Cold crashing?

Halfacrem · Jul 10, 2016

Now that I've got my brew fridge, the prospect of cold crashing becomes a reality. It's not something I've paid much attention to before.

I've got a few questions about the process, but the first ones, to those that have cold crashed.

Is it a useful process and if so for all beers, or just certain styles. If it's useful, what does it achieve?

DoctorMick · Jul 10, 2016

I find it useful for dropping the yeast out of suspension which has 3 real benefits for me:

1 - you get a clearer beer quicker. Not important for dark beers obviously.
2 - you get less **** in bottles
3 - if you intend to harvest yeast the cold crashing gets a lot of healthy yeast out of suspension and into the trub meaning the harvested yeast will be healthier (that's how I've interpreted what I've read anyway).

TheRedDarren · Jul 10, 2016

+1 on all the above.
It also helps eliminate chill haze.

Halfacrem · Jul 11, 2016

DoctorMick said:
I find it useful for dropping the yeast out of suspension which has 3 real benefits for me:

1 - you get a clearer beer quicker. Not important for dark beers obviously.
2 - you get less **** in bottles
3 - if you intend to harvest yeast the cold crashing gets a lot of healthy yeast out of suspension and into the trub meaning the harvested yeast will be healthier (that's how I've interpreted what I've read anyway).

Thanks, Doc,

So, wait until FG, then cold crash? How long for and what kind of temp?

Soton · Jul 11, 2016

If you can get it down to about 2c for a few days or a week will do fine

Soton · Jul 11, 2016

If you a brew fridge controlled by a stc 1000 and it's the p400 type it can be flashed to programme in a fermentation on to cold crashing or even to larger you beers and to drop the temperature a little at a time over several weeks

DoctorMick · Jul 11, 2016

Halfacrem said:
Thanks, Doc,

So, wait until FG, then cold crash? How long for and what kind of temp?

I just wait until a day before I'm going to bottle and drop to as close to 2 as I can, I know most people try to crash for longer but it seems to work well enough for me.

houseofcole · Jul 11, 2016

TheRedDarren said:
+1 on all the above.
It also helps eliminate chill haze.

This depends on the beer style and if you serve a few degrees higher than your cold crash.

Any high hop beer that I bottle after cold crashing looks lovely and bright at room temperature. But as soon as I put it back in the fridge Its hazy again. Its something to do with hop haze

TheRedDarren · Jul 16, 2016

houseofcole said:
This depends on the beer style and if you serve a few degrees higher than your cold crash.

Any high hop beer that I bottle after cold crashing looks lovely and bright at room temperature. But as soon as I put it back in the fridge Its hazy again. Its something to do with hop haze

Well, thats chill haze!
Chill haze is when proteins precipitate in the beer after a thermal shock. If you shock the beer hard, ie; a very low temperature for prolonged time (cold crash to 0.3 degrees for a week) the proteins drop out, leaving the beer clear.
Highly hopped beers contain a lot of protein which leads to 'Hop Haze' but its a very similar thing.
I used to get chill haze with all my beers until I started cold crashing, now even the hoppiest are pin bright. Some of them are clear after just a few days in the bottle too.

Cold crashing?

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