Cold crashing question

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Ciaran12s

Ciaran12s

Regular.
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Messages
472
Reaction score
127
Location
NULL
I've been thinking about trying to pick up a cheap or free fridge for cold crashing. This would need to go in the shed, so fv under the stairs for 3 weeks then in the fridge for a couple of days and back inside for bottling.

Would this humfing and sloshing around negate any benefit from the cold crash?

Cheers
 
Yes.. you will no doubt kick up lots of sediment back into suspension lumping 25kg+ of beer around and about.

why not simply ferment in the fridge and crash chill, sitting an under the counter fridge on the counter is helpful letting you rack off or drain without lumping the bucket about at all.

a brewfridge to ferment in should have a much bigger and much more positive impact on your beer than a crash chill only device.
 
Ciaran12s said:
I've been thinking about trying to pick up a cheap or free fridge for cold crashing. This would need to go in the shed, so fv under the stairs for 3 weeks then in the fridge for a couple of days and back inside for bottling.

Would this humfing and sloshing around negate any benefit from the cold crash?

Cheers
Click to expand...
If you are clumsy, your shed is 50m from your house and there are steps up and/or down between then likely yes.
If you are careful and don't have far to carry the FV I wouldn't have thought it will make much difference.
I carefully move my FV about before packaging, as I'm sure others do, and things dont get stirred up.
But you won't really know until you try it, with or without the fridge.
 
Can you not fit a fridge under the stairs? I put mine on castors so I could get it in and out easily for the gas meter to be read. I sometimes also wheel it out into the kitchen for bottling.
 
Jeez It's not nitroglycerin, slosh away! The trub will be down again in 24 hours don't worry about it.
 
I recently chilled a brew but have to carry the fv indoors for bottling. It's only around 10 yards though and if careful it creates hardly any disturbance. I leave it sit on the work top while I sanitise everything. I then rack to my bottling bucket and bulk prime. My beer has definitely been clearer and has less yeast in the bottle.

Cheers

Clint
 
Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately the shed is the only place it could go at the minute. I usually set the fv on the worktop a day before bottling so it's all settled prior to racking. I'll maybe give it a go anyway, be as gentle as possible and let it sit for a day as usual and see how it goes.

Cheers
 
I still brew in a Mezzanine above our bar and manhandle the 30l FV's down and into the kitchen then the full 23-24l kegs into the walk in fridge. No problems with xs trub. But I use BRY-97 and produces a great jelly cake of trub. No other issues except my aching back,,:doh:
 
Well having bottled two batches Sunday and today I don't think I'll need to bother with the cold crashing. They both got just under four weeks and my worry now is that the sediment (or lack thereof) is not going to be enough for conditioning!
I've always had maybe 5mm in the bottom of each bottle but these have 1mm tops. Which is great but as with all things new it creates worry, in that there isn't going to be enough yeast for priming!
 
Ciaran12s said:
Well having bottled two batches Sunday and today I don't think I'll need to bother with the cold crashing. They both got just under four weeks and my worry now is that the sediment (or lack thereof) is not going to be enough for conditioning!
I've always had maybe 5mm in the bottom of each bottle but these have 1mm tops. Which is great but as with all things new it creates worry, in that there isn't going to be enough yeast for priming!
Click to expand...

you will have plenty of yeast in the beer for conditioning, A large number of viable yeast will stay in suspension anyway so you can take a lot more care to minimise your sediment transfer when bottling still, and aim for zero transfer to the bottle. if racking off try maintaining the bottom of the dip tube to only a few inches below the surface of the brew, using a bucket clip and dropping with each bottle filled may help.
 
Even if you cold crash you will have enough yeast to prime with, obviously if you have less yeast it will just take a little longer for the yeast to multiply and use up the sugars used in priming
I believe even filtering done down to 1 micron is unlikely to remove all yeast and a trace may get through, that said if you did try that and it cleared the yeast completely you would end up with flat beer unless you carbonated with CO2 in a keg
 
Fil said:
Yes.. you will no doubt kick up lots of sediment back into suspension lumping 25kg+ of beer around and about.

why not simply ferment in the fridge and crash chill, sitting an under the counter fridge on the counter is helpful letting you rack off or drain without lumping the bucket about at all.

a brewfridge to ferment in should have a much bigger and much more positive impact on your beer than a crash chill only device.
Click to expand...

+1. Get an Inkbird controller to go with the fridge. :thumb:
 
Ciaran12s said:
I've always had maybe 5mm in the bottom of each bottle but these have 1mm tops. Which is great but as with all things new it creates worry, in that there isn't going to be enough yeast for priming!
Click to expand...
If it's any help I bottled virtually clear beer into PET bottles four days ago. There is no yeast layer in my bottles at present but they are slowly pressurising. Compared to visible yeast in the bottles it will just take longer that's all, which is fine by me.
 
Cheers Terry!

Aye the batch that got bottled Sunday are definitely firming up. They have a visible layer that is miniscule.

It'll be nice to pour a bottle without having to waste, sometimes a fair bit, if the yeast starts travelling!

With work I have to leave it for the 4 weeks. Which is a bonus as it prevents me pestering it too much and it's coming out lovely and clear. That's with racking from primary to bottling only.

The fridge can wait a while now. Not worth the hassle. With my current setup I just can't do the brewfridge. It would be an extension lead out the window to the shed and I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving that 3 weeks while I'm at work.
 

Similar threads

clyne
Help my fridge keep it's cool!
2 3
Replies
51
Views
2K
Twostage
Twostage
C
Newbie help required!
Replies
18
Views
783
MrJay83
MrJay83
G
Cold crash disaster!
Replies
3
Views
478
gSmith
G
RichardM
Do I Bottle It Before I Go On Holiday
Replies
1
Views
282
Rwilts
Rwilts
YeastFace
Fermzilla All Rounder Tips Wanted
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
Brew_DD2
Brew_DD2

Latest posts

Back
Top