash in ferm fridge, . . . never noticed any oxidation problems. There is probably a better way than using an airlock on a bucket but haven't pursued that in depth. A squirt of starsan or slug of vodka in the airlock wouldn't hurt anything.

 

Are you saying you cold crash before and after your dry hopping? What benefits do you get out of this?

 

Upon putting some more thought into your procedure PortLargo, I think I figured out the benefit you get out of CCing before dry hopping. I'm guessing you CC before dry hopping to bring a lot of the yeast out of suspension so they can't suck up as much of the hoppy goodness? Then you probably let the beer come back up to room temp before throwing your dry hops in? ......I might have to try this out

 

Yes, you have it correctly. I know most brews won't be ready to drink for at least 6 weeks and primary is complete in 2 weeks (3 tops). I prefer to delay the DH until a little closer to maturity. So while it's aging I drop the temp and let a little of the yeast settle out. Then raise temp and DH as normal. Of course this introduces some hop debris which the second cc step will help sort out . . . I almost always add finings here. I try and make gravity, time, and temperature work for me.

For the OP: I'm primarily using kegs to DH, which as mattbk states, basically eliminates the O2 problem.

 

This thread is helpful. After bottling for years, I got some Corney kegs and plan to cold crash after 5 days in a secondary.
I did not see this covered above so I’d like advice on:
Timing – I formally did 5 days in a primary and 10 in a secondary then primed and bottled. This time I am thinking about 5 days in a primary, 10 in the secondary, cold crashing in a Corney keg for a few days then force carbonating and bottling with a beer gun.
For a black lager and a Belgian Blonde, how long should I cold crash before bottling.
CO2- Will it be enough to charge my keg with 5 psi during cold crashing without having the gas bottle connected? (I have a small fridge that fits one 5 gal keg and little else.)

 

A couple of suggestions:

I am never in a hurry to get my beer out of primary. It's may be close to done in 5 days, but it seems so much better to leave it for 10 days that I usually leave it for 15. I rarely use a secondary. Lots of people will recommend you skip the secondary altogether (some will say go for it). If set on secondarying consider using your keg and reducing one transfer step.

Cold crashing in a keg is ideal, but again, what's your hurry? You're not going to be drinking your beer for another couple of weeks . . . why not let it crash longer? Yes, you can accomplish this by cc'ing your bottles, but instead of being rid of your yeast it hangs around in the bottom of the bottle.

For a lager I would crash/lager for at least 4 weeks. I use my kegerator (39F) so I normally give it 8 weeks. For Belgians I like to see 3 weeks of cold crashing. This is how the Lachouffe Brewery does it and I can equal their clarity. Difficult to say if the taste is better but it's certainly clear and it needs the time to age so nothing is lost in this long step.

It takes 4-5 psi to seal a keg (if you have good o-rings). But over time the pressure in the headspace will be absorbed by the beer, eventually it will be closer to zero than 4-5 psi. If you want to delay carbonating but keep a seal I would hit it occasionally with a burst of CO2.

Finally, why not serve your beer from your kegs? It's mighty nice.

 

I generally only crash lagers, kolsch, and dry hopped beers. I just toss in pellets and cold crashing helps them fall out of suspension faster so less transfers to the keg.

 

You make great sense and your results support your advice. In answer to your question, what's my hurry?.... I had shoulder surgery in November and just this week got back to brewing (you probably regret that you asked). Also just this week I ran out of my homebrew!! That explains the urgency.

I'll follow your advice, and thanks.

 

If I brewing an IPA and bottling versus kegging and only using a primary, no secondary, so you recommend cold crashing?

 

It's up to you. It will give you a clearer beer. But so will a conscientious pour of a well chilled bottle.

 

I am mostly interested in seeing how it does change the clarity, experimental purposes. However, I don't want it to significantly impact the time it takes to carb the bottles or suck in air if I can't find an appropriate plug for my grommet hole in my pail ale.

 

I get the sentiment. A careful pour of a chilled bottle (that wasn't crashed before bottling) will give a clearer beer than a sloppy pour. But all other things being equal, it won't be as clear as crashed-then-racked to bottle/keg beer.

 

Well you will have to warm it up to get carbonation in the bottle. That will impact the time it takes to carb the bottles.