New to Forum and to home brewing

[MrKing13]

Hi everyone,

I am new to brewing and the forum. I have been reading posts for awhile so thought I would join and come say hi as i have officially started my first homebrew and have Golden Ale on the go at the moment but wanted some advice on clearing the beer.

I wanted to ask a question with regards to clearing the beer. As I cant seem to find any definite answers.

I want to try cold crash the beer but I’m not sure how to stop the O2 getting into the primary fermenter. I was thinking of racking to secondary demijohns and putting a stopper in, but not sure if it would work. Would it be better to cold crash in the primary? The only problem again is I'm brewing in a bucket so I am not sure how to stop the O2 getting in.

Would it maybe be better to skip the cold crashing and just use finings? Or would it be better to do both?

Il be grateful on any help with this. :thumb:

 

[DoctorMick]

When you cold crash you can just leave it in the primary with the airlock in, no o2 will be introduced.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I agree with @DoctorMick.
How were you planning to cold crash?

 

[chewie]

Co2 is heavier than Oxygen meaning it will sit in between the beer and the Oxygen, as long as you either leave it undisturbed or properly rack it to a secondary whilst there is still some fermentation taking place then you will have no oxygen reaching it.

The beer should clear naturally over time, finings or cold crashing is just a way of speeding up the process, you will still however end up with sediment when you use priming sugar in bottles or pressure barrels. The single best thing i have found for limiting sediment in bottles is to not be greedy when racking and to disturb the trub as little as possible, even move the beer to where you will be racking it a day before to allow it to settle (which helps even if you have used finings). GL

 

[MrKing13]

When you cold crash you can just leave it in the primary with the airlock in, no o2 will be introduced.

i think i will try this method out. I didn't like the idea of moving to a secondary something i might try after I have more experience with the whole process. Cheers for the reply.

 

[MrKing13]

Hi!
I agree with @DoctorMick.
How were you planning to cold crash?

I was planning on crashing it in a temperature controlled fridge i already owned. I was thinking of going down in temp about 5 degrees Celsius a day till i hit about 2-3 degrees unless it better to go straight down to 2-3 degrees in the 1st day. I was planing on cold crashing for 5-7 days.

 

[MrKing13]

Co2 is heavier than Oxygen meaning it will sit in between the beer and the Oxygen, as long as you either leave it undisturbed or properly rack it to a secondary whilst there is still some fermentation taking place then you will have no oxygen reaching it.

The beer should clear naturally over time, finings or cold crashing is just a way of speeding up the process, you will still however end up with sediment when you use priming sugar in bottles or pressure barrels. The single best thing i have found for limiting sediment in bottles is to not be greedy when racking and to disturb the trub as little as possible, even move the beer to where you will be racking it a day before to allow it to settle (which helps even if you have used finings). GL

The single best thing i have found for limiting sediment in bottles is to not be greedy when racking and to disturb the trub as little as possible, even move the beer to where you will be racking it a day before to allow it to settle (which helps even if you have used finings).

^^^ I think that is some good advice^^^ I was planning on not being to greedy when it came to racking. I did a short brew, the recipe called for 23 liters and i have brewed to 20.5 liters but plan on leaving about 1.5-2 liters behind. When it comes to using fining I've been told Irish Moss is great but I believe it gets added in at the end of the boil. As I am only an extract brewer at this stage could i add the moss to the hop tea?

Cheers for the repy

 

[DoctorMick]

I was planning on crashing it in a temperature controlled fridge i already owned. I was thinking of going down in temp about 5 degrees Celsius a day till i hit about 2-3 degrees unless it better to go straight down to 2-3 degrees in the 1st day. I was planing on cold crashing for 5-7 days.

The colder the better, if you can get below 0 it works much more effectively. I've never bothered stepping the temp decrease, I just set it straight to -2 (it doesn't often get that low). I only cold crash for 3 days which seems to do a grand job although there are others on here who crash for longer.

 

[MrKing13]

When you cold crash you can just leave it in the primary with the airlock in, no o2 will be introduced.

When you say leave the airlock in, so i remove the liquid from the air lock or not? Cheers bud

 

[MrKing13]

The colder the better, if you can get below 0 it works much more effectively. I've never bothered stepping the temp decrease, I just set it straight to -2 (it doesn't often get that low). I only cold crash for 3 days which seems to do a grand job although there are others on here who crash for longer.

I think my fridge only goes as low as " degrees unfortunately. Need to get a temp controlled chest freezer it sounds like.
I will go with the fastest decrease then and see what happens. My plan was to dry hop 3 days before the cold crash so I will see how clear it looks after three.

I just want it to be ready haha.

Cheers for the help

 

[chewie]

As I am only an extract brewer at this stage could i add the moss to the hop tea?

I would use something like Kwik clear if i wanted to use finings in beer or maybe Isinglass to clear it after fermentation, Irish moss is more commonly used as a kettle fining to help debris drop out and prevent haze later on.

I have not yet found a reason to use a post fermentation fining in beer though as i let mine sit for 2-3 weeks in primary before racking and bottling.

 

[MrKing13]

Thanks for the advice, i have decided to just see how it comes out without finings for now. As i was planing on leaving it in the primary for two weeks. I think it will give me a good bench mark to work from. Will see how it works out as I will be bottling this weekend unless something comes up.