After fermentation...

samnorfolk · Sep 4, 2015

SO i have read that some people ferment 2-3 weeks then cold crash before bottling, can someone explain the cold crash to me. I only brew 10 litre brews at a time, I'm guessing the cold crash has something to do with clearing the beer???

timcunnell · Sep 4, 2015

Yes mate that's exactly it. Although to be honest I am not sure there is any need to leave your beer in the fermenter for 2-3 weeks AND cold crash? I'd have thought people would cold crash if they've only left the beer in the FV for as long as it takes for fermentation to finish, and then cold crash to make the beer clear faster.

Either way you would still obviously need to return your racked beer to room temp for a couple of weeks of conditioning.

samnorfolk · Sep 4, 2015

Ive had my beer in FV now for 15 days just took a reading and its at 1010 but is still slightly cloudy, i used Irish moss in the boil, any suggestions as to what i should i do? Do i leave it longer in FV, add finings? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

timcunnell · Sep 4, 2015

To be honest I wouldn't worry that its still cloudy - I am by no means a seasoned brewer, but I for one have never had clear beer come out of the fermenter. The idea of leaving beer in the FV for 2 weeks is to give it a bit of a head start I guess. But I wouldn't expect it to properly clear until you've racked it (bottles or a keg) with priming sugar, and left it at room temp for another couple of weeks. And even then, some beers still might not clear until they've had weeks being left somewhere cool.

samnorfolk · Sep 4, 2015

Ok thanks, will take reading again tomorrow and looks like i could be bottling it up! Cheers

HebridesRob · Sep 4, 2015

timcunnell said:
To be honest I wouldn't worry that its still cloudy - I am by no means a seasoned brewer, but I for one have never had clear beer come out of the fermenter. The idea of leaving beer in the FV for 2 weeks is to give it a bit of a head start I guess. But I wouldn't expect it to properly clear until you've racked it (bottles or a keg) with priming sugar, and left it at room temp for another couple of weeks. And even then, some beers still might not clear until they've had weeks being left somewhere cool.

That's a fairly reasonable assessment. The idea is as much yeast as is reasonable falls out of suspension so the layer that eventually forms in the bottle will be as thin as possible. There are other reasons also, to do with maturation and removal of unwanted flavours.

Twostage · Sep 4, 2015

My brews tend to be measured in days not weeks and always cold crash.

So roughly 4-7 days ferment, 2 days crash at 3-5 degrees, carbonate 7 days+ at 20.

Cold crashing drops a lot of yeast out of suspension but leaves enough for carbonation.

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